Progress

Got the storyboard all scanned in and laid out so I can take a look at what needs to be built/seen of the sets, if shots are the same framing. I started doing some color layouts of the locations to get a feel for how I want to color to progress throughout. Mostly because Dogbody is really depressed, his world will be dark and dull. But during moments when he has strong emotions, the world will pop out, be more vibrant... so this is the start of exploring those ideas

Also making headway on the armature. Plan is to finish this one during the week and test it out next weekend!

Ladybird, studio space and sets

some highlights:

setting up the basement with all my collected art supplies!

 stage 1 of the living room couch

 stage 1 of Dogbody's friend, Ladybird, part pigeon, part Lady

stage 2 of the couch...

Replacement face making

Last weekend I started sculpting and molding another head to serve as a template for the replacement mouths. I'm planning to make a bunch a similar neutral mouths and then sculpt expressions into them for the dialog shapes I need. I did some test molds and so far nothing that is flexible enough to release unbaked sculpey without it distorting in the process so more experimenting will have to happen...

Sculpting

I made a to scale reference sculpt to help with scaling the sets and figure out how to get the replacement mouths to work. After going through the script, it looks like I'll need around 33 mouth shapes for the talking and probably another 15 for particular expressions he'll make.

Animation test #1

Made a quick test armature last weekend and got a few steps in before it broke... Will fix it to keep some personality screen tests going while I build the puppet, going to take some practice to get him walking the way he should. It's really short so having some trouble getting it to embed.. if it won't play here, check it out on vimeo

The Armature

This is the original sketched out plan for Dogbody's body armature and some details of the joint I planned. I worked on some mock ups of the puppet and sets over the Christmas break and he's probably going to be 50% smaller than these plans(which put him at about 9.5" long 6" tall)...Not sure how to make his head yet, probably a combination of mechanical brow and replacement mouths...

Front Foot Design

Front Forearem

Belly Mover

Lung Mover

Front shoulder

Head Mechanics Ideas

First Post- waiting for some glue to dry...

 and decided I would make a blog to track my progress as I make the short, stop motion film, Dogbody. To get this started right-- some Mariah, in a remix of the song that helped inspire the character
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gFpSw0AETs