Rigging & Camera Rostrum
Rigging
ResearchWithin my film, there will be run cycle for all three of the characters. After just practising a couple of walk cycles with a frog armature, it's obvious that some sort of rig will be necessary, especially throughout a run, when both feet leave the ground for a frame. Below are a couple of tests using wire rigs. (Below, left) This rig is extremely crude, With the frog's leg moving fairly quickly, most of the minor issues of the rig springing back and moving the puppet may go unnoticed, but as soon as any slow, smooth animation is needed, this rig wouldn't suit that purpose.
I've done some tests with wire rigs and also researched a couple of ball and socket rigs online. http://www.animationsupplies.net/proplus-stop-motion-rig.html http://www.animationtoolkit.co.uk/rig-it-professional-rig/ |
Tests
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Rig removal
This is a quick test after learning how to remove rigs in after effects. It is evident that using the rig in a place where the puppet would pass over it would be far more difficult to remove in post-production. Therefore I won't be putting a rig point in between the legs, like in the above flamingo run test.
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Professional Rig
After a couple of tests, I realised that a ball and socket rig would work better than a wire one. So unfortunately due to lack of time, I can't afford to make one from scratch, but instead will order and build the rig off the 'Animation Toolkit' website.
Rather than using the provided glue, I soldered the joints together instead. This makes the whole rig a lot sturdier. I also ordered extra rod of longer lengths in order to customise it for my characters which are slightly taller than the intended puppet size.
Rather than using the provided glue, I soldered the joints together instead. This makes the whole rig a lot sturdier. I also ordered extra rod of longer lengths in order to customise it for my characters which are slightly taller than the intended puppet size.
Camera Rostrum
I can see now that it wasn't the right amount because the frog gradually moves off-screen during the pan. However, after animating this first cycle, I was better able to count how many frames in each stride, how long each stride was and how far the character had to move. After some maths, I tried the pan again, this time moving the camera 3cm per frame. It's still not perfect so would need to move further per frame.