Today I went back to the Puppet making workshop to finish the armature for my character, I spent more time wrapping the wire framework in tinfoil and then began applying Plasticine.
I managed to get a little further than the image on the right implies :P

Left: Wire Armature with Poly clay Limbs and head. Left: Wire armature covered in layers of tinfoil, and half covered in thin layer of plasticine.




















Oh also, on the way out of the gallery today I was able to snap these, I believe they were mad by a girl working at the gallery called Olivia. Think they look kind of awesome and would like to give it a shot at making some of my own (everything in my home should have a touch of art and craft).

Ballad of Black Messa

Like this...

DVNO

This little Video links back to one of my earliest posts about the Justice video DVNO.

Great Animation Challenge

Here is a link to the great animation challenge and here is another to the audio tracks that can be downloaded as inspiration for creating an animation to enter into the challenge.

I will use this a s a good opportunity to post links to the animations I saw at Flip Festival (where I heard about the "Great Animation Challenge", I found all of these quite entertaining.

First "Black Dogs Progress" by Steve Irwin (this ones a bit disturbing) It was awarded best in the UK at Flip Festival. Check out his blog here.



Next was "The Terrible Thing Of Alpha 9" by Jake Armstrong, which was sweet and funny (had a nice Jamie Hewlett style... sorry if that detracts from this work in Anny way) This was awarded best international film.



The Best Experimental Film was won by Virginia Mori with "Play of Silence" another strange one, even has a few moments that made my skin crawl (worth while just for those moments) if not for the intrigue created by the film as a whole. I haven't been able to find out a whole lot about the animator at a quick glance.. shame.



Best Newcomer was taken by Rabbit Punch, directed by Kristian Andrews. Love the Audio and the visual style. (Random Opinion)



Next is Best of Festival, Which I kinda disagree with, technically the most impressive and I'm sure it does have a soul to it, but compared to some of the raw energy of the others I find it a little lacking and think it runs for to long. "Kudan" by Taku Kimura.



Best Stop Motion was taken by Bang Yao Lui with "Deadline", also check out his making of here.



And Finlay the Special Jury mention went to "Man Up" by Ed Barrett which might actually be my favorite. I couldn't find the whole film as the rights are held by the royal college of art :( sorry peeps.

Today

Well, Just wanted to talk about what I've been up to today as it is kind of relevant. I went into the Wolverhampton art gallery to partaker in some animation workshops. I will Post the name and details of the animator running the events, Ive met her twice now but still cant remember her name (how bad am I?) Today I worked on making an armature using wire twisted together to create the basic shape, this was then held together by a basic polymer clay that had been set. These were to create rigid forms for the head, arms and legs. I might try and snap a picture of one tomorrow. Once the Polymer has set It is wrapped in an adhesive first aid bandage, this prevents it from cracking (to badly) under the various stresses you will place the puppet under. From this point I wrapped the whole moddle in a base layer of Tin foil, the point being to build up around this with foil to create the shape of the character, on top of this will be a layer of plasticine which will make up the bulk of the character. It is important to do it this way (apparently) to prevent to much warping in the general shape of the character, also as the weight of the character may be to much if made entirely from plasticine, also I believe the weirs would work their way to the surface If placed directly into a plasticine body.

Now I will be going back tomorrow to continue building up the tin foil layer of my moddle, I will find out a bit more about the animator lady who is running the workshops.

I also just finished listening to a collection of audio tracks taken from stand up comedy and other funny(ish) sources. These are intended to be used to make an animation to be entered into the Flip Festival animation festival, I might give it a shot although I only have 15 days left to enter. Not sure If I can make it or If I will be able to find any real inspiration in the tracks.

Oh, just encase I forget, here are the names of two interesting animation/ graphic design firms I need to look into, Mainframe, Tomato, Atic, Framestore.

Fluffy MC Cloud

I found a link to Fluffy McCloud by Conor Finnegan whilst looking around on the "Flip Animation Festival" website. I found it really quite charming and entertaining. It was created for his graduation at IADT National Film School. It is a mixture of stop-motion, live action and hand drawn animation, shot in his attic on a Cannon EOS 5D, Cannon 450D and a 7D. Check out the rest of his work on his Vimeo Home Page.
Well check out the vid, is very, very sweet...

FLUFFY MC CLOUD from conorfinnegan on Vimeo.