Stop Motion and Movies

Next Video- Zelda Stage 1

2013-05-05T05:35:00.000-07:00

Dragon Ball Episode 2 - Cell's Return

2013-04-05T01:12:00.002-07:00

Hello Guys, its been 2 month ago since my last video of Dragon ball episode 1, and now here it is,
episode 2, Cell as the boss and Goku, Vegeta to save the day, this video I specially focus on fighting skills and air combat, well, please check the video first as below :

This video in the animation part took me 53 days and sound effects application took me 6 days, in total I spend 59 days to make this video and with more than 6000 pictures.

In the below, I will show some pictures and behind the scenes skill for you to study.

The action figures from SHF, Goku, Vegeta, Cell, Trunks and Piccolo,

these dudes cost me around USD$350 in total.

The battle field in also in the middle of my room, I made the course indication before start to film the video, this helps me greatly how to arrange the movements and calculation of the distance.

Tools that I use in this video, they are simple tools but very useful

Modification to the dolls, original dolls are very fragile, so I need to strong their joints

The dolls of this series are very detail and beautiful, but only Goku's face are a little bit too angry,

so I made some paint modification to make him look better.

The doll itself comes with several changeable facial expressions.

Some cuts where toys are hold with tools, then I use photoshop to erase them

Green screening, in this case for Green Piccolo, its called blue screening

Below here are some shots that I like from this video

The thumbnail that I use on youtube for this video,

the upper one is after "effects" the lower one is the original without effects

Well, this is all for this video, thank you all for watching and supporting my videos, if you wish to follow my recent video progress, you can always check my facebook for the news.

Facebook : Counter656

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Counter656/192058287535877

Thanks again and wish you all have a great day, see you next time on next video.

Regards

John H.

Coming next in the end of March - April first - Dragon Ball episode 2

2013-03-12T07:35:00.001-07:00

2013 Most Wanted stop motion Survey!!

2013-02-04T06:02:00.003-08:00

2013 Most Wanted Stop Motion video survey, vote your favorite anime in the left side vote area of the page, this will help me decide what videos to make first in this year, thanks for the huge support and wish you all have a great day.

Dragon Ball stop motion - Piccolo VS Trunks

2013-01-27T22:07:00.002-08:00

Hello guys, finally, Dragon ball Z stop motion!, I am really excited making this video, as I am always a big fan of dragon ball since I was a child, and thanks to SHF nice Dragon ball figures, I can finally make my dream comes true. Please check first the video as below :

In the below pictures, I will show some behind the scenes and tricks.

The entire video was filmed on my bedrooms floor

Then the action figure from SHF, Trunks was really a nice figure with a lot of accesories

to change the face expressions and hand pose

Piccolo is a little less in accessories, so sometimes I need to draw by my self the

facial expressions on Photoshop.

Tools I use are very easy to find in the market.

Large tools to hold camera or the toy itself

The flying at the start is green screen

Some of the scenes I use my hand to hold them and then erase in photoshop

Facial expressions, if there is no enough face to match the figure head,

I will cut them in another head and combined them in software.

Below are some of the scenes for the next episode,

the fight will be more faster and closer.

Here is all for today, I will be finalizing the second part soon, and hope you guys enjoy the show.

Thanks for watching :D

Regards

John H.

Armored Core stop motion

2012-12-16T18:49:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone, this is a new video I made to participate The LA machinima interactive festival,
this time I use Armored Core figures for the video, this video took me around 30 days of production
and 2500 pictures combined.

Please check the video as below:

The battle field, in my room's floor, I use toy boxes to be the walls.

There are 4 Armored core figures in this video,

each is around USD$35

The boss of this stage :D

Some modifications I make for the main character,

I use black model pen to paint and draw the lines of the hero.

The articulation and joints of Armored core models is very

fragile, I need to glue them to prevent falling parts

Some explosion scenes I use LED light, this makes explosions looks more

real when you apply computer effects to it

Some robot flying scenes I use my hand to hold it and

then erase it with photoshop.

Heres is all the secrets in this video, as for the next,

Dragon Ball Z!!, thank you for watching and see you next time

on next video.

Best regards

John H.

Lego Stop motion - Superman and Wonder woman

2012-10-20T04:59:00.000-07:00

This is my new video with Lego, its a fight between Superman and his enemy Lex Luthor, the entire video took me 1 month of production and around 3000 pictures. Lets see the below now:

Below are some of the behind the scenes pictures

The entire fighting stage is on top of wooden bed,

this is how the street looks like

Back of the building, some fake trees and rocks

The cloud is actually blue wall papers

Wonder woman and her weapon, the rope,

its actually a telephone wire

Some of the Superman flying scenes are just like below,

holding it with some support and erase with software.

Another solution for flying objects is of course

the green screen skill.

And here is it, all the secrets of the video, as you can see,

its not anything difficult, those skill I am sure you can find a lot of

tutorials in the internet for the above skills.

Hope you guys enjoy the video, and see you next time on next video.

Regards

John H.

Gundam stop motion dance - Gundam Style !!

2012-10-10T22:44:00.001-07:00

New video cooperate with Animeme.

around 10 days of production and 600 pictures.

The dancing field is in my rooms floor

All gundams was posed by tape

Problems during the filming, broken joints.

Spider-man VS Green Goblin stop motion

2012-10-06T20:28:00.001-07:00

Hello everyone, it has been a while since my last video, this video just finished was a video

I partner up with NAGOO TV in Taiwan, and this time I use 12 inch doll from Hot toys,

very expensive toys but very cool and detailed.

Please check the video first as below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWqaXw0Vb48

Next comes the behind the scenes pictures

first of all the picture of the two characters

Now Spiderman, it has many replacement hand

The Green Goblin does not have too many replacement hands but it has

many small parts and devices.

The fighting stage is below my working desk

The web, actually there comes some plastic web sticks in the Spiderman box,

but there are not visible and well handle to make video, so I put another plastic

bag in the surface of the web to make it more easier to use and hold.

Some of the scene that Spiderman hold the web and swing is actually holding the web,

I position the web in a high location and this location will be the center of the entire swing movement.

its like a holding point to stable the whole movement.

As usual, many of the scenes I grab the toy with my hand and then

erase it on photoshop.

Spideman in the sky and the skateboard on top of a bottle

If the movement is too difficult, I will choose to use green screen.

The whole video took me around 2 weeks or production time and

nearly 1000 pictures.

The skills of my videos are very simple, just need some time for practice and

everyone can do it.

Well, this is all for today, thanks for watching and see you guys next time on next video.

Best regards

John H.

One of the upcoming video for this year, Dragon Ball Z!!!

2012-08-06T09:16:00.000-07:00

Boxing Stop motion - Pacquiao VS Mayweather

2012-07-19T20:41:00.000-07:00

This new video was made for my Philippine Partner "Green Mango" for their company promotion purpose, we use 12 inch dolls from Hot toys and Enterbay.

The face was totally hand made sculpture figure, and this video took me around 2 month of production and nearly 2500 pictures.

Please check the video as below:

Pacquio and Mayweather figures

Facial expressions, simple head replacement

The place I film this video, under my computer desk

Some of the scree shots was hold with my hand and deleted

with photoshop.

The original bike screen shot without special effects

Well, the above are most of the secrets for this video, actually they are not difficult to make,
its just matter of time.

Thanks for watching and see you next time on next stop motion

regards
John H.

Saber and Gundam stop motion fight

2012-05-05T03:52:00.000-07:00

Hello guys, its been quite a long time since my last video related to Gundams, so I decided to make
another one with them, this time, will be adding a new guest, Saber from Fate, its one of the most
coolest articulated toys from Figma, so lets check first this video:

This video in total is around 3000-3500 pictures, and took me exactly 30 days to finish this,
including musics,etc.

Below are some of the behind the scenes pictures:

First of all, the battle field is in front of my computers, saves time to take pictures and
then edit them in the computer.

Our main character, Saber, it has three different facial expressions to change.

Also many different hand poses, I can do many actions with these items.

Many of the lightning or shadows I do it with tools I can find closely,

I prefer this time not to use too much in special effects.

Most of the flying objects was held by my hands and erase them with software.

The O, the lightning I prefer to add some light layers instead of

starwars style light saber.

Below are some screen cuts that I liked the most.

Well, this is all for this video, the makings are actually simple, but everything took a lot of time,
its just matter of practice.

Hope you guys enjoy the video, and see you next time in next stop motion video.

Regards
John H.

Adventure Quest Stop Motion -Artix VS Sepulchure

2012-04-26T06:58:00.000-07:00

This is a short video in association with Artix Entertainment, for the promotion of
action figures of the game Adventure quest, the video is in total 2:21 minutes long,
the background music was made by One Eyed Doll music band.

So lets check the video:

Please check the below pictures for the fighting state of this video:

The arena is on top of wooden bed
decorated with artificial plants and fake rocks

The original toys without modification, can only move the head left and right,

the arm and legs are also limited of movement.

Below on Artix, we made two extra facial expressions, and the

add a lot of articulated joints to their hands and legs.

The seal mark that appears in the credits are just green screening the hand

Some battle scenes of the video

Well, again, thanks a lot for watching, the next new video is about
saber lily, will be showing up right on next week.

So see you soon on next video.

regards
John H.

Previews for the current Stop Motion project

2012-03-17T21:25:00.000-07:00

Ghost rider stop motion in Machinima

2012-02-18T08:43:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone, just finished a new video, its about Ghost rider fighting with Albert Wesker from Resident evil,
this is a video I made for Machinima, using 12 inch dolls from Hot Toys, they are really really cool and detail
action figure, amazing quality...well...lets take a look at the new video:

And now let get into some behind the scenes pictures.

These are the tools I used this time for the video

The main character, Nick Cages figure

The bad ass Wesker, the eye can glow with batteries

Some fighting scene was holded by hand and then delete it

The bike itself can shine, so no need for too much effect modification

The sun glass scene was really a sun glass in green screen

The ghost rider form in fire, the head also can glow using batteries

And below are some screen shots.

This video took me 25 days with around 3800 pictures.

Well this is all for this video, actually nothing special in skills, but mostly

the changing of camera moves is what differs from other videos.

And thanks for watching, see you guys next time on next video.

John H.

Black Diamond Stop motion

2012-02-14T05:09:00.000-08:00

This is a video I made for the promotion of Black Diamond recharge device,
this video took me 8 days and around 900 pictures, please check the video as below:

The cellphone I use

The battle arena

Me and the girl

Black diamond

the lightning for the girl scene

The background of the girl scene

Me, my friend and the model

Many of the phone scene are holding by hand

Hold by hand also

Screen shots

Thanks everyone for watching and see you next time on next video.

Kreo Transformers stop motion - Autobots VS Decepticons

2011-12-30T23:37:00.000-08:00

This is a video for the promotion of Kreo Transformers from Hasbro , and for some reason ,
I have to finish this video before 2012 arrives, so this video I speed up the production and
in total plus the musics and sounds effects, this video only took me 10 days for production.
and average around 3300-3500 pictures.

And here is the video:

Now lets check the behind the scenes pictures:

The toys

The scene is in the floor of my room

As these toys are heavy and weak in the joints, you must use lots of tools to hold the body

The box comes with pieces, and they can assemble to a vehicle or a robot

Each box comes with 2-3 small toy figures

As the figures body are too heavy, this mean the joints will no going to be strong

enough, so I have to use some tapes in the joints.

The scene where Megatron jumps was holding by hand

And for the explosion scene, the same technic, just adding some green screens.

The same with the starscream Jet mode

And final here is a picture of Optimus Prime.

Thanks also to Zoetrope international for the nice background music.
they do really nice movie like musics, if you are interested, you can also
contact with these cool guys : smith.zoe7@gmail.com

Software used:

Corel Video Studio
Animator HD
Adobe after effects
Adobe Premiere
Morpth

Well, hope you guys like this video and wish you all happy new year!!
See you next time on next stop motion.

Transformers Stop Motion - Race and Destroy

2011-12-02T19:28:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone, this is another video I made for TheGameStation youtube channel,
this is the fight between Bumble Bee and Barricade, the first minute was a racing
scene, I study the game "Need for Speed" for the camera movements of the cars,
the last two minutes of the video of cource is the fight and transform of the robots.
This video took me 2 month of production and around 3500 pictures.

Please check the video first:

Below is the main characters of this video, bumble bee and Barricade,

they are actually very small in the size.

This video was shot in a small room of my house,the walls in the video are Gundam model boxes.

Corners is an ideal location to shot drift scenes.

Car in the sky was holding by my hand,

then deleted in After effects with layers

The TV screen in the background of this video is just a blue screen, after the key, just insert the video shot I want and will appear like the image in the video.

The explosion is also blue screen, I use blue instead of green because the color of Bumble bee is yellow and this may affect the result of the green screen.

Here are some shots of the video that I liked

Ok, and here is all the main skills of this video, actually is pretty simple, and hope you
guys enjoy the video, see you next time in the next stop motion project.

BTY,I will post every new information and progress of my videos in my facebook channel,
Please visit me sometime on facebook.

Facebook name : Counter656

Thanks again and wish you have a great day.

regards
John H.

Minority Report VFX Stop Motion

2011-11-28T18:08:00.000-08:00

This is a video I made for the Taiwan Business tour promotion purpose,
the idea comes from the movie Minority Report, I spend 3 days in total for the
making of this video, please see the video as below:

The Doll I choose to use this time is Black widow from Iron man movie, this is the most
beautiful girl face doll that you can find in the market of 12 inch dolls.

Below is the stage that I use to film this video, on top of my desk.

Comparison of the shoots, original and with green screen, this video was mostly made
in front of green screen, some scenes the green screen was not good because the green
screen was to near the doll and in some places the light was too strong, I will need to
improve next time about this problem.

Here are some runners effects I made for this video, first make the runners,
then apply to the video in after effects.

Some scenes of this video that I like the most.

Software used in this video:

Corel video studio pro
Paint shop photo
After effects
Premiere
Morpth

Well, hope you guys like this video, and will be back to you next time with transformers stop
motion.

regards
John H.

Assasin Creed Stop Motion

2011-11-18T08:01:00.000-08:00

This is a video made for Machinima for the promotion of the Game Assasin Creed,
this is the first video I made with 12 inch toys, these are really detail figures from Hot toys company,
they are beatiful with good articulation, but its not easy to film, they are very heavy and usually falls, could not stand well to film.

Please check the video as below :

Below is the filming scene of this video, blue posters plus some artificial plant decoration.

The toys are very loose in the articulation due to the heave body

The move of the cape in the wind is actually holding by hand

The real look of the bloody hand before After effects

The red part of the broken hand is made with red paper

Some of the video scene that I like the most

Well, here is some of the behind the scene of this video, hope you guys like it,

thank you and see you soon with the next stop motion video

Taipei World Design Exposition

2011-10-05T04:29:00.000-07:00

This is an ad video of the Taipei World Design Exposition, I helped them to make this ad with stop
motion, all the items and characters in this video are Exposition creations in the show.
This video took me around 5 days for the filming and editting.

Below are pictures of the behind the scene:

The place for the video taking

All of the tools that I used in this video

The rotation of the wooden toys

The color changing and size changing of the can is actually the replacement

of many other cans with the same style.

The rolling of the white little man is actually holding by hand

The wooden rabbit and the tiger are magnetic toys connected together with

magnets.

Softwares I used in this video are :

Corel video studio pro

Adobe premiere

Adobe after effects.

Well, hope you guys like the video, thanks for watching and see you soon

in the next transformers stop motion.

regards

John H.

Future new projects and testings

2011-09-15T09:28:00.000-07:00

First of all, thank you guys for the support and the vote recently I made in my blog here,
and yeap, Dragon Ball Z is definitely the best of all, personally I also like the most to make Gokus video,
unfortunately I am still waiting for his best opponent and friend Vegeta to be released from BAndai,
I know they are making it, but not know when could be done.

Check out first the previews:

So which comes first will be transformers : Race and Destroy.

And please check below for some original pictures related to this video:

Black widow

Guess who....:D

Bumble Bee

Three Kingdom ( 三國 )

Barricade

Halo?? For some reason I have to delay this video...

The best of All, DBZ Goku!!!

Well, thanks again for your visit, see you next time with next transformers video.

The Sexy Killer and some behind the scene pictures

2011-08-07T07:29:00.000-07:00

My new real life video, the purpose is to test slow motion scenes and try to do some more
realistic effects, new camera movements and angles.
I want to thanks to Nikon for the sponsor of D5100 camera and also thanks
to Beatube for the support of the girl.

Here are some pictures for the video.

Software used in this video:

Adobe after effects
Adobe premiere
Corel video studio pro
Morph

I know this video is not good, as I just start to learn real life videos, I expect to spend another
1 year to learn everything about real life videos, just the same effort as I do for stop motions
which I also spend around 2 year to learn and still today I am learning it, making films is
a very very long business, there is no limit for learning, there is always new things to explore.

Please leave your comments or suggestions for this video.

Thanks and see you guys on next video.

John H.

Street Fighter Stop motion - Ryu VS Ken behind the scene

2011-07-31T23:50:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone, I just finished my new stop motion video of Street fighter, will be showing up

first in Machinima channel, and I will upload to my channel after a week of the machinima.

Well, lets see the video first:

I want to thanks to Nikon camera for supporting me a lot in this new video.
And here is how the entire scene looks like, I use Taiwanese handwriting paper
as the background, and hang it with the metal closet bone.

The background using Taiwanese letter papers.

The artificial grass

                                  The book on the table is put the camera and make it able
   to move all around the table.

The Nikon D5100 camera I use this time for filming

I use clay in this video to stablelize the toys figures

The hands of the toys actually is very fragile, so I got to use clay also
in the articulation.

I use photoshop to get rid of the hands in the picture, check the difference between
the two pictures.

Some of the scenes in the video that I like:

In this video, about the color grading, I make high contrast, 10%blue and 5% green,
reduce color 10%.

Software used:

Corel video studio
Adobe premiere

Adobe After effects

Cinema 4D

Well, this is all the behind the scenes of this video, thanks everyone for watching,
and see you next time on next stop motion.

regards
John H.

Final Fantasy Stop motion- Behind the Scenes

2011-06-16T18:15:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone, this is John again, just finished my new stop motion video, Final Fantasy stop motion – The World’s Enemy, thanks for Cloud, Aerith and Sephiroth from HLJ, great toys with detailed paintings.
This video was mostly made with After effects, the main skill here is the use of fire,light, twist light and twist fire, also some green screens.
Color correction of green and blue, medium contrast.

And for the tools I used in this video, please check the below picture:
knife, sccisor, tape, saw, etc

The cut made be Sephiroth to the box, I use saw to make this happen

This is how the meteor looks like…grey paper ball…

The last scene, real flower with fake grass, the fake ones
actually are much expensive

After several days of filming, the joing are too loose, need to paste them with tape

The blood actually are red water paint,
they could be deleted by water

Moving in the sky is actually green screen skill

The same with fire in front of Aerith

The lift of the motorcycle was just made with hand and then PS out.

And below are some of
the screen shots

Here is all the secrets of the video, hope you guys enjoy it, thanks for watching and
see you next time with the next video.

regards
John H.