Working at Second Home Studios

Back in September / October of 2013 I had the chance of getting to do just under 3 weeks of work experience at delightful and very welcoming Second Home Studios in Birmingham. Where I got to assist on a project for CITV's Share A Story, This is a yearly competition by CITV where children get to make their own storyboard for a 30 second short. The winners are selected and local animation studios are then given a short to make in their desired format.

To find out more about Share A Story check out the in-depth article from skwigly here!

The Share A Story I got to work on is called 'My Motorbike'. Made at Second Home Studios. Written and read by 8 year old Alex Holt, Directed and Produced by Waldemar Werbel and Chris Randall.

I joined the project on the last 3 weeks of production right when the animating side started up. This was a perfect time for me to join as most of the job roles I got involved in were prop making, set dressing, help setting up shots, lighting and overall studio assistance. The job that I'm most proud of getting to do was making the characters scarf and red cape. I made 2 of etch Item as they had a habit of getting a little grubby from been used and moved around a lot to simulate the wind as he rides the bike.

One of the more amusing things I learnt was making the trees. To do this we used a number real tree branches, glued together to make the tree trunks. For the green foliage we used bunches of Broccoli screwed and glued into place. This would of never of crossed my mind but it is something I will most definitely be keeping in mind for a project as it has a brilliant look on camera. 

To read the skwigly interview with Chris and Wal on the making of My Motorbike Click here!

Check out the final short here:
 
Credits:
Written and read by 8 year old Alex Holt,
Directed and Produced by Waldemar Werbel and Chris Randall.
Animation: Ian Whittle, Chris Randall, Waldemar Werbel
Production Assistant: Omari McCarthy
Modellers: Dominic Madden-Kennedy, Abbie Williams, Charlotte Clare, Amy Dodd, Ian Whittle, Omari Mccarthy Josh Taylor, Daniel James
Post-Production: Waldemar Werbel, Jardine Sage, Frank Mansfield, Chris Randall

I hope you enjoyed It, this was great fun to work on and a brilliant team to work with, I hope to get the opportunity to work with them again! To find out more about Second Home Studios click here!

Making of The Piper part 3

Animation:

With the puppets and set completed it was time to get animating on the film. Due to story points I had to shoot a dream sequence and one of the last shots for the film first, it had to be done this way as I needed the park set to be fully clean. Once all the shots were completed I had to take a week out of animating and messy the park up, add a fence and trees. In planning my animation time sheet I had to shoot the story in chunks all facing the same camera angels. This was important to get right as the sun is setting toughout film and I was painting the background by hand as I went on.

The first two weeks of animating were with all that kids paying on the equipment in the park. These were all shot of two's at 25 fps as i wanted the kids animation to have a more classic children's tv show vibe. However the Piper himself was animated on ones this was to give him more fluid movements and allow him to play his pipe in sync, it also helps to sell the fact that The Piper is not from this world and gives him a very different feel. Here is a slide show that shows the animation process and the order I shot the film in.  

 

Editing:
Editing on The Piper was the first time i really used After effects to its full advantage, as i haven't had much experience with After Effects i asked my may friend Frank Mansfield for some advice. There were 6 main shots where I used After Effects for: rig removal, light tracking, colour correction and green screen removal.

 I edited the film as I went along, animating in the day and adding in the new shots on the night. The dead line on completing this Film was the tightest it has been for me. on the day before hand in I finished animating the final shot with the Piper and all 7 kids at 5pm and was up editing in the final shots, making the final touches, fully syncing up the music and adding in the sounds fx till 7am of the day of Hand in. I uploaded the film on to Vimeo, did the last part of the right up and handed in all my work. 

Reactions:
I had The Piper online viewable to the public for 2 days after it was completed, and in that time that feedback has been amazing! I sent the link to a large number of animation friends and here are some of their brilliant comments.

I'd like to take this opportunity to say a massive thank you to everyone who has watched The Piper and commented on it as means a lot! To the ones who have no seen The Piper yet it will be back online once the festival runs are over.