Fluttered - A Colour Script

Here is something I should have posted a while ago. My colour script for the film chronicling the visual change of light over the course of its duration.


Colour in my film is an important consideration becuase the events unfold over the course of one night, and the colour created by the lighting must reflect this. Starting of with warm, saturated tones, the film transitions through the cool pastel shades of night, to the cold pale light of dawn.

So too does the colour reflect the characters' actions in the film. The warm evening palette represents a freshness and vitality that possesses the nightguard as he begins his shift. The dark of the night heralds the introduction of the owlet, and is when the nightguard begins his underhanded schemes to rid himslef of the bird he so despises. The cold light of dawn represents the realisation of what has occured, and when the true consequence of the nightguard's actions are revealed.

Set Teaser and Ambient Lighting (Night) Test

Here is a teaser showing a close up of my castle fortifications set, complete with stone texturing. Eventually I will add gunge and moss to weather the whole thing up a bit to give it a sense of age and history, but I don't want to go too mad in these early stages. I have four more huge base pieces like this one to construct so it's gonna be time consuming enough just getting the basics built, but when it's all completed to this level of detail I imagine it'll look awesome.


Also I quickly messed about with levels and colour balance in AFX to get this shot to look like it's lit by ambient light at night time. What you see above is the vague aesthetic I hope to achieve, with a subtle blue overlay that suggests a moonlit night. I'll look into creating 'fake' night-time lighting in AFX in detail for when it comes to actual post-production.

Animatic... finally!

So here it is at long last, Fluttered in previs format.

First Prop...

...and it's a riveting one so prepare to get excited.





A sack filled with Bran Flakes!

This will just be used as general set dressing, and in all reality probably will only be glimpsed in a few shots, and only then as a background set piece, but its nice to know it's there, and will lend that extra bit of detail to my animation, contributing toward the overall look and feel of the world.

Notice too my character is beginning to have clothing. More on this in a following post.

Opening Shot Animation

Here is an animated element from my opening shot in which the film's titles reveal themselves to be written on a piece of parchment as it gets caught by the wind and blown aloft, revealing the castle below. Shown here is just the animated parchment element as it flutters in the wind, eventually the establishing shot of the castle exterior will be placed below.



(The title text will be redone more neatly for the final film, at the moment I'm using a rough render as its placeholder.)

Have at Ye..! Sword Research

Some preliminary sword research for my nightwatchman character:


I decided fairly early on that it was important that the sword be wooden because of several reasons.

First, that it makes the character of the nightwatchman seem less threatening and more comical. Without a real sword he is really quite harmless.

Second, it shows his ineptitude in combat and his unsuitability for the position he's in. Wood denotes his training rank, that he isn't fully competant enough yet to handle a real sword.

Finally, it makes his dramatic turn all the more impactful in that he appears harmless for two thirds of the film, before finally revealing he has no need for a weapon when it comes to displaying his aggression.

(And lastly I've always liked wooden swords).

Yawn...

A practise stretch and yawn from my armature, not very convincing but it was a fun little distraction from hoovering my bedroom.

Costume Design

Here is the basic costume design for my character. The general attire has been quite carefully researched to be period accurate, but I have taken minor artistic liberties to suit my needs. Details follow:


Outer tunic: Woven cotton material, akin to a modern t-shirt but rougher. The colour scheme comes from my intention to make the castle guards more like (to use a modern frame of reference) community support officers rather than policemen, by which I mean they are chiefly not employed as defenders of the realm and warriors, but rather a visible source of support for residents of the walled city. Because of this I have chosen the Medieval equivilant to high-visibility clothing, a bright orange and yellow colour scheme. This would mean that the castle guards were easily spotted from a distance to act as a deterant to foe, and as support for citizens, especially at night where their position along the walls could be guaged with ease.

Under-garment: Thick hessian like material, stuffed with straw. Being on watch all night is a chilly affair, especially during the winter. Hence it makes perfect sense that the guards need to keep as warm as possible by means of a thick undergarment which insulates and keeps their body heat in (at least as much as possible with Medieval materials and methods). Think itchy pajamas.

Wrapped twine: Crudely woven thread. Being stuffed full of straw as it is, the undergarment needs to be sealed at the wrists and ankles to keep the straw in. Further, the tightly interwoven twine compacts the straw, providing improved insulation.

Rope belt: Thick rope. Used as a makeshift belt to keep the long tunic held up about the waist and prevent flapping. Similarly keeps the trousers up. Wound round the waist a single time and knotted at the front/side.

Trousers: Woven cotton material, brown. Trousers that are semi-ill fitting and somewhat worn They are also too short. Worn on top of the under-garment and beneath the tunic. Typical peasant-wear, practical and simple.

Sack shoes: Formed from hessian sacking. Stitched to form the shape. Simple shoes, offer little in the way of foot protection but moreso than barefoot. Easily worn, most notably on the soles and heels.


The choice of this costume is meant to portray an amalgamation of both peasantry, and the uniform in service of the king. Being only very newly employed, I like to think that the night-guard has yet to receive his full uniform. He has been presented with the mandatory high-visibility tunic but has had to further makedo with only his typical peasant day attire in conjuntion. This then is just cause for his desire to stay warm, wearing as he is only meagre and thinly woven clothes.

More Tests

This test encompasses several practises that I need to work on for my final film, including:

Armature acting and general movement
Integration of sound effects
Motion blur (to use or not?)



In particular, this test was meant to highlight the importance of a realistic soundscape for my film.

Adding sound effects really grounds the motion nicely in reality, gives it a sense of weight and firm presence. Without it the motion is acceptable, but you are aware that the motion is being carried out by a 6 inch masking tape man with a small piece of metal. With sound added however it brings a presence and physicality to the character which really brings him to life that bit more, adds that extra dimension needed to really sell the shot.

It's true when they say that well produced sound design makes good animation great.


I hope to spend a fair proportion of time on creating a soundscape for my film, one that will bring it up a notch and make it that bit more professional.

How Illuminating

Here is a rough mock up of my film's title, taking inspiration from 15th century Medieval illuminated manuscripts, in which the first letter is elaborately illustrated with subjects from the passage of text, and is embellished with gold leaf.


And here are two variatons on the above - I've yet to choose my favourite:



There are clues in the illumination as to affairs that'll occur in the plot, chiefly the depiction of an owl. Further, the apparent leaves that adorn the F are in fact feathers (which will be more obvious on the final version), while the structured base of the F illustrates the castle setting.
The design above was largely based on the following:

and is typical of illuminationsdating from around that period. So too is the owl illustration based on real Medieval illustrations of the time, most specifically these:

Rejected Character Design

Here is a quick character I came up with, and quickly rejected.


Although my nightguard is meant to be inexperienced, this deisn appears too young for what I was intending.

Owlet CGI Wings Tests

Here are two tests I have conducted into integrating CGI wing elements into a stop-motion animated scene. Which do you prefer..?





I like the first for its speed, and the second for its wing shape. The perfect result therefore will be a combo of the two.

Owlet Design Influences

My owlet is designed to be cute. He will be necessarily cute because then it will make the moment when he dies all the more powerful. The owlet’s primary intention in the story will be to antagonise the nightwatchman in various annoying ways, mostly just through his being there.

His actions are not malicious or deliberate; he is young and just playing.The design for my owlet will be unreaslistic in as far as shape and anatomy. My owl will basically be a sphere with wings. He will not fly like an owl, instead more like a bumble bee or a hummingbird in that he hovers in one place before rapidly switching to a new place in the air. This will be in keeping with the annoying nature of his presence. He is not a graceful bird, he is clumsy and about as unaerodynamic as you can get.

The influence for my owlet character comes from multiple sources as pictured below:

Firstly, just how stupidly fake and spherical an real owl can look.

Everyone's favorite: Woodstock of course. I want to emulate his fantastic animation in the flight style of my owlet.

The hummingbird: Again, this bird's method is flight is what I hope to capture, at least in part, with the animation on my owlet. Getting into the more obscure now...

As much as I dislike to take reference from Harry Potter, the Golden Snitch successfully captures the spirit of my owlet - small, fast, hard to catch. Plus it is a sphere with wings as in my original design intention.

This little thing is Clocky the Run-away Alarm Clock, and the stress I feel every morning when he runs away from me is exactly the kind of feeling I imagine the owlet induces in the nightguard. Everything about it from its erratic movement to its speed and noise are downright annoying. Perfect. And finally...

My cat. I've always though that she looks a bit like an owl, but more than that I'm drawing influence from the times when she has jumped onto my stop-mo set in the middle of an important scene in the past, and caused me a fury not unlike the one I hope to induce in the nightguard when he finally snaps.

Wow, long post... design drawings to follow.

Canon EOS 550D Baby!

I now have one.

Some Castle Imagery

Here is some general castle imagery by way of basic research into the design for my fortified wall set.


Rustled together from google images.

Background Experiment

Just a brief test to gauge the feasability of using a LCD monitor as a background in my film.



It looks fair for a first attempt, but as has been pointed out to me, syncing the camera's shutter speed with the monitor's flicker rate and maintaing that for the duration of a shot would be very difficult. Evidence of this is in the above test, wherein the brightness of the background hills fluctuate.

Straight in with the Animation

Yeah, I know we are only in the preproduction phase of our final year films, but when you have a shiny new ProPlus armature arrive on your doorstep it's hard not to play with it.

As it is this test was done in haste with my new armature soon after I completed its lengthy construction (my hand is still sore from all that sawing).



This thing is miniature craftsmanship and moves so smoothly. I just hope I can do its superb articulation justice when it comes to animating with it for real, and not obscure its range of movement too drastically with the addition of the outer foam covering that will create the character's form. Already his torso is kinda hard to bend, and that is without clothing.

ProPlus armature courtesy of the excellent people over at animationsupplies.net

So it begins...

Welcome to my online Production Diary for my latest stop-motion animated short film - FLUTTERED.