Asset Sheet:

Above is a asset sheet that I have made to show what types of stationary I have used and in what scene. It is useful to see where each piece of stationary was used in the production. It is an easy guide to see what is needed for the shots. 

Call Sheet:

The image above is a call sheet. It shows important information about who is involved in the animation and contact information. As I am the only person working on the production I have only mentioned myself. It also shows information of when I eat breakfast and take time for a break to eat lunch. The sheet also shows what needs to be done every lesson and where the process should take place.

Shot Log Sheets:

Animation Set Up

The Process:

To begin with I downloaded DragonFrame and began to get some test images from the software. I had to alter the cameras settings to get a good white background. I also had to make sure that the 18-55 mm slr lens was set to manual mode. After 50 frames I exported the file to see what the stop motion looked like. 

To get the correct display settings for the screen that I wanted I had to tweak the display settings. 

Set Up:

Firstly I set up the Stop Motion equipment and set the camera to the correct height that i required. I then attached the cameras wires to the laptop and camera. Then i launched Dragonframe and the camera was recognised. The cameras settings needed to be tweaked slightly so i did that before animating. After the settings were all correct I laid out my stationary and began to animate frame by frame. Each image taken was one frame. I was working at 12.5 frames per seconds. Overall I have taken 12.5 x 125 = 1562 frames.  After exporting the shots I then imported the clips into Premier. Once in Premier I adjusted the colour and scale of the shots. 

Problems that Occurred:

Camera loosing connection and power: I lost the power of the battery in the SLR a few times and lost all previous shots. To solve this I had a back up battery on charge ready for when the other one was low. 

Moving objects in the wrong place: When I placed the stationary on the scene paper I had to then move them every so slightly to get it to look like they moving. On some occasions the movement wasn't in the right place. To solve this I used the Onionskin tool in DragonFrame. This tool shows where the stationary was placed in the last previous shot and shows where it can be moved for the next shot. 

Storyboards:

To create my story boards for the animation I have taken digital images using the DSLR. I have done this so that I know how to lay out the stationary and other items when it comes to the real creation process. 

Update of Animation:

23/06/14 Update:

I have got my 2 minute animation with sounds and am pleased with it so far. I have exported the files and have looked at the production all together and it is looking good. I am going to work on the soundtrack and the sounds of the different stationary. 

When filming using the DSLR camera the shots came out rather dull using DragonFrame. To solve this issue I imported the clips into Premier and adjusted the colour, brightness and contrast. 

Before

After

Overall I am pleased with what I have achieved in each lesson; as i have been adding more seconds to my final piece each lesson. 

Dragon Frame:

Due to costings I have used a 30 day free trial of DragonFrame which is an industry standard stop motion program. After figuring out how to use it properly I was sorted and was moving through my shots rapidly. At the end of a lesson I had around 4-9 seconds of good quality stop motion animation to view. I would then import what I had done into Premier and then build up my timeline. During that process I would adjust colours and brightness. With some clips I had to scale up on them as a small part of the desk was shown in the clip. 

Adding Sounds:

I searched for the sounds on FreeSounds.org . It took some hunting to find some relevant sounds. But once they were downloaded and imported they made the animation more interesting. 

Below is my 1st edit with a backing track and sound effects that are relevant to the stationary I used. Overall, I am pleased with the result but i am going to continue making it better. 

Rough Rut

Written Interpretation: