http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uneMEZ-sXRg&feature=youtu.be

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D662fOijrAM

The puppet is 9 inches tall. Once I get the lighting correct I will erase this and animate the puppet to match the sword fight actions.

Here is the first real animation/lighting test

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZhXyg5VELw

lighting is still off, but getting closer.

Here are more lighting tests:

http://s409.photobucket.com/albums/pp175/mostlyhermetic/lighting%20test/

To choreograph the fight scene I watched hours and hours of sword fights and stage combat videos to come up with ideas. Finally I found a site that listed 3 of the greatest choreographed sword fights from old movies. Surprisingly in the list was the Darth Vader/Luke Skywalker light saber duel when Darth cuts off Luke’s hand. So, I decided to use that as a basis for my fight. I wrote down every beat in the fight scene, every attack and every parry. It is written almost like a musical composition. It has three distinct parts to it. Part 1 is Luke attacking but Vader just defending, testing Luke to see his skill level. Part 2 is pretty even offense and defense as Vader steps up the pressure. Part 3 Vader goes all out and goes really physical and loses the finesse. These three parts work great to really build the tension and excitement.

So, anyway, I copied down every beat and wrote my own medieval moves to fit the beats.

So, we practiced the first part until we had it down pretty well. We packed up all the parts and headed to the location.

Within 20 minutes of being onsite the police showed up. We had to move all our stuff to another location across the street. Eventually we began filming. My idea was to have a stand in actor do the creature’s sword part and fight against me. That way I would get to really hit a real sword and a have a real target. I thought I would erase the actor later and leave the sword and then just animate the puppet to match the sword. Here is the first test.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pM812Jg5P04

so…I took the video home and plugged it into After Effects and erased the person and left the sword. The problem was it left a shadowy effect around the actor.

So, I took another clip and erased the sword completely but still the shadowy effect is still there. So, now I think I may have to do something different. Harryhausen practiced the sword fights and then had the actors mime it out with nothing there. I may have to go back and reshoot and do it that way.

Will keep you updated.

Oh, we ran into several issues while onsite, including my prosthetic nose and chin kept falling off. I have to figure out a fix for that. May have to buy some real Prosaide.

On the side I am still creating the puppet armature.

Go ahead, make a mess, have some fun.

So, I have made lots of progress on this idea already and now it is time to get you caught up.

Ok, the script is basically written now. It goes like this: Maiden in the forest is trying to cross the bridge but a scary creature is blocking the path. A goblin wanders up and offers to help. After a big sword fight scene the maiden and the goblin work together to finally overcome the creature, yay everyone is happy.

I will play the goblin and dear wife will play the fair maiden and the creature will be stopmotion.

A ton of stuff had to be done to get to this point. I had to find an inexpensive video camera that shot HD. Once that was done we took it to the forest and did some short video tests and some sound tests.

I also had to create a costume. Here are some photos of that. I tried to make my own leather shoes but they turned out badly so I bought a pair of old shoes from Goodwill and removed the heels to make them more medieval looking.

I covered that hole in the heel with a piece of leather.

I also created an entire shirt of chain mail. I stripped insulation off electrical wire, coiled it around an aluminum dowel, then cut rings off, then joined them. 8000 so far. That is a whole another post on the steps for all of that. But here are some almost finished photos.

I will  post later step by step photos on how to make chain mail.

So, with some leather armor I already had from past projects that I had created earlier, and some green paint, and some prosthetic ears and nose the costume began to take shape.

Once the costume and most of the props were completed I began choreographing the sword fight. Most of that is written now. I created a puppet with a wire armature but then decided maybe I should create a ball and socket armature to give me more mobility in the creature. So that is in progress now.

Tons of stuff going on, I will update more later as it progresses.

Tons of work, ton of labor, tons of stuff I needed to learn.

Go ahead, make a mess, have some fun.

I have begun my next film. This one will mix live action and stopmotion like the old Dynamation. The basic story is a fair maiden requests help from a grumpy forest goblin in dealing with a threatening creature.

I will play the goblin, no big surprise there. I have most of the costume put together so far. Dear wife will play the maiden and most of her costume is ready as well.

I have made several wooden swords and painted them to look like metal. I will upload photos of those later.

I have begun the stopmotion creature.  It is about half finished. Pictures of him later as well.

Our plan is to rehearse the choreography with dear wife stepping in to play the role of the creature during the sword fight. I will then go back and do the sequence without her there and will later insert the stopmotion puppet.

I will either shoot the puppet against green screen or frontlight/backlight. I am not sure yet.

So, stay tuned and I will get some photos uploaded shortly.

go ahead, make a mess, have some fun.

Thanks for following along.

Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fj3q3nlWhmQ

2 Where do you buy your supplies locally?
A: I get all of my art materials at some store near Portland, OR.

3 Have you ever bought any supplies online and what?
A: I have bought alumaloy armature wire from Marc Spess’s AnimateClay online store.

4 What is your favorite/standard puppet construction?
A: Definitely clay; it’s the easiest and most friendly method. It’s also very painstaking and headache-inducing. I’ll take the good with the bad.

5 What camera and software setup do you use?
A: Panasonic PV-GS300 camcorder connected to PC via firewire running Stopmotion Pro 6 SD.

6 What is one of your biggest weaknesses in animating or studio setup? How do you deal with this?
A: GRAVITY! If you’ve been following my blog, you’ll see that I’ve had several false (well, fall, actually) starts. I think I’ve got a handle on things now, though.
Keeping the surface detail consistent over several weeks of shooting is also a tricky one. If the armature is bad, then the sculpture is bad too.

7 What is one of your biggest strengths or assets, and how do you utilize this?
A: Definitely audio, but the animation is really progressing fast. I think I’m a pretty decent photographer as well. As far as sound, I’ve spent almost 10 years learning it
and implementing a non-traditional way of mastering a recording one track at a time as it’s being recorded. This is a proven method, and I teach it to anyone who is
patient enough, so if you want to get set up recording in your own space, give me a buzz!

8 What about this process do you enjoy the most?
A: I love the tactile nature of stopmotion, and I guess my memory is starting to crap out, because often times I’ll watch a finished shot and not remember animating it!

9 Name some goals you have in this field.
A: My primary goal is to move on from retail sales and do something in this field. I’ve spent most of my life learning about it, so I might as well be working in some department or other.
I’m willing to start at the very bottom and work up, if that’s what it takes.

10 Write and answer your own final question.

A: Okay,

10: “Hey , now that you’re starting to get noticed on Youtube for your short films and clips, do you have any plans to stay humble?”

A: Of course!

Don C.

http://s221.photobucket.com/albums/dd81/castlegardener/Helping%20Hands%20film/