Wednesday 8 May 2013

Chapter 5: Zu3d Stop-Motion Animation - Space Mission


                                         The Back Story: Its a story of a one armed spaceman, who bravely decides to investigate the deep dark side of the moon. He goes it alone due to some really deep over complicated back story that I just cannot get into right now, then he crash lands on the moon and his ship is broken, he puts the flag down that his wife gave him before he left for his journey. Then he decides to go out and venture forth to the unknown. It is here that he discovers the fun side of gravity and begins to play, until SUDDENLY a strange and bright orb catches his eye. Being so brave... he obviously goes to investigate what this strange terrestrial orb is and then CRACK a crazy mad alien bursts out of his cryogenic sleep and begins to pursue our hero across the unforgiving moon-like terrain. However, our hero misinterpreted what was going on and the alien was actually trying to make friends with our hero. The alien then realises that his ship is broken and decides that he will investigate himself. (The Alien is part of the marrglaar galaxy and is a genius with technology.) So he begins to look at the broken ship and before he's even begun, he hasworked out how to get the rocket started (without our hero inside) and BOOM quick as a flash the rocket is gone.... THE END





This was Sarah's, Jess's and my attempt and stop motion animation. The set was made out of black paper, and the earth was made out of foam. The space ship and the spaceman was part of a lego set. The golden orb we were unsure of it's origin but decided to use it anyway. The monster who chases the hero was also made from lego. Altogether the film took around 2 hours to produce and used approximately 400 photos. 

The most challenging part of this was the lack of stability for the set and the lighting. The backdrop was very unstable and moved around a lot so it was hard for us to interact with it without some error. The backdrop moved back and forth throughout the animation. The lighting was also a problem, due to it being in a classroom it was difficult for us to isolate some lighting just for the set. There was also natural light through the windows so overall it would have been impossible to have the desired lighting. This also proved a problem for the colour was lost during filming. The backdrop was a deep black, but due to lighting and the camera it appears grey. The colours were not as vivid in the video as they are in real life, so some of the detailing was lost. It also proved difficult applying the audio, as we were inexperienced with the production of a stop motion feature, the 400 photos we captured only provided for a mere 1 minute video. This meant that when we applied audio it was quick and rushed dialogue. The story does not really make any sense, and is very rushed. However, having said all that it was one of the most entertaining and humorous lessons I have ever attended in my many years of mainstream education. This lesson will always be remembered and it inspired a lot of students to indulge in creativity that they never thought they had. 


From this lesson I learnt about teamwork, problem solving, ICT, Photography, Animation, Script writing, and communication. 




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