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.

 
Here is Regina on a very nice interview. Click on the link! (It’s in Portuguese, btw)
 
 

M.
 
 

I just love Terry Gilliam. Being one of the youngest in my family, you learn a lot from older brothers and cousins. I knew “Monty Python’s flying circus” from them and I simply don’t know which part I prefer: the non-sense sketches or the surreal animations. Ok… I like both! In this interview he explains his technique (cut-out) and why he uses it. I have to dig a paper I wrote in college about him and their history together. After all these years, I keep on laughing like I’m seeing the animations for the first time. Maybe I’ll send a Christmas postcard in a Gilliam’s style these holidays!

M.

We’re delighted with the news and hoping forward that “Kali, the little vampire” has a great future. Regina Pessoa is a part of Ciclope Filmes, where we are pre-producing the film. She is a wonderful, generous person. Here in the studio, we love to exchange some thoughts with her, as she has been through three films already, so she has an insiders knowledge like no other.

A few months ago, we went to an intimate screening of “Kali”. It was in the Port cellars of Niepoort in Gaia, which are not usually opened for the public. A perfect environment for “Kali”: moldy walls, dusty atmosphere and a ghostly feeling allover. UUUuuuuhhh! We saw the Portuguese and the English version. We just love Christopher Plummer’s voice in it… it’s really the perfect voice for the film. M. kept on wishing he would sing “Edelweiss” in the end, but that didn’t happen.

In a year’s time or more, it will be our turn to be anxious about the reception of our film. I guess it can be a very difficult time, because you spend years constructing, fighting for the film, nurturing it like a child and then… it’s a teenager, it wants to go out and we have no control over it. We just hope that we’ve cared enough for it and it will become a great adult.
A. said she’ll want to hear only the good news. She doesn’t want to hear that we didn’t get selected for this or that festival. Just good stuff. M. wants it all: the good and the bad, so she can put it in a blender and it’ll all become a juicy drink. Let’s hope our adult film will be a responsible driver.
 

The Casa da Animação (Animation House) has prepared a series of conferences about animation in Portugal. So if you are around on the 25th in Porto, you should go to Soares dos Reis Museum and hear us talk about our film. We will bring juicy bits for you to see! It’s at 15h00. See you there!

In Portuguese:
++++ 25 março (domingo) ++++

10h 30m | abertura

10h 45 | Sessão #3
Convidados
Ícaro e Tânia Duarte (Projecto MIX República)
Davide Freitas (Programa ANIMAR)

13h | Almoço

14h | Projecção de Filmes

15h | Sessão #4
Convidados
Alice Azevedo e Mónica Santos
David Doutel e Vasco Sá

Check the program
 
 

Gotye – Easy Way Out – official film clip from Gotye on Vimeo.

We love this one. It was done with motion control, that amazing technology that is just too expensive for our film… Snif! The zombie walkcycle is just perfect for the emotion of the song and video.

The animated chair from Amélia & Duarte on Vimeo.

We just made a chair exercise for people who are working with us that don’t have experience in animation, so they can have a quick visual aid to help them understand better the difference between real image and animated one.

Origami In the Pursuit of Perfection from MABONA ORIGAMI on Vimeo.

The art of origami folding together with new technology. We can do a jumping frog and a shuriken star (ninja star), so beware…