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.

Bristol Animate Encounters Day 3 & 4:

Networking Breakfast

After the joy of last night Myself, Tommy and Gareth got up nice and early and went over to a filmmaker’s breakfast networking event. We sat down at a table and many different people went around the room and came over to talk to use. We got to the meet and chat to some very interesting people, some were fellow animation students, resent university graduates and the film and animation advisers from the British Council. I learnt a lot from these people and found out some interesting ways to help you get finding for animation and short film ideas. These are something I will most defiantly be keeping in mind for when I leve university next year. 

The Lighter side

This is the last of the short animation screenings, and this one felt much more like a bigger mix of short and longer studio animated shorts. I had seen some of these shorts screened on TV over last year and it was fantastic to see them on the big screen were every detail looked amazing. My highlights from this screening were: Much Better Now, Phone Home, Pythagasaurus, Stopover, A Different Perspective, Chop Chop and The Gruffalo’s Child.

Nexus Studio Focus

Nexus Productions are an independent production company and animation studio based in London check them out here! This one was grate a mix of a show and tell presentation with the screenings, 4 people from the studio sat there speaking about the company; they would show a short then talk about the making of that short. This was a very different way to screen the shorts and I have to say I really enjoyed it, this is exactly how in my eyes the 2 Aardman screening should have been like. My highlights from this screening were: Back to the Start, Invade all of the Humans!!!, The Chase, Speed of Light and This Way Up. But if I was to pick one it would have to be Invade all of the Humans!! Hands down! 

Trip to the Aardman Lobby

After the last screening Tommy and myself decided to go for a little walk around Bristol and hopefully find The Aardman animations Studio. To cut the tale short we ended up finding the studio, and after about 5 minutes standing outside saying should we or should we not ring the bell, we rang bell. 

 The very nice chap behind the desk let us in and very kindly let us have a look around the amazing props, Puppets, sets and life size Wallace they have on display in the Lobby. To say that this was an amazing and very overwhelming felling to be standing in the middle of Aardman is a big understatement. One day it would be fantastic to get any form of Work experience there, or even the full on tour would keep me happy, but until then I have got theses pitchers to remind me of just how amazing it was.

Late Lounge

Still buzzing from are trip to Aardman we then mad are way over the Late Lounge. This screening was a mix of live action and animated shorts that are a little to adult themed to show in the day screenings. There were some that were very funny and some that were a tad disturbing, but the quality of shorts was fantastic. My highlights from this screening were: Tram, The Bob shorts, Curiosity Kills and Umshini Wam (Bring Me My Machine Gum)

Day 4:

Aardman Kids Animation Workshop

This was my last day in Bristol and a brilliant way to end it was to go to a build your own Gromit work shop with the very awesome Aardman model maker Jim Parkyn. Although me and Tommy were some of the oldest in the room this was a cracking work shop that lasted just over an hour. Using a sheet of basic shapes we used these to build are very own Gromit, and I have to say I was very happy with the way mine came out. And thank you Jim for letting me keep the modelling tool with the Aardman logo on it I will use it with pride!  

Once the workshop was over we stayed back and had a very nice chat with Jim about most things animation, I then handed him one of my cards and a Viv & Mandy badges. Once out of the workshop Tommy and I said a jolly good bye, parted ways and i got the train back to Sunny Stoke. 

Now I am back into the full swing of university life I can say that all in all this festival has been one hell of an amazing experience and I’d like to say a massive thank you to all the truly amazing people that I got to meet, chat to and spend time with. I very much hope that I can make it over to the festival again next year, so until then buy buy Bristol!