Hand rod attachment

Hand rod attachement

There are many ways to do the hand rod attachment for the puppet hand. I have tried rubber bands before and I have seen versions with screws and washers and variants using curved or straight rubber hose that you stick the hand rods into. Since I wanted to be able to rotate the hand back and forth, I decided to do a version using jeans buttons.

Hand rod attachement handfästen

I started by bending the ends of the arm rods to a u-shaped loop, just big enough to fit snugly around a jeans button when pushed.

Hand rod attachement handfästen

I attached the jeans button inside the puppet hands and left small holes in the fur where I can fit the rods. Because of the shape of the jeans buttons, the hand rotates back and forth but is stiff sideways.

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Pikku’s mailbox

Everything isn’t as much fun to create. There are many kinds of boring props to create for the film, like Pikku’s mailbox. I made his mailbox out of foamboard that I painted with acrylic color.
pikkus brevlåda pikku's mailbox

So why didn’t I just use a real mailbox? Well, I have to be able to put Pikku’s hand inside the mailbox when he picks up the mail, therefore I have to cut a bit on the side of the mailbox, something I don’t really want to do in a new, expensive mailbox.

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Another festival update

Here’s another festival update for Notes from a small Japanese town as the film keeps showing up at festivals here and there. Next screening is at the Scrittura e Immagine Short Film Festival in Italy on the 1st of december. After that you can see the film at Espacio Enter Canaria in Teneriffe the 8th to the 12th of December.

As mentioned earlier, you can also catch the film at the Children’s Film Festival Seattle 2017 that starts at the end of January.

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Arctic Light Film Festival 2016

Arctic Light Film Festival

2016

Stop motion animated opening film for Arctic Light Film Festival 2016

For the Arctic Light Film Festival 2016, I had the idéa to create a short stop-motion animated opening film, showing a moviegoer at a few different screenings during the festival as to describe the width of genres shown.

This would show the variety of movies shown at the festival and was also a shortcut to do a less complicated animation since I had very little time to finish it.

Since the character is sitting down for 80% of the film, I could concentrate on his expression and upper body.

I started by building a stop-motion puppet and a miniature movie theater to animate and pose him in. I rigged everything at my studio and animated everything over three days, editing the animation during the nights.

I also created a few poster, each with a slight variation of facial expression.

The sound mix of the film is made by Martin Eriksson, TCB.

For:

year:

Sound mix:

Homepage:

Arctic Light Filmfestival

2016

Martin Eriksson, TCB i Kiruna AB

www.arcticlight.org

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Festival update for Notes from a small…

Festival update for Notes…

A small festival update of when and where you can see Notes from a small Japanese town in the future. This weekend, 5-6th of November, the film is screened in Albany at Epic Animation Comic Game (EACG) Fest. If you are in Italy instead you can see the film at Corto Corrente in Città di Fiumicino on Saturday. the film is also in competition at 10th PSSST! Silent Film Festival in Zagreb the 10th of November.

The you will be able to see the film at Arctic Light Film Festival as part of the colletionFilmpool Nord presenterar saturday the 12th of November or before Speglingar Sunday November 13th. Phantom is also screened at Arctic Light, before Kollektivet, also Sunday.

In the end of January, Notes from a small Japanese town will also be screened at the Children’s Film Festival Seattle 2017.

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Arctic Light Film Festival opening film

Arctic Light festival opening

A new opening film for Arctic Light Film Festival, that’s what I have been working on in the evenings and nights for the last couple of weeks. From the start, I had the idéa to make a short stop-motion animation of a character reacting to different films in a movie theater. I didn’t know what the character should look like, but I knew the scale and started by building a tiny movie theater, or at least seats for a tiny movie theater.

ALFF Opening film 2016

Tha character for the film

Then it was time to come up with the character for the film. After many nights sketching I finally settled on a character.As you can see, I had a hard time deciding on the placement of ears or it he was going to have a hairstyle or horns instead.

ALFF Opening film 2016

When I had a look I started building. At first, I tried to make his head of aluminum foil, but it became much to heavy. Instead, I carved an old foam egg I had lying around to the approximate shape of his head. The rest of the armature I made with aluminum wire, moldable cement, and foam. Then I made some clothes and a pair of shoes. The shoes are never visible in the film, or in the poster, though…

ALFF Opening film 2016

in the image above he got to borrow a mouth from another character. His own mouth I made from Fimo clay. I made enough moths to make every possible expression I would need in the animation.

ALFF Opening film 2016

Then I also made some props. Pop corn and a soda.

ALFF Opening film 2016

In the studio

I rigged everything in my tiny studio. the lighting was made with clamp spots from Clas Ohlsson that I taped paper rolls and attached filters to. Not a really recommendable solution, but it’s cheaper than real spots.

ALFF Opening film 2016

I animated the film over three nights. editing the material as I went to spot if I had to animate some scene again (wich I luckily did not).

ALFF Opening film 2016

The completed film is available on Arctic Light Film Festival’s facebook, or on the outdoor screens in central Kiruna until the festival starts.

Årets animering har anlänt och oj oj oj vad vi gillar!

O M G! Årets vinjettfilm är alldeles, alldeles underbar! ?

Opslået af Arctic Light Filmfestival på 1. november 2016

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Pikku’s loft

I choose to build Pikku’s loft in a larger scale than the exteriors. Mostly because the scale would make it less fiddely and easier to reach inside.

I started with walls made of foamboard.

Pikkus loft

The floor of Pikku’s loft

I started by painting the floor dar brown. I then cut numerous strips of something called Finnboard. Finnboard is a matte type of cardboard. I painted the floorboards with badly mixed acrylic paint to get a lot of variation in coloring. Then i gave them a little bit of wood texture with a smaller brush.

Pikkus loft

I papered the walls with some papers from Yuki’s scrapbooking pile. I also printed out a poster and pinned it to the wall and built some furniture out of foamboard and cardboard.

Pikkus loft

Finally i gled the floorboards to the floor. i also built a few books and comics to spread around the room. The reason there are no control pads for the Nintendo is because Pikku will be holding one in his hands, wich I will shoot with a real controller. The other one will be in storage, never used (wich is a storypoint). Therefore I only need a cable coming out of the NES.

Pikkus loft - Pikku's loft

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Welcome (back) to Isopikkujärvi

Welcom (back) to Isopikkujärvi

Now is the time to assemble all parts of Isopikkujärvi. I started this by glueing pieces of foam to the cylinder to create snowbanks, hills and some roughness to the terrain. I then cover all of this in white fleece. fleece might nog be the best snow you can imagine, but it’s cheaper than the alternatives. I glue the fleece to the foam and cylinder with a smelly spray glue. in some spots I had to bring back out the thread and needle.

stor422b

Isopikkujärvi lighting association

Along the village road there will be a row of streetlights. how I was going to make theese was a lot of headache until I woke up one morning with a sour throat.

The glass part of the lampshade is made from the bubble pack, the one you press your thumb on to dispence the pill, of a used pack of Strepsils.

belysningwn

The metal part of the lamp is made from paper and puzzle mat. finally I push a diode through the lamp and attach a piece of wire hanger to it. I also solder cables to the diode. Theese cables I will connect to a battery in the inside of the Isopikkujärvi cylinder.

belysningwn3b

When I connect the lamsp it will hopefully light up like this 8hopefully since a couple of diodes in each pack from Clas Ohlsson seems to be broken).

Darkness reigns in Isopikkujärvi

I then start attaching the pieces randomly to the cylinder. Next I will solder, connect and install the electricity to the village. This part is a bit delayed since I unfourtenately bough a Coltech solder iron. It broke after two cables and the tip collapsed into itself (I guess it melted on the inside?). The handle is now hotter than the tip. Rubbish!

isopikkujärvi

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Making a cylinder for Isopikkujärvi

Why do I need a cylinder? Well, Pikku’s house, the pine trees and other things that I have made for the environment are going to be attached to this giant cylinder that I can rotate. The rotation of the cylinder will then give the illusion of a weird kind of trackingshot over the landscape.

A cylinder made of corrugated cardboard and sweat

The cylinder is built out of cardboard. I used the cardboard box our tv came in, the box I got when I ordered foam board and a few old moving boxes. I started by tying a string to a pen and mark the circumference of the end pieces. I cut this shape out four times and glued them together two and two, making shure the corrugation was in a 90 degree angle in the glued parts. This way the end pieces will be a lot more stable.

cylinder

If you plan on moving the finished barrel, for example to a different location for the movie shoot, it’s a good idéa to make shure your apartment door is larger than the diameter before attaching the sides.

Isopikkujärvi cylinder

The diameter on my cylinder was about 10 cm larger than my apartment door, something I discovered only after gluing the sides on and stabilizing the entire thing with lots of supports inside.

But luckily I had left one part of the side open where I was planning to reach inside (to put the cables, batteries and attach things poking through to the inside). With a lot of help, some pushing and a little bit of crushing we managed to get it through the door. I then carried it to the studio where I will continue the work.

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Pine trees made out of camping mat

In the area surrounding Pikku’s house i need atleast 20 pine trees. After a few days of thinking I decided to make the trees out of green camping mat that I had in my basement from a previous project.

Disney-pine and scabies trees

The idéa was not to create perfect Disney-trees but thin, uneaven pine trees like the ones you usually see up here in the north.

I had planned to make the trunk from garden wire, but apparently Coop doesn’t carry it anymore. I couldn’t find it anywhere else either, not even in my basement, although I remember I had a roll there. Instead I used aluminium wire that I glued tiny strips of camping mat on with contact cement.

Finally I add a thick layer of white acrylic paint as snow and frost.

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