Video & Sound Production: Final Project
20/5/2024 - 22/7/2024 (Week 5 - Week 14)
Aisya Diva Anwagodsa (0365505)
Video & Sound Production / Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Final Project: Stop Motion
JUMP LINK
LECTURES
INSTRUCTION
Share 3 of your favorite stop motion!
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| Fig. 1.1 Stop Motion Animation (24/4/24) |
FINAL PROJECT
For the final project, students should create a stop-motion video. Mr. Martin said that students can work individually (create 30 30-second video) or work in pairs (create 1-minute video). For the theme, Mr. Martin gave us freedom in the selection of the theme. For this project, I decided to work in pairs with Lizzie, click here to see her blog post.
Fig. 2.1 Final Project Proposal
(Week 13)
For the theme, we decided to make a video about ocean pollution, This was inspired by the rampant issue of water pollution caused by humans who often throw garbage in the ocean, thus endangering life under the sea. Before starting the shooting process, I and Lizzie showed our proposal to Mr. Martin. In our proposal, the main character was a slimy creature that lives under the sea, but when Mr. Martin saw it, he questioned our character choices, he said that why we chose that instead of a creature that people recognize. I personally thought that the slimy creature was a good idea because the shape of the slime creature is uncertain and changing, depending on the medium. I think it can represent all the animals in the sea that have different shapes. But Mr. Martin said that we have to make people understand what is our message from the video, and choosing an unidentified creature might cause confusion to people. After getting feedback, me and Lizzie decided to change the creature to a fish.
Here is our idea breakdown:
- Main character: For the main character, we chose a fish, as it is a sea creature.
- Property: For the property, we will use clay, paper, and cardboard.
- Storyline: Deep beneath the ocean's surface, a fish was struggling with hunger. Driven by its need for food, the fish began its search, only to encounter trash carelessly discarded into the sea. Mistaking the debris for sustenance, the fish consumed it. Tragically, the garbage proved lethal, endangering the fish's life until, ultimately, it succumbed to the pollution.
For the video, we should prepare the set and the figures. Since we had a lot of projects that we had to do at the same time, our group decided to create a division of tasks for effectiveness. For the set preparation I will do the figures and other elements for shooting, while Lizzie will be in charge of editing.
SET PREPARATION
As I'm the one in charge of this, I started digging the internet for inspiration, here is the moldboard:
Fig. 3.1 Moodboard
(23/7/24)
I started by drawing all of the elements including waves, fish, jellyfish, and coral. For the waves, corals, and fishes I used watercolor paper because it's thick. Lizzie also lent me her watercolor paint and brush. I created the background from the unused box and covered it with plastic.
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| Fig. 3.2 Creating the set (23/7/24) |
Picture description:
- Wrapping the box with unused plastic, to create ocean lookalike background.
- Placing the element, before I color all of the elements I have to make sure if it's fit properly and look good
- Coloring the waves, using watercolor.
- Coloring the corals, seaweed, and fish with an alcohol marker.
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| Fig. 3.3 Creating shooting properties (23/7/24) |
- After coloring the paper props, I made a buffer to help them stand on the set. Initially, I used paper for the buffer, but it turned out to be too small and couldn't support the props firmly. To fix this, I added weights made from modeling clay, which helped the props stand securely. I made the weights separately so I could arrange the props in layers, creating a more interesting and dynamic look with each element spaced out.
- Picture number 2 is the same process, but I am using cardboard to support the wave.
- This is a stick that I covered with the same plastic that I used to wrap the background. The stick will be used to make the fish stand.
- For the fish standee, I used play dough at the bottom so the stick could stand properly.
- I used a carton of tissue roll to make the garbage bin. I cut it into two pieces, so it won't be too big. For the garbage lid, I used unused cardboard measured the diameter with a tissue roll carton, and bring them together with paper tape.
- The carton color was too dark, so the marker color was not visible. I decided to cover the carton using paper tape as well.
- I colored the garbage bin property with grey color. I used different shades of grey to make it look like a metal garbage bin.
- The final result of the garbage bin.
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| Fig. 3.4 Figures from play-dough (23/7/24) |
Picture description:
- To make the garbage figures, I used play-dough. For the trash itself, we chose play dough because they are easy to set up and more flexible.
- I used play-dough to make fish as well. The play-dough has a smooth texture on the surface and it is easy to model the playdough.
- The final look of the fish.
SHOOTING PROCESS
For the shooting process, we did it at my place because we thought it would be more flexible because I didn't have to bring all of the properties to campus.
The tools that we used for shooting are:
- Phone camera
- Tripod
We did not take a lot of pictures during the shooting process, because we were too focused on doing the work. But during the process, we have to redo the shooting. It happened because we made a mistake by zooming the camera while taking the picture, it made the images look grainy. Here is our first shoot breakdown:
First Shooting process:
During the first shooting, we made some improvements to the storyboard, because we realized that some parts could be better if we just changed the scene. In the storyboard, our video should have started with a hand throwing rubbish into the ocean, but we revised it and changed it by showing the hungry fish at the beginning, continuing with the fish that tried to find food but the fish found a trash can instead of food. The trash can represents human behavior that likes to throw garbage into the ocean without consent.
For filming the stop motion, we used an app for three frames per second. During the first shoot, we did a mistake by zooming the camera to the figure straight from the app resulting in grainy footage as attached below:
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| Fig. 4.1 Grainy footage (24/7/24) |
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| Fig. 4.2 First Shooting Picture taken by Lizzie (24/7/24) |
Second Shooting process:
Fig. 4.3 Documentation of me and Lizzie
on the second shooting
(27/7/24)
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| Fig. 4.4 Secon Shooting Picture Taken by Lizzie (27/7/24) |
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| Fig. 4.5 Fixing The Fish Picture Taken by Lizzie (27/7/24) |
On the second attempt, we already knew what to do so it did not take too much time for filming the stop motion, but we needed to fix the property, especially the fish, because the fins, mouth and eyes, were ruined after the first shooting. Other than that, we also changed the lighting to be lighter so the image quality would be clearer. On the first attempt, we used a minimum light source to create a 'dark ocean vibe' but unfortunately that idea did not work well. On that day, after the shooting process, Lizzie edited the footage at my place. During the editing process, we discussed what kind of sound effects that suitable for the video.
EDITING PROCESS
First Draft:
Lizzie started the editing by putting the sound effects for:
- Underwater ambiance.
- Sand slides.
- Rumbling stomach, to express the hunger.
- Mumbling sounds to express the fish's hungriness.
- Food crunching when the fish eats the trash.
On the editing software, Lizzie also color-graded the clips to differentiate the ambiance, when the ocean is still clean without trash the tone is warmer, but it turned colder as if the scene changed to when the fish ate the rubbish. But in the video, I notice that because of the bad qualities the color changing is unnoticeable.
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| Fig. 5.1 Warmer tone (24/7/24) |
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| Fig. 5.2 Colder Tone (24/7/24) |
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| Fig. 5.3 Grainy Footage Before De-noise Effect (24/7/24) |
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| Fig. 5.4 Grainy Footage After De-noise Effect (24/7/24) |
Fig. 5.5 First Draft Result
(24/7/24)
Second Draft:
FINAL RESULT
FEEDBACK
REFLECTION
The second attempt has better quality, so for the editing, we don't need to apply the 'de-noise' effect.
Here's the editing break down:
- Underwater ambiance: Because this sound effect will be used as a background sound, Lizzie lowered the volume, so it would not dominate the video.
- Sand slides: For this sound effect, Lizzie synced the sound effect with the fish movement when the fish pushed the garbage can.
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| Fig. 5.6 Sand Slides Picture by Lizzie (27/7/24) |
- Rumbling stomach, to express the hunger: The dB amount also lowered.
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| Fig. 5.7 Stomach Rumbling SFX Picture by Lizzie (27/7/24) |
- Lizzie also applied the same color grading as the first draft. The scenes before the trash can fall were yellow color graded to make them look warm, the purpose was to express the ocean condition that is still clean and safe for the creatures, the vignette was also added to dim the video a little bit because the bottom of the ocean is dark. The opposite of a warm tone, cool-toned was added after the trash can fell scene, it is to symbolize that the situation changed and the ocean was polluted.
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| Fig. 5.8 Warm Tone Color Grading Picture by Lizzie (27/7/24) |
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| Fig. 5.9 Cool Tone Color Grading Picture by Lizzie (27/7/24) |
- Food crunching when the fish eats the trash: Synced with the eating phase of the fish. For the volume it's quite low from the original file so Lizzie did not do anything with the dB amount.
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| Fig. 5.10 SFX Food Crunching Picture by Lizzie (27/7/24) |
- Zoom in, this is applied at the scene where the trash can fell, because we used stick to help moving the trash and we need to make the stick invisible.
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| Fig. 5.11 Without Zoom In (27/7/24) |
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| Fig. 5.12With Zoom In (27/7/24) |
- Editing the opening scene: Lizzie added transition from a darker video to the scene starting. This transition was done using the 'cross-dissolve' effect. For the closing scene, Lizzie cut the final frame and lowered the speed to a few seconds. She also added the text with cross-dissolve effect to it. To end the video, the frame and the text were given 'dip-to-black' for the transition. Lastly, the ocean ambiance sound is given the 'exponential fade' transition.
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| Fig. 5.13 Opening & Ending Picture by Lizzie (27/7/24) |
Fig. 5.14 Bin It Don't Drown It
(27/7/24)
FEEDBACK
Week 13
Make the main character relate with the ocean, so the viewer can understand the message of the video.
Week 14
Zooming in straight from the phone camera while shooting could make the result grainy. Do the zoom in/out on editing software.
Week 15
The second attempt looked better than the first, continue and finish the video.
REFLECTION
Experience:
Filming stop motion is both fun and tiring. It requires a lot of patience and attention, especially since we have to ensure that the model moves smoothly, or at least doesn’t look too robotic. However, I am grateful that I can work on this project with my teammate, as it makes the work more efficient and helps us come up with ideas more easily.
Observation:
I find stop motion to be a unique and challenging method for creating animation. It stands out because it involves working with real-world objects and capturing each frame individually, which requires a lot of patience and attention to detail. By learning stop motion, we can expand our knowledge beyond just digital animation. Working with physical props and sets gives us a deeper understanding of the animation process and allows us to develop a wider range of creative skills.
Findings:
While filming stop motion, it's best to avoid zooming in or out directly from the camera, especially if you're using a phone. Doing this can negatively affect the final result and make the animation look less smooth.
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