CURSE OF THE WOLFS HEART - PRODUCTION DIARIESStop Motion Animation

CURSE OF THE WOLF'S HEART - Production Diary #2

2015-11-20T17:11:00.001-07:00

Production Diary #1

2015-11-13T17:09:00.000-07:00

ZERO PROGRESS - Sun. September 16th, 2012

2012-09-16T02:36:00.000-06:00

Just felt like posting something, so thought I would.

The blog's seems to have become a ghost town again (Its my own fault, I know it) I haven't had any time to work on anything lately ...

I messed around with the puppet and shot a little bit of animation tonight, just playing, experimenting with the faces and expressions.

Tristan got a puppy about a week ago, if you read my other blog you already knew it.

They look nice and peaceful here sleeping, but don't be fooled. When they both get wound up they're like miniature hurricanes!

Jeff
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MORE DONE - Fri. August 17th, 2012

2012-08-17T05:15:00.003-06:00

The rest of the set went up today and I managed to finish the strapping on the front of the cloak. I like how it finally came out.

I’ll talk more about all this stuff once the weekends here and I have some time ... Next up, finishing up the belt and a new sword.

Jeff

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BACK IN THE LIVING ROOM - Thur. August 16th, 2012

2012-08-16T06:51:00.000-06:00

Starting work on the movie again.

Check it out, the sets going back up in the living room ... never figured I’d get that back in there.

Jeff

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SHORT PAINTING TUTORIAL - Thur. July 12th, 2012

2012-07-12T06:53:00.001-06:00

Tristan says "Hi"

I've gotten a few questions about painting the fabric, so I thought I’d give a quick over view of how I do it.

When I paint things like these shoulder pads with the wire inlay. First I paint in all the blacks. I use pretty wet paint and work it into all the little nooks and crannies, I’m trying to mimic the shadows.

Then I take a piece of sandpaper and clean off the wire. I'll do this several times, after each coat of paint.

Sometimes when I'm sanding on the wires, one will come loose, like it did tonight.

I used a little super glue to stick it back down.

When I do the light color, I dry brush it. I mean keep the brush real dry, not too much water, or maybe even wipe it on a rag. That way it only paints the highest points of the texture, the highlights, and leaves all those great shadows.

I use a hair dryer to speed up the whole process.

Well that’s it, the best I can do and still make it to work this morning. Hopefully that helps.

Jeff

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CONTINUING WITH PAINT - Wed. July 11th, 2012

2012-07-11T06:30:00.000-06:00

Went on painting the shirt this morning.

Doing all the tiny details and thinking about how the fabric would actually wear and fade in real life.

I’m liking this a lot better … and I think I learned from painting the cloak. It helped me to understand more about how I want things to look in the film.

Jeff

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RED & WHITE - Tues. July 10th, 2012

2012-07-10T01:30:00.004-06:00

Here’s your blog post Vincent - Link Lol, thanks for keeping me honest my friend :)

Finally got the cloak painted.

Once I saw the red of the cloak next to the blue of the shirt, I didn’t like the combination. So before I get any further I want to lighten & whiten the shirt up a bit.

More tomorrow …

Jeff

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STILL PAINTING - Sun. July 8th, 2012

2012-07-08T01:31:00.000-06:00

I haven’t felt much like blogging lately. Since trying out Dragon Frame with my SLR and seeing the results, (the top image is a still from the test) I’m finding myself wanting more than ever to start animating.

I still have a few things to do yet though.

Still painting on the cloak, seems like its never going to end, but I’m making some good progress. The back is now 100% done and the inside just has one strip down the center to fill in.

Jeff

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CONCEPT ART, SILICONE AND MORE RED - Fri. July 6th, 2012

2012-07-06T03:48:00.000-06:00

I’ve been spending my lunch sketching and working out how I’m going to make my future stopmotion puppets.

I also picked up some silicone. I’m going to try casting the hands, as opposed to the build up method.

I like the way the build up hands came out and they work well ... but since hands are going to be pretty common body part on this animation project, I think its worth experimenting with, and finding the best and easiest way to make them.

... painted a bit more on the cape.

I wanted to say thanks Funda Baltaci, she had some really nice things to say about me at her animation Blog - Link Its all in Turkish, so I don’t always understand everything she writes, but she does some really great puppets and I love watching her progress through the pictures.

Jeff

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RED - Tues. July 3rd, 2012

2012-07-03T06:35:00.005-06:00

Started working on the red today. I’m about half way done with painting the cloak at this point.

I still want to beef up the red a bit, make it a little brighter, and I need to paint the inside, do all the straps and bits & bobs on the front.

Have a good day everyone and thanks for reading.

Jeff

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DRAGON FRAME - Sun. July 1st, 2012

2012-07-01T16:14:00.000-06:00

I was going to take a few days off, I had to go through some pretty major dental stuff on Friday, I’m still not feeling 100%, but I came across something really cool and just couldn’t wait to blog about it.

I tried out the frame grabbing software, Dragon Frame - Link and wow, was I impressed!

Up till now I had been using Animator DV - Link which is a great software and I highly recommend it, but I was never able to get a live feed directly off my camera. I was able to get a live feed through my webcam, but not my DSLR.

I have a Canon Eos Rebel xsi 450D, which I had bought specifically to shoot animation with, so its been a little frustrating having to use a webcam for the live feed and also having to remember to push the button twice when I animate (once for the webcam, and once for the frame of film)

Anyway, today I got a hold of a copy of Dragon Frame, the live feed fired up right away ... and what a pleasure it is to animate with. By far the best software I’ve tried yet and well worth the price.

By the way, here’s one of the hands, latex'ed and partially painted.

Looks pretty good I think, I’m still thinking about experimenting with a silicon version though.

Jeff

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TIME - Thur. June 28th, 2012

2012-06-28T06:25:00.002-06:00

A couple of days ago I wrote a response to a post over at Stopmotionanimation.com, the post was about how daunting an animation project can be, from scripting, to animation, to set design & construction, to puppet building, there’s just so much.

Something I do, to not get to overwhelmed ... is just focus on what I’m doing at the moment.

Like with these hands, thinking about making a set of hands, isn’t nearly as scary as thinking about all the stuff that still needs to be done to make my film.

I feel like the biggest challenge I’m facing right now is just ‘time’ ... just having enough hours in the day, after work, sleep and family stuff, to sit down a get things done.

Jeff

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HANDS CONTINUE - Mon. June 25th, 2012

2012-06-25T06:29:00.001-06:00

Not much time for a post this morning, have to run out the door to work in a few minutes!!!

.... but, I love the way these hands are coming out!

Jeff

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Q&A - Sun. June 24th, 2012

2012-06-24T14:03:00.002-06:00

It was just so hot here yesterday, that I never did get outside to do the latex work. I figured I would go ahead and answer some of the questions from yesterday in this blog post.

Rich asked about the tape loops, and how did I cut them …. They’re actually K&S brass tubes, the size is 1/8 x .014 round #127

The easiest way that I’ve found to cut them, is with a drywall knife and a new blade. I set the knife on top of the tube, and ‘roll it’ along a table while pushing down. If your knife is sharp it doesn’t take long to go through.

Rich also asked which is more durable, latex or silicone? … and the answer is silicone, it will last a lot longer. Latex will eventually harden and crumble, but that takes years.

The main reason I’m going with latex at this point (and this may change, cause not everything I try works) is because I’ve found a great way to paint it.

Since I’ve been an artist a lot longer than I've been an animator, I feel like the only thing I really have going for me in stop motion is my painting skills. I can put together a pair of boots from sculpey, fabric and glue, and they work and look ok … but once I paint them, they become part of the costume an really work.

Anyway I found this stuff called No-Tac Adhesive (from Monster Makers - Link) that makes painting latex really easy. I’m able to shoot it through an airbrush or just sponge it on, but I can easily paint as well with this stuff as I can with just straight acrylics, and that’s a huge plus for me.

Yesterday in the comments Shelley - Link brought up “if the wire can withstand the constant abrasion of the tube edges” … I had that exact problem with earlier experiments trying to bone out the fingers. I would make a finger with the segments, and because of the constant stress on such a specific point on the wire (and possibly the abrasion of the edges) fingers would break with just a few bends.

I eventually abandoned the idea of finger joints, but I always loved the way those hands looked because the movement was so natural.

The answer finally came to me when I started experimenting with wire and testing different types. I would basically take a piece of wire and a pair of pliers, start bending, and see how many times I could bend it without breaking it.

The first thing I noticed was aluminum wire (which is weird because its what most of the stop mo forums recommend) would break the quickest. I noticed steel wire was a little better, and eventually found a (steel) green gardening wire that seemed to last a lot longer.

With the aluminum wire I was getting a maximum of about twenty bends. With the gardening wire I was getting more like 70 bends (mind you, this was with a pair of pliers, basically trying to break it. Under normal circumstances inside a puppet, aluminum wire isn’t usually under that kind of stress)

So I made a finger from the gardening wire, with brass tube for joints, a little gauze wrap and dipped in latex. Then I just played with it for a while. The last few weeks, whenever I sat down at my computer I would bend on it. I’ve been trying to break it since I made it (almost a full month) and I haven’t been able to break it yet.

So I’m not 100% sure I’ve found the answer to making jointed fingers, but I’m very, very hopeful.

Thanks for all the questions and comments, and thanks for reading the blog guys.

Jeff

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JOINTED FINGERS - Sat. June 23rd, 2012

2012-06-23T08:22:00.001-06:00

Switched gears this morning.

Still painting on the cloak, but since I’ll have some extra time today, thought I would get the new set of hands ready for liquid latex. I like to work with latex outside, because of the smell, so today its going to be hot and perfect for that.

The hands I already have are just fine. I made them from silicone and wire, and they work pretty well, but since I needed to paint them, and silicone is such a challenge to paint, I thought I might as well make some new ones. I also wanted to play around with the idea of jointed fingers.

I'll show you the results tomorrow …

Jeff

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PAINTING THE CAPE - Fri. June 22nd, 2012

2012-06-22T00:36:00.000-06:00

Here’s what I came up with to hook the cloak in the front.

I ended up going a bit more low tech than I originally intended. I’m planning on making more buckles for his sword belt, so I didn’t want to overload him with one design element.

I want to say thanks for all the comments and suggestions from yesterday, I appreciate them all!

Next, I've started painting the cape (I’m picturing it as a deep red) … more tomorrow.

Jeff

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THANKS - Wed. June 20th, 2012

2012-06-20T01:21:00.002-06:00

Still thinking about, and trying to design a buckle that looks right with the cloak.

Not much else to say tonight … thanks for reading the blog everyone.

Jeff

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STUMBLED - Mon. June 18th, 2012

2012-06-18T06:41:00.000-06:00

I stumbled a little last week ... but now I’m back with the regular updates.

This weekend I had some extra time, so I started a new set of hands, I'll tell you more about that later.

I also continued to work on the straping for the cloak, gluing in wires and attaching Velcro. Next I need to configure some sort of buckles.

Jeff

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WIRE & HOT GLUE - Tues. June 12th, 2012

2012-06-12T06:34:00.001-06:00

Continuing work on the cloak … this morning I made up the fabric, smeared with bake-n-bend, that I’m going to use for the leather strapping.

I also fished in some wires and hot glued them in place, where the cape hooks on to the puppet. I’m going to wire this whole area and probably incorporate some Velcro as well, to keep everything where its suppose to be while animating … more tomorrow.

Jeff

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SKETCH BOOK - Mon. June 11th, 2012

2012-06-11T17:15:00.002-06:00

Tanya Tristan and I, all went down and visited my Mom yesterday. It was a fun day, but I came back so sick. This morning I actually stayed home from work, and I skipped my usual 3:00A.M to 7:00 A.M. work on the film as well.

So no improvement on the puppet, but I did manage to get some idea sketching in.

I’m trying to come up with a good design for the straping that holds the cape on.

Also I'm thinking of replacing the bird designs - Link, with the pterodactyl like creatures above. I like the bird idea a lot, but trying to get the feathers to work scares the heck out of me.

Jeff

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HAPPY SUNDAY - Sun. June 10th, 2012

2012-06-10T05:51:00.000-06:00

I’ve got to get a schedule pinned down. I’ve just been so tired the last few days, its been really tough to stay focused.

Shelley - link told me a while ago "plan for the long haul" and that’s some advice I really need to take to heart, and apply to this project.

Now I’m working on the front of the cape and the way it straps on. Here I’m planning it out on paper before I make the real stuff.

I noticed StopMotionAnimation.com revamped their site in the last few days. It looks pretty cool.

I’ve been watching as all the super talented members upload just, amazing photo after amazing photo. Check it out if you interested - http://stopmotionanimation.ning.com and anyone that wants to friend me their, here’s my page - http://stopmotionanimation.ning.com/profile/JeffLafferty

Jeff

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LATE WEEKEND - Sat. June 9th, 2012

2012-06-09T18:28:00.003-06:00

Sorry for the late update today. I just couldn’t let myself break the streak, so here's Saturday’s post.

This morning I did my usual routine and finished up with the trim around the cape.

Unfortunately I had to work this weekend. I thought I would be gone for just a few hours in the morning, but it ended up being all day. I really wanted to get a lot done this weekend and its frustrating when I have to waste my time doing other things.

I did manage to build a small set though. I did this so I can walk the puppet around and shoot tests again. Tristan and I banged it out in a few hours this afternoon.

Now for some dinner and early to bed, I’ve got to hurry up or it will already be time for tomorrows blog post.

Jeff

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FRIDAY TRIM - Fri. June 8th, 2012

2012-06-08T06:45:00.001-06:00

I’ve been dreading this post, since I new I wasn't making much progress this morning.

I spent most of my time gluing together trim for the cape. It's made of a strip paper, a piece of green gardening wire running down the center and t-shirt fabric glued on the back.

It proved to be a tedious process and I'm just now starting to attach it to the cape.

Darkstrider - Link mentioned that my puppet has ‘crazy eyes’ yesterday in the comments … and yeah, I agree, way too intense ... he defiantly needs some lids and brows.

The eyebrows I’ve done already, though they need some updating and painting. I dug this older picture up to show what they look like.

As far as lids go, I’m planning on using soft clay and just re-sculpting as they need to move.

Thanks for the comments Darkstrider, and also Vincent - Link glad to see your still hanging around dude.

p.s. ... Darkstrider, my glue gun is a mini-version, and it takes smaller sticks too. I love it cause I feel like I can be a little more accurate with it.

Jeff

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FOLDING AND GLUING - Thur. June 7th, 2012

2012-06-07T05:50:00.004-06:00

Just a quick post today (since I'm short on sleep) … continued working on the cape, glued on a piece of the trim, hid some wire along the edge and finished folding and gluing the other side.

Jeff

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