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Throughout the semester, I was able to send emails to different companies and people who work in industry. The people that I managed to contact were:
LAIKA STUDIOS
A+C: Specialists in Stop Motion Animation
Stop Motion Department Inc.
Mackinnon Saunders
Kevin Parry - Stop Motion Animator (Youtuber)
Loose Moose Productions Ltd
Chloe Rodham
After having sent emails for my research, I was thankfully able to get responses from two people from industry. I was extremely happy about this since it was a big step for me to be able to reach out and contact people from industry as well as get responses from them.
James Mendola Stop Motion Demo Reel 2015
One of the people who were able to reach out to me was Kevin Parry. He was able to provide for me a work of James's, who was hired by LAIKA as a Stop Motion Assistant Manager. This reel was provided extremely useful since I wanted to focus on pure animation rather than creating a puppet from scratch or creating a film. It was provided extremely useful for me since I was also reassured by Kevin since he told me that the supervisor who checked this reel noticed the raw animation through the armature and was able to see the potential of his work. Not only this, but I was also reassured about the idea of using a raw armature since it would be useful if I was able to showcase my skills through the skeleton of the armature and not worry about the lack of puppet design.
HOW DID THIS RESEARCH HELP?
This made me realize that if I had more time for my experiment for next time it would be to use proper hands for the armature to help emphasize the movement of the hands since hands are important in storytelling.
Not only this, but it would've been extremely useful for me to provide my armature with some sort of lip syncing so it could feel more real about the action as well as the character provided in the animations.
ESKOS, (2009)
Another company that was able to respond to me was 'Loose Moose Productions Ltd'. I was able to contact Glenn Holberton, who is a BAFTA-nominated animator and puppetry producer in the company.
Glenn's response was extremely useful since he had provided me a film that Barnaby Dixon had made to show his puppetry as well as his Stop Motion Animation skills. He also provided me with important information since he had told me
"Just using an armature is harder because you don’t have the luxury and luxury of costume or facial expression. However, if you can pull off the feat of telling the story using just body- or should I say armature language it should be a tour de force!".
HOW DID THIS RESEARCH HELP?
This animation was extremely appropriate since the two responses that I had gotten were extremely different from each other. I felt as though this was a different twist of using a pure armature for a personal film rather than a character show reel.
I really liked it since it was a creepy twist of the use of the armature and how the set and the design suits the aesthetic of the armature through the screws and rods throughout the film.
So, if there was an aspect I could've improved on or do again, was to try to create a film that would suit the aesthetic of the armature and try to either do a short film or create a scene specifically.
CHLOE RODHAM
Lastly, the last person to reach back to me was Chloe Rodham. She is a freelancer animator and model maker that I was able to contact through my supervisor, Claire O'Brien. I was really fascinated with her work since she had this really unique yet creepy style throughout her projects.
Nevertheless, her feedback was really helpful since she had mentioned that it was appropriate for me to focus on a basic armature since I wanted to research on animation and not puppet making. In addition to my research, she advised me to check some animations on the Aardman academy's website for inspiration.
Not only this, she mentioned for me to try to experiment by creating my animations without the reference since I would most probably see better responses and more 'life' through my armature through the exaggeration of the movements.
HOW DID THIS RESEARCH HELP?
I took her advice to heart, so I decided to experiment with a movement without looking at the reference. I wanted to compare it to a previous iteration of it that I had done the week prior, so I could really see if there was much of a difference in my work.
EXPERIMENT - WITH REFERENCE
So, for the initial one, I noticed that the armature felt quite stiff since it was the body without the padding and just the bolts. It felt a bit more static through the leg movements but I was able to successfully do the smooth movement of the arms.
EXPERIMENT - WITHOUT REFERENCE
I felt that the experiment without the reference was extremely useful since I was able to do a slide movement of the armature in a natural way that allowed it to proceed with the right arm moving. I was extremely surprised by how I was able to make it more stylized to my liking but keep it in the way that I want it to be.
REFERENCES
(1) ESKOS, (2009) (2011) YouTube. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUZ0VS9LZhQ (Accessed: March 16, 2023).
(2) James Mendola Stop Motion Demo Reel 2015 (2015) YouTube. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zut4ZfNXuNU (Accessed: March 16, 2023).
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