Rat Puppet for Animation

[Steph Laberis]

Hey-oh! Time to start a sculpture thread!

If you've been to my website (or go to school with me..!) odds are you've seen these. However, I'm really proud of this piece!

9'' twisted wire armature with epoxy "bones". The head is Paperclay and is fitted with a tiny magnet to allow it to turn on the neck. Hands are also magnetic so she can pick up props. The kimono was hand and machine sewn from an adapted pattern. The sets were also made by me and are foam core, rice paper and stained balsa wood.

http://flyingclam.com/bigpics/mousegaia.jpg

http://flyingclam.com/bigpics/mousestandfrweb.jpg

http://flyingclam.com/bigpics/mousestandweb.jpg

I'm trying to get the animation online, but I goofed up a pretty big scene so I"ll be wrestling with AfterEffects for a while...

Also, I'm not too hot with photography, so any tips or feedback on how ot best photograph 3D art like this would be greatly appreciated. :D

-Steph

[Bretton]

wow that real cool + cute. hope to see this animation soon.

[bbwolf]

I like it a lot. The japanese settings are mauvelous. I´d recommend bigger hands however. How about a japanese wig?

Fer tips on how to photograph fer animation, whew, maybe youse should first give a few details about what kinda camera yer using and what optic with that. Digital or ..uh..optichemical? A tripod is mandatory (guess you allready knew that :D).

I´d put the camera a little lower than waistline of the puppet to make her taller(hence she´s allready pretty big fer a japanese girl). Can bring the ceiling into view so you´d need to manufacture that too. Pain in the butt but often worth it. Strong steady lights, better lay of the flash.

So, post some details and there´ll be more specific tip fer sure. Keep up the good work.

[Steph Laberis]

Bretton: Thanks, glad you like it! Also glad that the cuteness hasn't gotten on anyone's nerves yet...

bbwolf: Ok, the camera I used (and have come to despise) was a SONY MVC-CD500. It's digital but I set it to manual.
Shutter Speed 10/30 second, F Number F/8.0, Focal Length 16 mm and ISO Speed 100.

I have no clue what any of that means, btw.

Actually, I didn't use a flash for these. The pictures came out SUPER dark and I didn't have time to reshoot, so I played with levels in Photoshop 7 as best I could. There may be some way I can soften them, as I still have the cloudy originals.

And yes, I used a tripod and two hallogen lights. I didn't make a cieling for this seet, but if and when I reshoot this I will give it some thought.

And THANK YOU so much for your advice thus far. I can't tell you how helpful this is to me!

[stalecracker]

VERY nice.

... and there is a Sculpture Thread already.
(or would it be a sub-forum?)

[JeniThus]

I really love this one! I wanna see the actual animation sometime too.
I think your sense of place and character are really great. I can't wait to see how your trip to japan effects your new work.
Jen

[DanSTC]

Reminds me a little of those great stop-motion films of Japanese folk tales I used to watch as a kid. :)

[bbwolf]

Glad I could help. I´m no pro but an enthuiastic amateur so there´s apt to be a few ... eh.. mismatchings (?;) ) I´m no pro. So heres some more deep info on photographie:

The basics of how cameras work (optical and digital, hence digital is trying to work precisely as a optical) are a work of three:

Shutter time,
Width of shutter ( my guess is thats your F 8 [that´s what regulates how big a whole there is fer the light to go through] )
and the ...light sensivity of the film, which is emulated in digis. The first two points are the real important ones.
Focal Length 16 mmthat should be your optic. Speaking in terms of perspective, thats the cone of vision o yer camera. So in your case it´s rather narrow. Pretty common too. For a better "onstage" effect I recommend at least a 30° optic. Attention: this leads to bigger pics, bigger stages and if not used properly distortions from slight to medium. Sometimes that comes in handy. Where was I?

ah ye. Light sensitivity. 100 is pretty normal and should suffice for average in and outdoor pics. 200 for indoor cause it´s capable of capturing more lightinfo. As numbers go up, (once one could buy films up to 1000 asa[thats the measurments]) light sensitivity goes up, but grain will emerge on the pics. In digital the pics flatten out. Too the colors get smudgy. Best colors you´ll get with ...mh, well... 50 asa. But the shutter time will go up and so the chances fer getting a blurred pic. Thats why the tripod is mandatory.

Now, shutter time and shutter width are directly related to one another. So changes to one always will effect the other. If you narrow the width the time should go up otherwise the pic will get darker. The width is relevant for the focus of the camera. Most cameras, at least mirror-reflex, digi and opticals, have numbers printed onto the optics which show the width connected to distance mesurements. The distance to the object mostly dictates the width of the shutter. Gosh, there´s no end to this eh?

Aren´t you at an art college or sumthin´ ? there should be at least sumbody who knows about this. I´ll go look for a guide to the cam you mentioned and maybe an online guide fer photo newbies. I should be able to send you some settings for you to take yer pics with.

Nice work and site btw, cute red hair, too:cool: . I´d never ride the superman coaster though leisure parks beein my bizz.

Would you mind tellin me what exactly you did inPS7?

[Steph Laberis]

stalecracker: Didn't realize there was a sculpture thread already... d'oh!

JeniThus: Thank you hun! And, I know, I know! Remind me to pester the teacher about getting the tape!

DanSTC: Interesting, what films might these have been? I would love to research them if you had any names! I saw one old one in Japan using live action rod puppets called "Puri-Puri" or something... about a pretty sailor moon-ish princess on a cruise ship with some guy that looked like Cutter from Elfquest, some rich admiral dude and a monkey named... Monkey. Ah yes, bress the Japanese....


bbwolf: A huge thank you for ataking all this time to explain the ropes to me. Yes, I'm at art school and I can get access to a manual camera here. I kind of knew a little about the F-stop and shutter speed, and about light sensitivity of film but whereas I was using a digital camera that I knew nothing about, I was bound to run into trouble. Most of those variables are represented differently in a digital camera (film sensitivity wasn't even an option!), even in manual mode. Plus, I was admittedly rushed at the end of the semester to photograph this work.

Honestly, I'm still deciphering what you told me as there is a lot of technical stuff but I can show the thread to one of my photo buddies for translation. It's very important to me that I learn how to photograph 3D art well!

And about the red hair... not sure if you're referring to my avatar or the photo album on the site (avatar is a character based off of my 13 year old self; red hair was needed to make her appear "firery", for lack of a better word)... but I'm a proud brunette all the way... well, proud enough to dye half of it orange. The Superman Coaster though... closest anti-gravity experience I"ve had, as I watched the necklace I was wearing slowly levitate up to my face and almost off my head, going down that damn near vertical drop... *sigh*. I miss it!

Again, thanks so much for all of this help. Anything else you can add would be wonderful and I hope I can repay this favor... although I don't know if I know more about concept art in general than most people here.

-Steph

[bbwolf]

Hey, yer welcome. I like to spill my knowledge (ahem) any way I feel I could ..uh "contribute something usefull" to. Sometimes even unasked. tch´. Some people do not apreciate that *sigh* can you imagine??? ;) :D


Ah, if you already have photo buddies why din´cha ask them inna first place, huh? :p They should be happy to help you out. Btw the pic I was reffering to whas this:

(you can´t see now. It´s gone. Link erased upom request further down)

Duh, that´s fer leaving links open, hehee. Artist ball seems nice a party. Wish we had stuff like this ´round here. Karlsruhe center for art and media (zkm) and the related college are no fun. All snuck up big nosers where the folks doin video art deny all interactivities with other art diciplines and vice versa. ART IS NOT FUN!!!! No, reallY. That´s how they act all the time. Phoohey.

Am yes. I might be able to contribute another thing. :D I happen to have a video tape with a docu about manga/Anime ( 4 hrs, german though). Part of it is tellin the story of an japanese puppeteer(?) and his trade. They show a short film about two hunters and their mother. A sad folk tale about obake (haunts if you didn´t know which I doubt but just to make sure) done in stop motion. Since I´m currently exploring analog to digital capturing I might be able to offer download in a few weeks. How about that?

[Steph Laberis]

ACK!! No no no! Take that pic down! Take it down! You know better than to post someone else's pic without their consent!!! :eek:

*whaps him with the forum-dork stick*

Why didn't I ask my photo buddies? Simple. Finals. You think any of them could spare the time? Moreso, I only had a 2 hour window in between my finals to shoot, so I figured I'd march in, take what I could, and inspect the spoils afterwards.

I think I might have seen the documentary of which you speak, only in Japanese. I seem to remember VERY ornate kabuki-type dolls in serene and whimsical landscapes. The sets and puppets I saw seemed very haunting and somber, and I remember watching the artist assemble and work the rigging for waving grasses and wind-blown willow branches *joygasm*

But if have any artist names, that would be helpful.

SO, thanks again for your advice, and I'll whap you one last time for sharing pics of me without any warning!

*WHAP*

[bbwolf]

Okay okay okay. :dork: (ouch) I took it down. *snicker* Sorry sorry sorry. I simply couldn´t resist. Have a history of beein an bad wolf sometimes, hehehe. :evilbat:

Can you forgive me? wag/wag/wag

I´ll look for the artist name. Could take a couple of days, though.

You´re abolutly right about finals. I tend to forget people in school got tight schedules, too.