For this stop motion experimentation we knew we wanted to try two difference mediums so we ended up with one that user more of a Claymation technique and one with a human subject.
I was the subject in the human made gif and the initial idea was to create a sort of Frankenstein-like scene where something strikes me and then screws would “pop” out of my head. However, filming this upright would require us to attach strings to the screws to move them frame by frame. So instead we decide to film top down because this way all we’d have to do is move the screws and the end result looks pretty 2D if you ask me. The hammer moving component was also easier to move because we filmed top down. The Xs on my eyes after the hammer strikes were actually laser cut and taped to my eyelids. In hindsight we could’ve just added in the graphics later in post-production but because of the nature of the assignment, I figured it would be good to try and include as much practical elements and effects as possible. The rainbow coming out of my mouth was originally supposed to be clay as well but after using it for the other gif, we found out that it stains pretty good so wasn’t a fan of getting that on myself. Instead, we opted for a rainbow cutout that we later added more graphics on to create a lingering effect.
The Claymation gif was a lot more challenging and time-consuming to produce but also looks a lot more impressive afterwards. We started out with many versions of this idea where we knew we wanted a pumpkin as the subject. But initially the pumpkin was just going to split and then a ghost would come flying out. We then added the legs coming out because it would provide more movement as well as story to the scene. The creating of the legs involved using armature wires after they reached a certain length which proved more tricky to manipulate than we had originally anticipated. For the splitting, we carved out of the foam pumpkin and added clay to fill in the gap. Personally the green goo spilling is my favorite part of the scene. Lastly, we wanted to give the pumpkin a bit more personality so we gave it a face and changing expressions that responded to the events happening. Now we have a story about a pumpkin who died and went to pumpkin heaven.
One thing we struggled to decide on was whether or not to include the audio portion of these two videos. When we originally came up with the idea, we were going to make them just visuals, no sound. But after filming and editing the two videos, the scene felt a bit empty without another element. So we did include sound and music in these two but whether we are going to show them with or without sound is still up for debate.