Production

Tearing my hair out now shooting my actual animation, here's an attempt that I scrapped:

More Snakes

Made the snake puppet a bit longer and added a tongue... Also tested a close-up.

Pace Tests

Some very boring (but very useful) tests I made to establish a pace for the blooming of the Lotus flowers.

I've decided to use the technique of drawing/painting on the stems and having the Lotus buds as paper puppets...

Background test

An idea I'd had for the background was to use scanned in sections of sarees that I've collected from India. This would be to give the animation a cultural flavour and context. I did this basic test to test out colours etc.

From this video I can see that the colours of the prints really interfere with the cut-outs. The only possibilities would be the purple with dots or the turquoise. However I'd also like to try out a painted background so that the cut outs stand out more...

Lotus Stem Test

Trying to figure out the technique I want to use to create the blooming Lotus buds... Few glitches here with moving parts and camera (?!) but gets the job done...

Red Rice

Return of the ominous red rice!

Not decided on whether I actually want to use this technique in my final animation (it's very clumsy and lacks detail) but I had a play today:

Snake Puppet Tests

Made some very quick tests with the snake puppets I made this weekend. Just working on how the movement of the snake works, I think I started to master it more convincingly towards the end of the first clip. After trying out the puppets I realised that the snake's slither is more complex than I first assumed and requires a little bit more thought... I researched snake movement and found a really useful video on YouTube:

Camera Test: Lotus bud

Made a makeshift lotus puppet to experiment with the blooming sequence...

Quite happy with the result (although i had to edit out frames with my hands in shot!)

Camera Test: Face/Snake

Initial test to play with the equipment, try some basic animating and evaluate problems/issues that may arise in final designs...

it was way fun! The colours of the photos are too dull and the features look shadowy, but i think i will work with the same images, just edited slightly differently. I really like the effect of the oversized eyes and the blinking, alongside the main action of the tongue being stuck out... The snake design really needs some work (the one shown here was a very basic model i made weeks ago to try out the mechanism of the thread/tape holding the sections together)- it'll have to be thinner, with smaller segments to make a smoother slither. also, i'll have to keep the snake-skin more uniform so that the movement can actually be seen and understood. 

Next I want to try sliding the snake through the mouth of the face, by cutting a slit and pulling it through...

Production Schedule

A depressing table of all the jobs I have to complete in the making of this animation. 

To be done in the next 4 weeks.... It is there to inject The Fear!

(the highlighted ones are the ones already completed... 

I have The Fear)

'Face' experiments

playing with collage ideas for the face.

one sheet ideas

two one-sheet designs--- I like neither, and plan to make a decision on final design after i've completed filming and have a clearer view of the imagery within the film...