An Amazing Bird Puppet!

by yaz on September 23, 2009 · 5 comments

in animation,kush,misc

Someone on stopmotionanimation.com message board posted the URL of a music video by Bowerbirds a while ago. There is an amazing crow puppet here. He said that he made the armature for the wings. I asked him if he could send me some photos of the puppet before it was foamed and feathered -which he offered in the first place- but he could never get back to me. I love the  puppets, animation, effects, music… just everything here.

Thanks to that person who showed me this video and kudos to him & every other people who worked on this music video!

Continue Reading 5 comments animation, kush, misc

Birds in the Nests, Nests in the Tree

by yaz on September 7, 2009 · 13 comments

in birds,puppet making,set building,tree

tree of life

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.

Continue Reading 13 comments birds, puppet making, set building, tree

BACK TO tree of LIFE

by yaz on August 22, 2009 · 9 comments

in birds,tree

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.

Continue Reading 9 comments birds, tree

From Halfland… From Shelley..

by yaz on August 13, 2009 · 8 comments

in misc

This morning, I have received a pack of love, friendship, warmth, life, support, goodwill, happiness from the land of Halfland. A treasure came all the way from California. It was one of the most emotional moments in my life.. opening up the envelope, seeing all those beautiful things she sent me.

I met Shelley after following up her process to make a tree for my film. Coincidence… after months, I was working on tree of life again and the package arrived. The 2nd Halfland button, leaves from the Answer Tree, stop mo water gel samples and many other things treasure besides the gifts she handmade for us!

I really do not know how I can thank you Shelley. You are there lighting up my path…

Continue Reading 8 comments misc

Another Film Project – The Invasion

by yaz on July 13, 2009 · 19 comments

in the invasion

I am out of town, travelling. Now, I am in Istanbul with my husband’s family but last week I was in Tokat visiting my mother and sisters. Me and my sister have started working on a new stop motion project. My sister Asuman is a graphic artist and she has been making some great “ebru” over the last year. “Ebru” is an old islamic art. Basically, it is an art form where you first paint over a tray of water and then dip a paper and get the painting. Asuman describes ebru as “the dance of colors over water” Last month, she came up with a great scenario for a stop motion film where she would be using her ebru to make set pieces. So, we have got the ball rolling. Asuman is going to build the set, puppets, .. storyboard and send me. I will be making the animation, shooting. Here is the blog site of this film: http://invasionfilm.blogspot.com I invite you to visit this blog and send us your comments as we proceed.

me trying ebru

I also tried making ebru while I was in Tokat. Here are some pics. This was my first ebru and totally novice. I really liked doing it a lot. I wish I had couple more lifes to try all these different art forms.  Stay tuned!

By the way, I have redesigned my blog. It now looks totally different. I hope you like the new look!

Continue Reading 19 comments the invasion

The Bird: Kush

by yaz on June 23, 2009 · 12 comments

in animation,kush,puppet making

Finally, I am posting about Kush… A lot of things happening here since my last post. I moved my studio to another room in our house, tried making a rig for Kush, purchased AnimatorHD Personal and tried Lumix. This post is going to be long enough so, I will post about these later. SO, here she is; Kush… you can click to enlarge:

And a quick flying test done with Canon 350D without live view and a spycam.

Get Adobe Flash player

***

Here is the process:

Adding Rig Points and Final Tweaking of the Armature


I first revised legs and the tail. Added 2 rig points to the top on her back and 2 other below the shoulders through her thummy. Later I fixed the detachable wing part with epoxy putty. Because I decided to make the feathers in a different way and it was not possible to have detachable wings.

Preparing Kush for Feathers and Making of Claws 1


I glued foam onto the armature using a spray glue then trimmed with a small scissor. Old winter socks became the skin to glue over feathers later. I sewn the fabric with a black thread tightly. Then I wrapped claws with yarn.

Making of Feathers


For the wings; I used real bird feathers. Cut those into small sizes and then sewn over the yarn covered wing parts. For the torso, I glued colored feathers directly. Colored feathers are from a funcky hair clip of mine. Hey wait… “the master of puppets” came to give me some ideas in the middle of this process. See picture in the bottom center :)

Claws 2


Fingers seemed too thick to me. I ripped off previously wrapped yarn and replaced with a thinner one. Then operation time… Covered body with aluminum foil and applied liquid latex over yarn covered fingers by a piece of foam. After 2 layers of latex is dried I wrapped black thread to make the stripes over fingers. And applied another layer of latex and left it to dry. (you can also use hairdrier for faster drying.) Thanks to Nick Hilligoss  for his tutorials about how to work with liquid latex. If you have not done yet, make sure to check out his pages. I have learned a lot  from his tutorials.

Claws… I made claws out of a thin cardboard. Dipped each claw shaped cardboard into black tinted liquid latex (with acrylic paint) and left to dry. Then attached claws to fingers with un-tinted latex. Thanks to The Lone Animator for this great idea.
And my favorite process: patina.. I wanted this bird look very old, ancient… So, I applied blue antique powder paint first and then gold wax metalic finish. I did the same for the nib which you see below.

Head


I made the head out of super sculpy. Painted with acrylic and covered with feathers. Applied gold with a patina process to the nib. Then fixed the head into its place with a piece of epoxy putty. The head can still move a little allowing turning right and left, bending back anf forth.

***

I cant help to post this picture. We had a lot of fun with my daughter in the dark room while shooting the above test. She came in right before I started shooting and mixed up everything. I had to adjust all again after she left but that was totally fine as I really like to see her around while I work on this film.

Continue Reading 12 comments animation, kush, puppet making

Making of a Bird Armature

by yaz on May 26, 2009 · 13 comments

in kush,puppet making

Kush’s armature :
Kush is an eagle like bird living on top of the tree of life… When I first started working on her armature, I thought I could go away with a complete wire and epoxy armature. But, I want her to fly, land, shake her head,… So, especially her shoulders needed to be strong to stand all different movements of the wings. I ended up starting to make ball joints… You see Kush’s armature drawing below:

Go to downloads page to view larger size of this drawing. I changed proportions and legs while I was making the armature.
To draw this armature, I spent many hours on the net studying birds. Here are some of the links I find usefull:

http://people.eku.edu/ritchisong/554notes1.html
http://people.eku.edu/ritchisong/554notes2.html
http://people.eku.edu/ritchisong/554notes3.html

http://www.ornithopter.de/english/herzog.htm

http://www.bbcmotiongallery.com/Customer/SearchResults.aspx?searchText=eagle&type=Simple&footage=AllClipsExceptEntertainment

http://www.lizkay.com/Studio/wingtutorial.htm

Here is a picture of the armature from the movie “War Eagles” which was also helpful to me.

Back to my drawing… There are 2 ball joints on the shoulders and 2 other on the legs. I cancelled the ones on legs later because the size of the bird is too small to add 2 more ball joints with steel rods. So, my whole ball joint production process was for only 2 and I spent about a month to gather all the materials, some machinery just enough to make something okey and some experience of working with metals. I was planning to work on ball joints for my next film but its good that now I have already some experience on making these.

MAKING BALL JOINTS WITH LIMITED MACHINERY

 What I have:
A regular power drill (not a drillmill) with cobalt bits
Dremel 300 multi tool
Butane mini-torch (Dremel Versatip)
Vice

Materials:
Brass block
Stainless steel balls (5.5mm)
Motor oil
M3 12 screw & nut
Silver solder

I am not going to post a tutorial about making ball joints here as I am not very experienced about these. I listed what I have above, because if you are not able to get professional machinery and equipment and still want to try making ball joints; you can go with something like what I have.

Making ball joints have been the hardest part for me since I started stop motion. I tried cutting different metals with no success. And drilling balls… oh… it was something :) After many trips to hardware stores here and in Istanbul, talking to many people working with metals finally I was able to find the kind of brass I could cut with Dremel and drill stainless steel balls with a regular drill. I also found some M3 screws as I needed small ball joints and M4 ones were too big.

Here are some great tutorials you can follow to make ball joints:

Lio’s tutorials:
Open Hole Double Ball Joints:
http://www.stopmotionworks.com/ohspics.htm
Drilling Metal Balls:
http://www.stopmotionworks.com/drlballs.htm
Brazing Balls onto Rods:
http://www.stopmotionworks.com/ballbrz.htm

http://www.scarletstarstudios.com/blog/archives/2007/04/new_armature_th_1.html
http://www.scarletstarstudios.com/blog/archives/2007/04/drilling_balls.html
http://www.scarletstarstudios.com/blog/archives/2007/04/drilling_balls_1.html
http://www.scarletstarstudios.com/blog/archives/2007/04/sandwich_plates.html
http://www.scarletstarstudios.com/blog/archives/2007/04/brazing_and_shi.html
http://www.scarletstarstudios.com/blog/archives/2007/04/improving_the_n.html
http://www.scarletstarstudios.com/blog/archives/2006/06/how_to_make_a_b.html

http://www.darkstrider.net/ball_jig.html

http://textbookindustries.com/armatures.html (scroll down to see his drilling jig)

Just follow these tutorials and try your best with what you have. Never give up trying and never think that you can not do without professional machineries.

At this point I would like to share with you a trick to drill steell balls. Even if you have the right machinery and tools, it is still hard to drill the balls. Thanks to DADAS here in Bodrum Sanayi who told me this trick to make the steel balls SOFTER.

ATTEMPERING STEEL: MAKING STEEL BALLS SOFTER TO BE ABLE TO DRILL

Get a big metal pot. Fill it with plaster. Put a stone (heat resistant stone for brazing – I have 2 from our fireplace) on top of the pot. Place the steel ball. Get your torch and heat up the ball until it is totally red. Then drop it into the plaster immediately. Make sure it goes down into plaster and do not get any air/oxygen. Wait for some time until the ball is cold. Take it out and you have a softer steel ball !!! Dont worry it is still very hard and you will spend some time and effort to drill it.

If you are having hard time drilling the balls, try this process. It works great!!!

TORSO, LEGS, TAIL AND NECK

Above photos are self explanatory. Cut the brass into body shape. Drilled holes for the neck, legs, wings and tail. Used 5 min. epoxy putty to fix up connection points and to make the bones.

WINGS

There is a ball joint connected to wire for each wing. I drilled 2 small holes on the back of ball joints to connect wires. Wings need to be fully closed on some of the shots. It is impossible to fully close the wings when there are wires on the joints. So I made each wing 2 parts. You see the white plastic parts above. There are metal parts inside with 2 screws. I used these to make the second part of the wing detachable. So, when I animate, I will close the wings as much as possible then take off the second parts and have only the first parts as a closed wings. This will also allow me to replace a wing if it breaks. I will keep this in mind when covering the wings with feathers.

I will put some rigging points and the armature will be ready to go for feathers. The head will be made out of super sculpy and I will use liquid latex to cover legs and fingers. I will post all when I complete.

And something personal: My husband Hakan… he has been with me all through my stop motion advanture. He supports my effort with all of his heart. He helps me out whenever he can. Commenting on the things I make, giving me some great ideas, going to stores trying to find materials I need, searching on the net, standing the noise I make while I work with metals in the house. And he will me making the sound of this film. Thank you my superman!!

Continue Reading 13 comments kush, puppet making

Making Ball Joints for Kush

by yaz on May 5, 2009 · 8 comments

in kush,puppet making

Long time no post but hard work… I have been trying to figure out making ball&socket armatures. I wanted to post when I HAD something to show.

I first started with a wire armature for Kush but after couple of different wire tests, I decided to try ball joints. Kush will make a lot of things like flying, landing, shaking head, sitting,.. so she need to have a good armature. Shoulder joints are the ones who break easily. Now I am working on an armature mixed ball joints and wire/epoxy.

Here is my first ball joint :) ( I will round the corners of plates around the ball)

Since I started stop motion I have learnt a lot of things but this has the been the hardest one for me. Working with metals is not the problem. Finding the right materials is the hardest thing.  I live in a small town not much alternatives here. 

Anyways.. Kush’s armature will be mixed ball joints and wire with epoxy putty. I will post details later as I am still working on the armature.

I have DREMEL 300 to cut metals, Black &Decker drill (not  a drill mill..) and DREMEL VersaTip for welding. I use brass plates, steel balls and rods, silver wire for welding. I was not able to drill the balls so instead I cut the ball and placed rod inside for welding as it is shown on the first picture. It is now pretty strong after welding. There are many good articles, tutorials about making ball & socket armatures on the web and I will post URLs later with my tutorial.

And another thing… Hey I now have liquid latex :) This might seem funny but I have been tring to find liquid latex for the last 8 months. Last week my sister came here with a bottle of liquid latex she bhought in Istanbul at Armagan Boya in Karakoy. Many thanks to my friend Niyazi who told me about this store and to my sister who went there and picked up a bottle to bring here. She also found some very nice eagle feathers. Very dark and shinny.. Those would look great on Kush.

Here is my first liquid latex covered hand:

As this is a test; two fingers are direct liquid latex over wire and others covered with pantyhose before latex. It works pretty good and I am soooooo happy to have liquid latex.

EDIT on 7th:

Yesterday I posted on stopmotionanimation.com asking for reviews of the armature drawing I made. Most of the people replied writing me about the metal thickness of the ball joint I made. They were telling me to use thicker ones. I have limited machinery and I was not sure if I could cut thicker metals. Today, I wanted to give it a try and bhought some thicker brass. And it worked! I can cut and shape thicker brass with Dremel tool. And the result after long dusty process:

This thing is really small.. I could not believe for a while that I did this :) 12×8 mm
And another BIG BIG process for me… I was able to drill the ball !!!! (6mm) I applied a special treatment to the ball to make the steal softer and vaowww I was able to drill it. I will post about this unique information an old person gave me here, later with my tutorial post. So, thats all for now. Tomorrow is a big day,.. working on real joints… no more tests.

Continue Reading 8 comments kush, puppet making

Kush’s Armature and a Weekend Trip

by yaz on April 22, 2009 · 11 comments

in armature,birds,kush,puppet making,trip

I have been working on Kush. She is going to be an eagle like bird living on top of the tree of life. She is going to have a wire armature, supersculpy head.

As it is spring here, we went to sea side on saturday. And I had the armature with me.


Hey.. can I fly..


I am a bird can fly.. making an armature in a beautiful spring day by the sea.

Sunday; a trip to a wonderful place 1,5 hours drive away to our town by car. It was a great chance to take Lumix FZ-50 to shoot all day long trying to get used to camera. I used to use Canon 350D and Lumix’s settings are soo different. I need to spend some more time on it to take better pictures. So, our sunday trip:

Our friends took us to a secret beach. Not so many people knew this place and it did not even had a road to go. We had to go down the hill walking with all of our packs.

Zeynep (my daughter) was very happy with all the climbing and ofcourse swimming, playing. We tried fishing but no success… Mert took his camera and went down under the sea immediately.

I cut the meat and Ismo prepared sticks for cooking. Hmmmmm.. Just sooo delicious on a camp fire.

Climbing back was a little pain after a long day. Zeynep had a lot of fun saying -hey mum there are monsters here in the forest…

Edit: Adding the following pic for Shelley :)

Beautiful cottage… I wish I took more pictures of this.

Continue Reading 11 comments armature, birds, kush, puppet making, trip

And Adem’s Ball&Socket Armature…

by yaz on April 16, 2009 · 14 comments

in armature,puppet making

Here he is :) Adem’s armature. I received this armature couple weeks ago but did not have a chance to post here. It is simply beautiful. Many thanks to Erol Akbarci who made this armature for me. It works great!!! Very clean, carefully produced.

This is 5.5″ You see that he has very long arms. I also had some additional parts; longer leg, arm and body connection parts. So, in the future I will be able to replace the parts to have different armatures with different proportions. He can be 7″ longest.

Here is the drawings I sent him for production. (texts are in Turkish) If you like to download a larger size of this drawing you can go to downloads  page. There you will also find another drawing showing the additional parts.

Continue Reading 14 comments armature, puppet making