How a 3D Pen Can Be Used in Stop Motion

Above: The 3Doodler making the Eiffel Tower

3D pens started with the 3Doodler by WobbleWorks Inc, and are growing more popular each day in the art community. Now there are many 3D pens on the market to buy, like the 3Doodler Start, Scribbler, LIX and 3DSimo Mini. All have their own qualities, like temperature and speed settings, but they basically all make 3D art in mid-air, with the same sensation as drawing with a regular pen.

Looking at different blogs and YouTube channels, many artists have tried the 3D pen and have given it good reviews, whether it be for fun or to create an installation piece (just look up '3D pen' on Pinterest!). But being an animator [in training] I always like to go back to stop motion and see what new things we can use to make more outstanding visuals! 3D printing has already taken the stop motion world by storm, and the 3D pen is a piece of technology that is perfect for creating objects and small details during stop motion production.

Above: Face sets for Paranorman

There are some things you can't use a 3D pen for in stop motion, however. A 3D pen's filament can dry very quickly and stay put in mid-air. A puppet's hair, skin or clothes need to move easily between frames, so therefore needs to be made out of flexible materials, unlike newly heated filament. 3D pens aren't advised to use whilst making soft or cushiony objects like pillows or bedding, the filament will shine after it dries and will loose the illusion of a soft bed or a comfy sofa. Large sets also seem impractical for 3D pens. Though it is possible you can use them to make sets, it will take a long time to complete an entire building out of filament. Make your life easier by using large materials like cardboard boxes for large sets!


The following things however, are things you can use 3D pens for in stop motion:

Set Details

You've used your cardboard or clay to make the building itself, so now move onto your 3D pen to create the doors, windows, ledges, balconies and artsy details that make the building extremely fancy-looking! Why stop at buildings though? Add more flowers to the garden set or complicated gadgets to the puppet's car! If you want to go more practical than artsy, make an armature for your building in order to make the set more stable before adding on your main materials.

Props

Props are the first thing you should turn to a 3D pen for! Smaller objects like crockery, cutlery, plant pots, garbage, instruments and weapons are quick to make with a 3D pen and ready to be put onto set immediately after it cools. Do not underestimate the small things in stop motion set. The more you have, the more you add to the atmosphere and environment.

Nature

I've mentioned garden sets and plant pots before, but adding that one extra leaf on a branch or more magical mushrooms can be just what your woodland set needs! Nature doesn't stop at the woods though, more rocks and boulders will add to that pebble-filled beach, and more vines will turn the rainforest into more of a jungle than before. Twisted branches and roots are also good to make with a 3D pen, as the way you usually use a 3d pen is by twisting the filament around until you get the object desired, and then carve off the unwanted parts in order to create a smoother shape.

Puppet Armature

Whilst the outside of the puppet will mostly be plasticine and clothing fabric, the skeletal armature itself can be made by a 3D pen! Just remember to make a plan of your puppet first and make it in parts before putting it together with the nuts and bolts. You want your puppet's joints to bend like real joints do, and some filament won't bend after it dries.

Puppet Accessories

Sure you can't make the clothes out of filament, but things like hair clips, bracelets, helmets, armour, rings and phones are also good to be made out of a 3D pen. Like props, they are easy to make and quick to add to the set after being cooled.

Above: I know this isn't a puppet's phone but use your imagination!

Glue

Yes! F*ck the glue gun (even though it's an extremely handy tool and I love it), use the 3D pen to glue pieces together! However this time the filament will be able to match the object, therefore the 'glue' will be camouflaged!


Find what 3D pen suits your liking in this video:

3Doodler blog: http://the3doodler.com/blog/

3D Pen Lab's Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOvm1ePlttS6hWatuHThw_A 

Make Anything's Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVc6AHfGw9b2zOE_ZGfmsnw

Stop Motion is hard…but I still love it.

From this point on, Monday 13th - Sunday 19th will officially be regarded as one of my most stressful weeks as I was convinced I was cursed to not complete any of my work, due to technical malfunctions and minor illness.

Dragonframe is a stop motion software that the university uses, and I do love it compared to any other stop motion software out there, but this week every single computer that had Dragonframe on it malfunctioned whenever I tried to import images of a face set. Clearly I did something wrong in the making of the images but can you blame me into thinking that I was cursed?! So this week I had to do some of my stop motion work manually and alter the images in Photoshop before trying to import them on Dragonframe again.

The videos above show what I filmed this week, the green screen one being made manually, and the other from what I managed to make on Dragonframe. These are some paper plane tests for my group title sequence project, where for a small part of the sequence, we would show a stop motion paper airplane over a map of the world.

I've always preferred stop motion over any other animation technique  as it requires you to get physical and create the sets and characters! Nowadays, it's the only kind of animated film where not everything on screen is done on computers, which gives the audience some real and often breathtaking visuals. A lot of animators however, while appreciating stop motion, would choose not to go into it because there's no money in the market. If you want a guaranteed job, 3D is really the way to go. Even films like Kubo and the Two Strings or The Lego Batman Movie both have stop motion and CG elements in them to create some outstanding animation, but in the end it still looks more like CG than stop motion. It's now become uncommon to see a full stop motion movie (PS. Defiantly go and see Kubo and Lego Batman, they are amazing movies!).

I always knew that if I were to make my own stop motion film, it'll be tough but also fun at the same time. This week was the first time I realised that production will not always go so smoothly, and that setbacks will ensue and cause you to loose track of time, causing the entire process to be even harder. I imagine that huge animation studios also have to deal with weeks like this during production, when everything just goes wrong and you have no choice but to take a break.

I almost broke down this week when I didn't get my work done, but it still doesn't take away how much I like doing stop motion. The video with the green screen showed the first time I tried moving the camera and the puppet at the same time, to create the illusion of zooming out to show the bigger picture! The fact that I at least managed to learn one new thing is still good! Creating something you like is at times painful but to you it's a lot of fun, so if everything goes wrong, there's no shame in taking a small break to claim your sanity back before you keep going.

Life Drawings: I'm getting BETTER??

Here are the latest drawings to my life drawing sketchbook. And, no joke when I say this, but my life drawing teacher says I'm getting better! I really think I owe it to the needle technique I mentioned in my 'Drawings Drawings Drawings' post. If you could just ignore the faces and focus on my improvements on body proportions, that'll be nice, thank you.

2D Background Project: A New Inspiration

In my last post, I said that I wanted Indre Bankauskaite to be my inspiration for the naturalistic environment of my background project. However, it turned out that their work was to stylised for the shot and that I couldn't use them. I was rather hoping I'd use their art, but I wasn't sure what constituted as a naturalistic artist at first. It turns out I should chose an artist who actually tries to replicate real life! So life drawings…for environments.

I decided on Stepan Fedorovich Kolesnikov since I really like his almost-sketchy drawings put together with only a few shades of colour. The winding trees he paints are also good for the trees I'll be drawing in my background shot.

The paintings above are my intimidations of his work (even further above). I was using watercolours since most background artists use watercolours to blend everything together in the background whilst the character animation stands out. I'm still not sure whether it would be better to use watercolours or acrylics to intimidate Kolesnikov's work. 

As you can see, my watercolour skills aren't up to scratch. I've always liked painting since it's a very therapeutic hobby, but I know it's not something I'm talented at. Some of the brush strokes look too messy and first painting looks like it's been blended too much. I like some parts of the second one, but it's still lacking.

I went on to practice my watercolour skills still in the style of Kolesnikov, and ended up with the paintings above (and one pencil sketch). I feel myself getting better at painting, mainly because I used colours that I enjoy blending with. Kolesnikov's colours are quite subdued in his work, but I decided to try using shades of red since I like the combination of fiery colours. My favourite pieces are the mountains, mainly the one with patches of red on it, as I feel like it instantly tells me where the mountain resides: in a hot area where not much green is seen.

I even tried drawing and painting in a city environment to see if I'm better at that! The shading on the pencil drawing is good and I do like how I painted the lamp, but the block tower became a mess and I didn't enjoy painting it.

IN OTHER NEWS!

The thumbnails for the 2D background project are done and so is the storyboard of the shot I will be making! For the project we only have to make one background and some character animation for one shot, but it was deemed helpful to look back on thumbnails for a whole scene based around the shot. The scene shows two children, who press a button on a control panel to turn the environment into a beautiful landscape of nature. The girl (who is going to be animated in the shot I'm making) turns to see a bicycle against a tree, which reminds her of an alien boy she knew, and cries.

In the thumbnails, the area highlighted in pink is the background shot for my project. The storyboard itself shows in more detail how it'll look in the end. The areas that are outlined in black indicate the character animation (the girl, birds flying, trees blowing in the wind). The camera will also pan across the shot, from left to right.

2D Background Inspiration

For one of my projects this year, the 2D Background project, I have to research and take inspiration from two artists: one for environment design and one for character design. These artists should help me with my final look for a 2D background.

For the characters, I've decided to go with an artist whose style is  the opposite of how I design characters: Retrograde-Entropy (there was no indication of their real name).

I purposefully wanted to find an artist whose character designs were different to mine so I can learn to adapt to other art styles. As much as the dream is to make my own product with my own drawings, if I want to get a job in animation, I have to adapt to a show or studio's style of drawing!

The three coloured drawings above are Retrograde-Entropy's artworks, whilst the pencil drawings in the sketchbook are my interpretations of their style. If you look at my character designs, they are very angular and sketchy. The eyes are very big on the head compared to the other facial features, and the eyebrows go over the hair to immediately indicate a character's emotion. The hair itself is very scruffy and looks very thin. The alien design of Geoffrey is designed a lot like Mothman! I prefer to design aliens as giant bugs since an insect or invertebrate design is the furthest away from a relatable human design. The link below will take you to a great video about alien design that goes into more depth than I do:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srul5Xd2kT4

Retrograde's characters are more round with very few angles or sharp edges. The eyes fit inside the head and the nose seems to be larger than usual. The hair is very fluffy and naturally pleases the eye when it flows with the wind. The lips are also larger and have a slight upper cleft to some of their characters. The alien design is also more humanistic, most likely to allow the audience to relate to the alien more. Retrograde's work is soft, subtle and pleasing to the eye, especially when they use pastel colours in their other artworks.

You can look at their DeviantArt page here: http://retrograde-entropy.deviantart.com


For the environment, I've always been fond of illustrations that capture the simple side of nature, yet still manage to make it look beautiful and detailed. I immediately decided to go with one of my favourite artists: Indre Bankauskaite (freeminds on DevinatArt).

Indre Bankauskaite creates backgrounds, characters and environments that are so simple in style but pop out due to the small colour palette they use in each drawing. Concepts like the blue and orange tree are very surreal, but the drawing of a cave entrance is more naturalistic due to it's softer colours and shades. It's the naturalistic drawings of Indre's that I want to use inspiration for the environment of my background project. 

The watercolour paintings in the sketchbook are my interpretations of Indre's artwork above, and I'm debating whether I should stop painting all together. I am happy with how I made the blue and orange tree look 3D and the blending of some of the colours in either of them, but it comes to no surprise that painting isn't my strongest point, neither is sticking to a colour palette. I feel like I can replicate the artwork better in a digital painting since that's most likely how the artist made them in the first place.

You can look at their DeviantArt page here: http://freeminds.deviantart.com