Final Set

My finished set - I just put crap loads of paper, felt and foam plants and trees in to make it look jungly. The real sticks definately look better than the foam ones. I also added grey foam rocks and a clay head I made at GCSE as a sort of ruin which I think works really well and adds abit of interest in a mass of green leaves.

I also used chalk on black card to create a starry sky for some scenes of my animation. In real life it looks pretty plain and simple but when photographed I think it looks like a sky. I will animate some shooting stars on the black card by drawing stars, rubbing them out then drawing them again in a different position..

I'm all set to start animating now!

Music Please

I finally got round to recording some sounds for my animation. I got my friend Naomi to improvise some happy tunes on her flute imagining that I could use it as the voice of the parrot. But when I heard it I thught it would be much better as background music, for the happy parts of the animation, like when the animals think they have returned the star to his friends. I now need to download some sound FX's and record some sounds for the voices of my characters.

My final Characters

Edward the Elephant

Harold the Hippo

Leonard the Lion

Percy the Parrot

I used different patterend fabric, felt and embroidery to create my characters. I then stuffed them and put wire in the limbs so that they could move. I also found that they didnt stand up on their own so had to put carboard in the bottom of their feet to make them more sturdy. I used cross-stitch and blanket-stitch as i think these are really cute stitches that I learnt in primary school. I chose all pastely colours and primary colours as I think these will appeal most to children. I used buttons for eyes and put patches on their tummies to give a hand-made feel. I made the little star, the main character in the story, in the same way, usng white felt and yellow blanket stitching around the edges. I smothered them in glitter and intend to draw different expressions on each star so I can swap them in the animation depending on the stars emotion at that time.

Set design - Campfire

In the centre of my set I created a campfire as it says in the story I am making an animation of that the animals sit around a campfire. I experimented a lot with different types of light to come from the fire to make it more realistic - tee-lights, torches, fairy lights, battery light bulbs. I think the tee-light would work really well but the flame kept poking above my actual pretend fire and i didn't think that worked, but the light it gave was perfect as essentially it was just fire. The next best thing i found was the battery light bulb. It fit under my set, so I cut out a small hole in the mountboard so the light coud get through. It gives out a soft, yellow light and is invisible so it works really well. I decided to mix cardboard and foam to make the flames as they are sturdy, so stay upright and also the cardboard flames will move slightly to make the fire a little realistic. I added some small twigs to the bottom of the fire so it looks like smething is burning. I also stuck orange cardboard around the campfire to emphasise the yellow light eminating from it. Overall I think the fire will be really successful and as a light source as well will light my set in a really interesting, realistic way.

Foliage for my set

I wanted to make lots of plants and trees to create a jungle for my set, but i did not want to use real plants as I wanted it to be nostalgic of childhood, being creative and making things from card, felt and foam. I looked in a tree book to research the different types of leaves that you may find in a tropical climate and cut out millions of them in card, felt, foam and different patterned fabric. I also tried to make the tree trunks out of foam but that was unsuccessful. They were contorted and I found it difficult to make them stick together. Also once i added leaves they became top heavy and would not stand up. Although I would prefer to not to use real plants I found that twigs and sticks from my garden were much more effective than foam and made really good tree trunks. I think the fake leaves added onto real sticks look great as it provides a good contrast.

Kids animations

During the interim crit it was suggested I watch some old kids animations - so i did, and they're great! Exactly the kind of thing I'm going for with my animation. The make-shift set of Button Moon with space ships made from baked bean tins and trees made from broom sticks is really reminscent of my childhood - I used to make minature gardens with my mum using tinfoil as a pond! And this is the kind of feeling a want to achieve with my animation. I'd never seen the Herbs but this is probably the most similar to what I want. The garden is made out of cardboard leaves and the characters are made from fabric. For my set I want to use felt, foam and coloured card - all materials which are commonly used by kids when making things. Trumpton is similar in that the whole town is made out of cardboard and Bagpuss is an animated teddy which is what I want to do. I will have to put wire in the limbs of all my characters to get the same amount of manouverability that Bagpuss achieves.

Set - Background

For my set, I have simply put two A1 peices of mountboard together - one for the floor and one for the backdrop. I attached them using embroidery and threaded felt leaves onto it so it will fit into the background well and not stand out. Although I have since realised I need to attach two pieces of card to each side as when I tried to photograph the set I couldn't fit it all in the shot without leaving empty spaces at the side.

I used chalk pastels to draw a backdrop as the moon is the focal point of the set, as it emphasises the importance of the sky in this story, and I think pastels are the most effective way of drawing the moon. I struggled with the trees in the foreground but I think by adding pink and red it rally help give them some depth. Though I don't really have to worry about the bottom of the backdrop because I intend to make 3D trees to go in the set.

animating teddies

I've decided to make my own teddys for characters in my animation. I'm not great at sewing and won't be using a pattern so I want to keep them quite simple. I want a child-like, cute feel to them, as if a child could make them so my limited needle skills will actually help in this respect. Heres some Easter soft toys I found which are as simple as they get-just two pieces of fabric sewn together. I think it's the added details like stiching and floral patterns in places which make them look so adorable. I will try to make something similar to these, though more practical for moving them around a set and making them stand up etc.

I also dug out all my old soft toys to see if i could figure out how they're made. I can pretty much copy the patterns in a similar way, the only problem is the legs as most soft toys do not stand up.