Last but not least



(Photo by Focus Features/Courtesy Everett Collection. Thumbnail: DreamWorks SKG, Buena Vista Pictures, Fox Searchlight, Paramount Pictures/Courtesy Everett
 Collection)

Finally, for my Client Brief I had to create a stop-motion animation. I struggled with this one. Not so much with the execution of the project itself - the lectures we had were quite informative and the whole thing seemed pretty straight forward if you were there and paying attention. Take the images, go through Photoshop and export the files into Premier. Make the adjustments you want and you are done. But I was having a hard time coming up with an idea. While with the previous parts of the project it came to me right away and I just had to put some more thought into the concept and what to include, this one was a blank page in my mind. I had nothing. At one point I had the crazy idea of making it about my cats. Then I was considering doing a Lego figurine 30 seconds animation. Then there was the idea of me doing tricks on my skateboard in the parking lot of our building. Along came the ridiculous thought of sitting in the rain and taking shots of snails. All of it unimaginative, dull and quite hard to actually execute. Few weeks before the project was due my partner was sitting on the sofa and playing on his guitar when I finally saw it. I was going to put the tripod, adjust the camera and take 40-50 still shots in a rapid sequence of his hands playing the guitar and make a stop motion out of this. I am not saying it was really original but at least I had something that I felt good about and seemed like a decent idea. With that one I was set on not making things too complicated for me. It was my first effort of this kind, so I wanted to be simple and at least a bit effective, if possible. Taking the photos was actually pretty easy and straightforward, not much to go wrong there. My lightning wasn’t the best, but I decided to overlook that detail and work with what I have. I wasn't keen on doing it again. Then I had to open all of my over 40 pictures in Photoshop, rename them to form a sequence, make them into separate layers of one project and then export them as files. The rest was quite easy as once this part was done, I simply imported my folder with those files into Premiere Pro and played the sequence. The only thing left for me was to adjust the frame rate. I actually did it two ways and I am still in doubt whether I submitted the right one for my assignment, but it is done so no taking it back now. Again, as with the other parts of this project, it is not something unseen, exceptional or fascinating. But I consider it a good start for me. And once again it was a proper reality check that this degree will not be all about the theory, but just as much about the practical aspect of things, which I came to really enjoy! I am so not making the next "Coraline" but so far so good!












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