ponanza

Back again!

After enjoying semester holidays our team is back and ready to go on with our great film project! To have a better overview over the next steps and the whole project we began with a strategy planning day. Now we all know what kind of work needs to be done in every phase of the filmproject and who is going to be responsible for what part. The most important duties at the moment are getting a room for filming, our meeting every thursday afternoon, to find some nice music for the film and to design a press kit for finding new sponsors and new team members.

So let’s start working!

The pics are back

We didn’t pay the “ransom” to Zoto, but moved our pictures to Picasa. There you get 1 Gig of free space for photos. In addition to that, the web-album and software have more functions that are easier to use.

It’s gonna take a while till every single picture has been linked to the blog once more, but the most recent ones are back up again. To celebrate this we wanna show you a picture with the results of our previous work:

Our pictures were kidnapped

 Oh bugger! First Zoto, the provider we store our photos at, isn’t available due to maintenance work and now this…

They now charge money for their service and as long as we don’t pay our pictures don’t show up in the blog any more.  Now we have to decide wether we pay the “ransom” or move our pics to another provider. We already got lots of new photos waiting to be posted.

Practice makes perfect

The last days were spent with lots of animation training. What use are pretty sets and puppets if the animation is choppy? No one wants to see that, including ourselves.

So we just nailed a simple wire-armature, the “victim” of our tests, to a piece of set (don’t worry, it wasn’t harmed ). In addition we started a webcam and the program StopMotionPro, and off we went.

How our first attempts turned out, you better take a look yourself:

Since our coyote has to do a lot of walking and sneaking around in the canyon, we also tested some walks.

The most important lessons we learned during the test animation:
It’s advisable to attach the set elements to the set floor, cause it takes a lot of time to re-arrange them if they are accidentally moved.

Of course it is also hard to animate fluent movements. Not only do you have to move all relevant body parts of the puppet, but you have to take into account the distance to the last pose. If you also have to animate the facial expressions it’s going to be even more work.

Conclusion: We need to keep practicing!!!

What would life be like without color?

We forgot to mention one of our sponsors before, so we wanna catch up on that. An art store, the Ideenhaus Siller & Laar in Augsburg, supplied us with several bottles of acrylic paint, that we have used a lot so far. All of our set-pieces like sand, rocks and cactuses have been painted with it.

Thanks a lot for this donation!

The technology behind Ponanza - Part 1

To also give an insight into the technical aspects of our production we will write about the equipment and software we use.

The camera(s)

To record our film we use a digital SLR camera, the Canon EOS 350 D. The pictures are taken in the highest possible resolution (6 megapixels), so we later have the option of changing the visible area or do fake zooms and pans. Additionally the high resolution allows us to transfer the film onto 35mm film if we want to. The camera is connected to a PC via USB cable which allows us to control and trigger it without touching the camera.

Our second camera is a webcam. It is also connected to a PC, using the animation software Stop Motion Pro. With this program we can view the recorded pictures in sequence and thus test the animation. It also is possible to compare the live picture with the last recorded one. That way you can see how much the puppet was moved and the position can be refined. In the worst case, for example when a puppet or prop is knocked down, you can use this function to readjust everything. Later we use Adobe Premiere to assemble the separate pictures into a film.

Helpful donation of aluminum wire

Thanks to the support of Drahtwerk Elisental we now have enough aluminum wire to build our puppets’ armatures.

An armature is like a wire skeleton for puppets which supports the clay from the inside. It has to be sturdy enough to stabilize all poses of the puppet, but flexible enough to move the puppet during animation. The immobile parts of the armature, like the chest and pelvis, are made of epoxy.

Creators of the desert

The work goes on and on. After the first labourous days we can look back on the achievements of the last days. The base plate of the set is now covered with Sand, we hand-carved several rock walls for the background and some rocks and cactuses too.

This did not go without some injuries. I already have several small cuts on my hands from little slips with a knife or saw. But we are prepared for this and our room is always equipped with band-aid and disinfectant. On the other side I am also proud to see the successful results of the work (I even received the honorary title of “Sergeant Rock” ).

We did some video documentation of our work for the Making-Of . The first clip shows us covering the set floor with a sand-glue mix (which also serves as a marvelous hand-peeling lotion), while the second clip shows me painting part of the rock wall.

Today Daniel and Marco were busy doing animation tests. We have to start practicing smooth animation. The first test shots of the wire armatures don’t look too bad, so we’re staying optimistic.

You can visit our gallery to see some pictures of our achievements. Just now, in the busy phase, it will be upgraded regularly since we are advancing more and more.

On your marks, get set,…

We’ve reached the point where new progress is visible every day. We moved into our “studio” with lots of equipment and raw material. Lighting, tools, tables, chairs, paint, cables everywhere, but we found a place for everything.
Unfortunately the team is incomplete, since some of the students have internships or spend their holidays abroad or at home.

The work is advancing well. The blue screen has been set up (9×6 feet!), the base plate for the set is assembled, a part of the storyboard is hanging on the wall and some rocks for the set have been carved and painted. Some aluminum wire armatures have been constructed for testing purposes and the digital camera has been tested.

Full speed ahead!

Plenty of muffins and more planning

Now that we have a room, the planning went on. Whats our schedule? How and where do we get the materials? Etc.

To be able to pay for the materials and jump into the hands-on part of the workload, we had to make another pastry bazaar. The muffins and cake were delicious, we couldn’t help and tried some ourselves.

After that we kept working on the script. Camera angles were discussed, difficulties were resolved and we also had to abandon some ideas to tighten the story. An important process, since a good script is the very foundation of a good film.