I have been working on lighting for a while now. First of all I would like to thank Darkstrider who has been huge help about lighting and using Lumix FZ50. When I first started, I did not know much about lighting a stop motion set. Now, I have some ideas about which lights I would need, how to setup those lights and which other materials I may need to achive a good lighting. Next comes using the camera to “take” that shot correct. So, a lifelong homework… experiment different lighting setups and try the best camera settings.

Let me start with the short animation test I made:

As much frames as possible I coud get with a tripod. What do you think?

Lighting:

To get this sunset like lighting the idea was: orange as key light, blue as fill light, red and blue as back light. I did not want to get an exact sunset look. Some time maybe right at the end of sunset.. little more darker and I wanted to add another light from the top right maybe as a moon light. That time of the day is too early for a moonlight but wanted to have that light there… Here is a picture of tree as a whole. You can click picture to enlarge.

And almost forget to write; I painted another background. This time a black and white sky. I will not use this in the actual film either; just for testing.

The most amateur lighting setup I have here. There are 5 lights. One regular house light on the right side as a key light. First covered with baking paper and then yellow, red (to get orange) transparent kite paper and then black crepe paper at the top to adjust the light intensity. A blue pin spot on the left as a fill light with baking paper as a diffuser and hanged on an umbrella stand. Between background painting and the tree, at the bottom; there are 2 back lights: one red pin spot with a baking paper diffuser and one regular small house light covered with baking paper and yellow kite paper. On top of these 2, there is a black crepe paper again. There is another transparent pin spot on the right back with kind of a gobo made with a black tape. I used a broken tripod to make a stand for this spot. This kind of setup can not be used to shoot the actual film for sure but worked very well for me to test some lighting ideas.

So, this is what I would do for my film set in terms of lighting: I will buy some better lights. Nothing like fancy expensive ones.. Maybe a spotlight and then make some barndoors etc,.. There are some great ideas both Mike Brent gave me also I read on stopmotionanimation.com I might use these pin spots; only need to make someflicker tests. I will definetely buy color gels and also ND filters. I tried to make substitues for these but no way to adjust light as the way I need and also using materials like kite papers are dangerous.. you know those can burn easily and should never be left for long times while the lights on.

This film is going to be dark. I want a very dramatic look. I have been thinking about even shooting black&white. There are some tests below here:

See the black and white one on the second row. Here I tried to get a “Dore Lighting” (another great information from Darkstrider) Picture quality is not very good but I like the dramatic light change on different parts of this picture. Again, you can click picture to enlarge.

Using Lumix FZ50

This has been the first time I have really tried Lumix on animation. It works pretty well. Even though I had those funky lights I almost did not get any flicker. Just a little and I think it is beacuse of the regular house lights I use. It took me for a while to really understand how this camera response different ligthing setups. I heard people saying that Lumix does not work well under low light conditions… Nonsense!! As long as you adjust the shutter speed and F stop correct; allowing long exposure times; camera works great. The only problem I could not get over was the noisy picture quality in full size. FZ50 can shoot 10mp at 4:3 aspect ratio and 7mp in HD. When I view the 10mp picture in full size, I see the noise. But, I never need to use that 10mp one in full size. When I make the picture smaller I get a full high quality picture for my film.

The most impressing thing for me to see how “focus lock” feature works great. You know, you need to use everything manual when you shoot stop motion. I was curious to see how Lumix stays in focus in manual focus mode. You first manually adjust the focus and then hit focus luck button. Then voila.. you have a focused camera even if you turn it upside down.. kind of like what i did here to shoot.

Here are the settings of my camera during this shooting:

ISO 100
F stop 10
Shutter speed 5sn
White Balance: Tungsten

So, again thank you Darkstrider for helping me out for the right settings! Also my friend Mert here showed me how to adjust some settigns and was very helpful.

Animator HD Personal:

This is the software I am using to shoot stop motion. My previous tests was without live view (with Canon) and I am suprised to see how much a frame grabber makes things easier. Lumix connected to PC with a converter sending live feed to Animator HD. Taking 2 pictures for one frame; one from AnimatorHD and another with a wired remote from camera for full resolution picture to be stored inside the card.

Camera Movement:

I shot these frames using my new tripod with a 3-way adjustable head. I knew this was not going to be smooth enough but wanted to use before I make a slider for the camera. I am not after a very smooth animation but definetely want to achive something better than this. I also tried ease in/out but no way with this tripod. Hey I am also learning how to animate Stop motion… a complete challenge for me; learning, learning, learning… how nice!!

So, I need to plan scenes carefully and make a camera slider.. maybe couple sliders for different parts.

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And as always, here is my little bunny woke up around 4 in the morning while I was working on lighting. Came to my room with her “kuzu” (means sheep in Turkish) in her hand and said that she wanted to make a film too Then suddenly she decided to be an actress and here is the result…

Yes, it is finished… Tree of life, birds, nests. I will work on the roots when making the rocky surface but other than that all done. You can click to above picture to enlarge.

A close-up to some of the nests.

It is 4:35 in the morning. Another stolen night to spend on stop motion is almost over. Away from my all duties; taking care of my daughter, working to make money, taking care of the house, cooking, doing dishes,.. I feel like every moment I spend on this film is a stolen one and I think I like to steal a lot! Anyways… a beautiful end summer night; sitting in the garden with mosquitoes, hearing cats fighting in our neighbor’s garden, feeling good after preparing pictures to post here.

Ok, what I have done lately and how I done;

Making of the “Big Bird”

I made some small birds to place in the tree of life representing the “souls” out of super sculpey and posted here previously. I needed one to animate. Nothing complex; just one bird to be able to raise her head. Here you see her:

Super sculpey again. But made the head seperately, connected to body with a piece of wire. Glued some foam. Covered foam first with “real fleece” which Shelley sent me and then with some goose quill from our sofa.

She is nothing like the “Big Bird” from Sesame Street but somehow she reminded me of Big Bird at the moment I finished her.

Bird Nests..
This was challenging. Needed to look like bird nests but at the same time I wanted these to be strong; as being home for the souls. Metal but comfortable. After trying some different ideas, I ended up using pine cones. And boom! Cutting pine cones was harder then cutting steel… I am serious. Have you ever tried cutting pine cones with Dremel? I broke many blades made for cutting metals. Dust, smell,… had my respirator and protective clothes to keep myself safe

I painted cones with black acrylic and then stainless steel colored acrylic paint (which Shelley  sent me. Thank you!!) Dyed some raw looking yarn into green with acrylic again to tie the metal cones to the branches. Added moss around the nest after tying up.

Tree of Life Mooooddddiiifffficccaatttiioonn:
Collected some bark, killed the bugs with mosquito spray inside a bag. Left those in the air for couple hours to get rid of the poison. Covered the trunk with these barks and the glued moss all around.

I use old newspapers to keep the table clean. As I was working on the tree, I saw a small article right next to the roots of the tree about “Tim Burton” There is a Tim Burton exhibition at MoMA between November 22, 2009–April 26, 2010 No way for me to go as NY is kind of far away from where I live But, anyone living in NY and have not heard about this exhibition can check details here http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/313

Made many more new branches, added to the tree. Glued some more leaves.

The last picture on the right bottom is showing the quick background painting I did today to shoot the tree. The final background will be more like a real sky. This one was just for fun.

It has been a while since my last post about the film. I have been having a very busy summer; spending time with our families in July. At the beginning of August, our babysitter quit working -she’s getting maried- and my daughter started to go to kindergarten half day, 5 days a week. So, we have been trying to get used to our new life.

After taking a long break, I wanted to start with modifying the tree of life and making the small birds which represent the souls left their bodies after death and waiting for their birth again. Tree of life is a motif in various world mythologies and the birds sitting on its branches often associated with the souls. So, here they are:

On the bottom right, you see a quick installation of the bird onto a branch. I am currently working on these and will show final pics of tree of life and birds with my next post.

 I made these birds out of super sculpey. There are 15 birds sculpted and cooked. The necklace on my neck is a gift from Shelley… a bird nest and the egg; giving me luck and love for stop motion, for life…

Painted with white acrylic first and then used blue antique powder paint for an older look and some dimention. And ofcourse my little assistant was there to help me out By the way, the Tree of Life oil painting on the wall is a reproduction of one of Natasha Wescoat’s which I painted when I was pregnant to Zeynep.

Modification of the tree: I made some new brances and smaller leaves. I was not totally happy with the previous look. Now, it looks a lot better and I will post new pics later.

It needs more work but not now.. Later when I have the rocks ready. And even more work when the background painting is ready.

When it was time to actually glue the leaves onto the tree, I was totally suprised. You know I made a test. I was able to stick the leave onto my test branch easily with super glue. But when I tried sticking to the branch, because of the many layers of acrylic paint , super glue did not work… I spent one day to just figure out how to solve this problem. Eventually, I melted the tip of the stalk with a candle light, pressed onto the tree where I want to stick to change the shape of the tip when it was hot. Because it is plastic it takes the shape of the surface easily when it is hot. Then dropped couple of super glue and sticked over the tree. Oh my poor hands, poor fingers…

I created 500 leaves by cutting, gluing, painting back and fronts… It was crazy. And after all this process leaves look kind of big on the tree and I am not totally happy with the result. I wanted leaves to be big but I could have done little smaller. Anyways, maybe I would work more on the leaves and cut later.. who knows. Here is the process:

I bought some plastic leaves from a craft store. Cut one of those, paint and made a test shot over the tree to make sure the size and paint. After that, I cut 500 leaves into 3 different sizes. You know there are different sizes of leaves on a tree. Thanks to my friend Ozgul who helped me cutting the leaves… The leaves I bought from the store were really cheap and coarse. So, I needed to glue back and front sides with the wood glue before painting to have strong edges after cutting.

When the glue was dried I covered a piece of cartoon with masking tape sticky side up and presses leaves onto the tape. (Again thanks Shelley http://notesfromhalfland.blogspot.com/search/label/Answer%20Tree ) Painted back sides first and then painted front sides after backs are dried.

Let all dry and take out from the tape. Hey I have a test branch, look:

So, all went well so far. Make hundreds.. total 500:

I had all leaves ready to be glued onto the tree after about 10 days…

I did not have the moss sold in craft stores. So, I tried making my own moss out of the yarn like you see in the first picture. I mixed little pieces of yarn with green paint and applied to the tree after putting some glue over the trunk to where I want to add the moss. I will try finding either real moss or buying fake ones later and add to the tree.

At this point I really need to mention a great blog site of  Shelley Noble. If you are into stop-motion review http://notesfromhalfland.blogspot.com/ She has some great posts about the whole process which has helped me a lot while working on this tree. Thank you Shelley!!! You can see her answer tree building process here at: http://notesfromhalfland.blogspot.com/search/label/Answer%20Tree

Back to my tree:

I first painted with chocolate brown as a base color. And after this I tried many different mix of colors to get the right color… burnt sienna, white, brown, yellow, green… I painted over and over. Just do not forget to dilute the paint with water after the first base color. So, the second, third,.. colors do not totally cover the chocolate brown color. Paint, let it dry, look and paint again until you are totally satisfied.

First covered whole tree with DECOSA foam glue. Then mixed plaster with regular wood glue and covered the whole tree. At this point do your magic and try to make it as closed as a real tree texture. I am trying to make a beech like tree here which does not have a strong texture. When covering the trunk, I used a piece of wire to make a tree like texture. When it is all completed let it dry.

I made the little branches out of 0.9mm aluminum wire and masking tape. Lets say you need 8 little branches at the end; take 8 wires and separate into 2 and 4 and 8,.. then cover all with masking tape.

I used yarn when adding the little branch to the main tree branch to make it connected nicely without a thickness difference and covered connection points with masking tape.