Stop Frame Pull
Here are the first initial attempts at animating a puppet pull a very heavy rock, after having a workshop explaining how to do so using the materials and equipment that we had. These were made with very little planning and were experiments to see what looked and worked well in the scene, and to find out any problems that we may encounter.
Attempt 1
This video actually turned out to be better at the start. It's quite long with lots of different experimentation on how to pull the rope and rock. It was also a good chance to be able to get used to timing and positioning of the puppet.
Attempt 2
This was a lot shorter as I focused just on the pulling technique that I used to begin with, with the puppet pulling on the rope, repositioning his feet and then pulling again to finally move the rock. This worked out much better and the lighting and staging was also improved. To progress on from this, I need to make the repositioning of the feet much smoother, maybe considering a slide instead, I need to pay more attention to the end of the rope that the puppet is holding instead of letting it be still for the majority of the clip and the positioning of the rock and feet needs to be more sturdier and convincing by using more pins.
Action Analysis of Pulling Motion
Here are some stills taken from one of the YouTube videos I found of a man pulling a very heavy object with a rope. It shows some very interesting positions of the body and is a great example of how the body uses the force of gravity to pull the object as the body leans right back.
Video of Action
Here are some stills from a video that I took of me pulling a scarf attached to a door handle. This was really useful as it allowed me to feel the movements that are required for this action and these stills have also given me some key frames to consider. They are good to do drawings from as you can see the shape of the body and position of certain parts.
Key Frames
Here are four key frames that I have drawn in the same style as the puppets to be able to have reference points when shooting the animation. They basically show the position of the body before and during each pull. I have tried to make a clear difference between the first and second pulls so that there is a contrast of how much force is applied to each one, the second being the most forceful, thus causing the rock to move. As the legs are much thinner and longer, the shape and composition of these key frames are slightly different to the drawings above but have the same purpose.
Attempt 3
This one worked out much better than the previous ones because it was more controlled and I knew what I was doing. The pauses in it were better timed and lasted longer making them more effective. I added more anticipation before the pulls making it more realistic and exaggerating the movement. However, the head moves around way too much when the puppet is either still or even doing simple movements like the repositioning of the feet. Also, when the rock finally moves, everything moves way too fast and its unclear as to what has happened.
Attempt 4 - Final
Here is my final attempt that worked out very well after improving some parts of the previous video. I tried to make certain movements, like the repositioning of the feet, much smoother and made the part where the rock moves not as quick so it's more readable. I also did this one in a better stop motion set up and was able to adjust lighting to make it more dramatic. I used more pins in the rock so that it would move around less and made sure the pauses were long enough and the end scene finalised the sequence.
Further Pull Reference Video
After completing the above video, I was able to film a more realistic pull with rope attached to a heavy table and so can now analyse how the body moves whilst pulling an object.
|
What I found most interesting about this action is the arc of the main pull and the change in speed during the pull. When the body gets more unbalanced, the pull is slower in comparison to the beginning of the pull.
In addition to this, it is interesting to notice the smaller details that could've made the stop motion video more interesting to watch. These details include the rearranging of the rope after a failed pull (wrapping it around hands) and the small and quick initial pulls testing the strength before putting all effort in. |