Test – Vilarmor from Amélia & Duarte on Vimeo.
This is our first test with a team! The shooting was in a beautiful house with an amazing library (it’s twice or thrice what you see) outside Porto. We shot it in two days (one without the actor and another with the actor). Although there was a hand double for the actor in some shots. Got you!
We just had so many funny stories happening and the ambience was great or maybe it was the cold inside the old house that kept us together so dearly.
Now for the juicy tech stuff and tips that we’ve learned (mixed with some mistakes that we’ve also learned with).
- We’ve been fighting for this one: use an actor for pixilation. There was some doubts about whether to have an animator (that had the technical skills) or an actor (who didn’t know the basics of animation, but had the emotional side).
We made the right choice on continuing with our thought. It’s easier to teach the technique to an actor than to teach the emotional part to an animator. Although, you should choose an actor with a physical background, cause it’s a very strenuous activity to move frame by frame.
- Sticky tack is your best friend. Just stick everything that doesn’t move, but can be moved if you are animating other stuff and accidentally hit it. It’s also good for helping you animate (we used it for animating the book pages and the origami heart, for example). Protect and try to lock the electronic equipment that can reflect on the filming: lighting equipment, camera and tripod, etc. A slight movement on those can change your animation and you have to do it all over again and… it’s not fun.
- Before you start animating you should take a frame of the set without the animated elements, so you can later use it in post-production if you want to correct something.
- The objects to be animated should be tested in their various positions, specially if they are of big proportions. Thus, avoiding bad surprises (like shadows where there aren’t suppose to be any etc) when you seen in the middle of doing the animation that something doesn’t work animated in that way.
