Kasper's Blog

Robot pictures

2012-01-15T13:25:00.000+01:00

It's been ages since I've updated, alot of stuff has been going on in the meantime, which distracted me from posting any new stuff.
Currenty I don't have my own workspace, haven't worked on my film for over a month now due to the Christmas vacation, and the fact that my school has not assigned me a new workspace yet (apparently they don't want me to graduate?).
I have been enjoying the time off (which I really needed) and been working on some freelance stuff. It's gonna be a little tough to start up again, but I still need to set up and animate more than half of the shots for my film.

Anyway, some more robot pictures in this post.

Replacement mouths for the robot.

Robot on rigging block for torso shots.

Robot ready to be animated.

Time-lapse

2011-11-16T23:42:00.000+01:00

A short time-lapse, this was a 9 hour animating session for about 8 seconds of animation.

Robot in motion

2011-11-13T21:31:00.001+01:00

I've finished two new shots this week!
They are the first shots I animated with my robot puppet. I try not to show too much, so instead of showing the shots, I will show you one of my test animations as a teaser. I will try to post some time-lapses too, when I get the time to edit them a little.

It's not much but that's all I can show right now without spoil too much.
I did some more little tests like this to get a feel of the puppet. The animations in the final shots will be better :)

Set Building & Animating 3

2011-10-27T23:15:00.001+02:00

I feel really original making up these names for my blog posts.

I've moved from my father's studio to a room in my school, I had to move ALOT of stuff, materials, props, setfloors, equipment, etc. This forces me to leave my house to actually work on my animation, instead of sitting at home like a hermit. So I guess that's awesome!

I've animated a few scenes so far, still too few according to my "schedule", one I haven't updated in weeks since some stuff happened that "slightly" delayed my shooting schedule.
Anyway, here are some obscure (and blurry) photos of the studio and the set.
I try to resist to not post all of my final shots, since that would ruin the final animation I guess.
So that's why I'm posting these here photos instead, yes!

Animating a warning sign for my first shot.

Setting up a post-apocalyptic shot in the city.

Unpainted city ruin props, I already have alot of them (both foam and paper), but I still needed lot's to fill shots and for matte paintings.

Set Building & Animating 2

2011-09-30T17:42:00.001+02:00

Some photo's of the set from the previous post, from a different angle.

The size and proportions where all done by hand, looking through the image capture application. For the dirt road I used string and needles so I could adjust the road to get the right false perspective, before actually painting the road.
For this shot I had to create some mini props, like the rocks you see in the distance, and the streetlights. The most fun however was trying to make an even thinier car wreck than my other car props.

The material is quite delicate, so cutting out the tiny windows was quite the challenge. If I had the time I would have put some wheels on it, but the car is too far away to notice that anyway.

Set Building & Animating

2011-09-28T16:33:00.001+02:00

Finally, animating!
I started building the first (and might I add the largest) set for my film a few weeks ago, unfortunately I got ill for a few days, so the process was a bit slow.
It was quite tricky because it's a false perspective shot :)

The following shot is the first shot of my film.

To show you the scale of my set.

It's still the raw unkeyed and uncomposited version of this shot, but here it is, I animated the focus-pull by hand. Check the full HD version!

My next post will feature some making of pics of the set, to show you how the set looks from different perspective.

Props

2011-09-04T16:39:00.006+02:00

I've been way too lazy/busy (yes, that sounds very contradicting) to post lately! Some more props and buildings were made. I made two checklists, one for my storyboard (of which I finished the final version about a month ago), and a how-many-thing-do-I-still-have-to-build checklist.
The latter is almost finished, and soon I will start setting up the sets and props in the studio. I still have some setbuilding to go though. I need to paint the boards for the setfloors, some additional props and mess around with the greenscreen/lighting set-up some more.

My estimate is that I will be animating my first shot in about 2 weeks.

Here some props:

A radio tower.

And a building, there will be little dancing people in it.

Back to zhe storyboard

2011-07-11T20:39:00.001+02:00

Well, back to storyboarding!
The last time I checked my storyboard I thought, damn, there's still alot of boring shots in it! And since I will be making use of the green screen alot I can make some shots even bigger en better :)

I'm not really a fast storyboarder though, and I tend to overthink alot of shots and choices. I'm lucky that I already had a decent board lying before me, but there's still alot of shots who need to be redone in different angles, or where some elements have to be added.

Here's some of my new shots (just imagine the first version was pretty boring, can't be arsed to post the old ones):

Bleep

2011-06-26T18:17:00.001+02:00

Update time! New robot pictures!
Ofcourse it's not done yet.. this is just a dry assembly, I need to gleu some of the joint parts to the puppet and make sure the joints are nice and comfy/tight.

As you can see I still have to finish the mouth replacements, and the eyelids.
I'm still surprised that I made the robot so heavy, shouldn't have used that much wood. I'll need to build a supporting rig in case the robot needs to stand on one leg.

Also, I had my first exam last week, but they gave me half a year extra to finish my film. Which I'm glad about because I became too stressed out lately.
It's good to know that I have enough time to animate properly and fine tune my film :)

Post Annecy update

2011-06-17T12:19:00.000+02:00

I'm back on track a bit, had a few busy days not working on my project. I'm still working on the puppet ofcourse. I picked up the armature supplies at the Animation Supplies at the MIFA in Annecy. Got to speak with Andrew who designs the armatures himself. Nice guy, I even got to buy the armature for a lower price :)

Anyhoo, here's a pic of the robot so far.

I'm still working on assembling the joints. Been glueing and sawing like a mad man for the last two days. My first deadline is next tuesday, I hope to get some animation tests ready with soundeffects before that time.

Pre Annecy update

2011-06-03T16:53:00.002+02:00

*EDIT: added some more photo's*

Well, the puppet's not finished yet. I wanted to finish it earlier this week, but I've gotten pretty tired with working on this film the last couple of days. I wanted too, but I could only pull off a couple of hours a day (instead of like 8 on a normal work day).
But luckily I'm going to leave for the Annecy festival today, I really need this vacation, RIGHT NOW. So I'm glad my little "setback" in working on this project came now, and not 2 months before or after the festival.

Anyhoo, here's some pictures of the robot so far.

I rigged the legs, but I discovered the puppet's body is actually a bit too heavy to support it. It works fine when it's standing on both legs, but when I need to animate a walkcycle or a dance, it tends to get a bit wobbly. So I decided to order a ball & socket armature at Animation Supplies. I started using aluminum wire because I thought a professional armature was too expensive.
But since this is my graduation film, and I want the robot to animate properly without falling over, I decided to order one.

I should have avoided using wood for the torso, but I couldn't really find a material that was easy to handle and as sturdy as wood. All the other parts are quite heavy too, it was a bit naïve of me to think the robot wouldn't get too wobbly this way. At least I learned something :)
Hopefully the re-rigging process won't take long!

Well, I'm off to watch animations and enjoy the sun in France.

Au revoir!

Puppet preview

2011-05-29T19:53:00.002+02:00

Yes yes yes YESH. Zhe puppet is almost finished!
I only need to work on the head and torso, and maybe glue a few wire plugs, but still, ALMOST FINISHED.

Here's a small preview:

Shiny update

2011-05-27T14:01:00.000+02:00

Yesh, more props!!
The tank can actually rotate it's turret! It won't animate in this film, though I will use it to animate for funsies later on.

Robot Update

2011-05-24T19:12:00.002+02:00

Small update, the puppet is almost finished!

I am le tired

2011-05-02T01:03:00.000+02:00

I finally started building the puppet. Most of the time I start with building the puppet first, but for some stupid reason I didn't have the right equipment and materials yet.
This is also the first time that I use wood for my puppet.

I started on the head and torso today, the white objects are part of the arms and fingers. They're made out of apoxie sculpt, there's KS tubing inside them. I use the tubing for a simple plugin system, so I can replace any broken aluminum wire.

As you can see I'm not that far yet, but it isn't bad for just 1 day of work.

Moving on to the new set pieces. These are the miniatures that I use for shots of the city in the distance. I will recycle the buildings in post production. Parts of the set will be bluescreened, which allows me to make the city a bit bigger. Saves me alot of time building props :)

I'm inspired by all kinds of stuff when building the props, post-apocalyptic movies, real life disasters (the ferris wheel for example, Prypjat, Tjernobyl), comics, etc. The set is going to contain some little hidden references to my sources of inspiration.

Not really sure if this is interesting, but here's a pic of some of the templates I use for my buildings:

I trace them, and then change them a little so I have a new and different building. Works like a charm!

I'm sorry if this blog post seems a bit incoherent, but I'm really tired and it's late. Time to go to bed.

Kasper out.

Buildings

2011-04-18T16:43:00.000+02:00

Some set pieces!

Shiny

2011-04-10T13:06:00.002+02:00

Another done, last one. Now I'm off to build the set and props :)

New Props

2011-04-08T23:05:00.000+02:00

A new car and some rusty/broken car props:

Miniature Cars

2011-04-03T17:28:00.000+02:00

I spent the last few days building little car props for my graduation film.
Here's a few photo's of the process:

I started with cutting out the outlines of the car into foamboard and glueing them together.

I made the little wheels and headlights out of black and yellow fimo clay.

The red car is almost finished, you can see the blue van in it's early state in the background.

Et voila, the finished cars. The green van is probably getting some hippie decals, although the small scale makes that a little difficult.

Storyboard Roboto

2011-03-19T20:08:00.000+01:00

Small update. These are two shots of my graduation film. It's about a lonely giant robot discovering music.
Progress on the storyboard is going a tad slow, although I'm getting a bit faster at storyboarding now.
But I'm almost getting there! Can't wait to start building the set and the puppet :)

High Res Klaj Pics

2011-03-13T21:40:00.001+01:00

I uploaded some raw (slightly cropped) HQ photo's of Klaj. They're basically the frames I shot for the animation, before keying and compositing.
Since the size and quality of the original animation isn't that great (I should've worked in widescreen or HD), I thought it would be a great idea to upload some shots to Flickr.

I'm adding some more productions shots to my Flickr account later on :)
Be sure to check out the biggest size!

Here's a link to the set.

Quick Sketches

2011-02-22T23:36:00.001+01:00

A couple of quick sketches.

Cardboard Smile

2011-02-08T19:29:00.001+01:00

Cardboard Smile
Originally uploaded by Kasper Werther

My first experiment with cardboard, depth and a deep frame. I want to try and make more of these in the future. I like the idea of creating little scenes out of clay or cardboard that someone can hang on his wall.

Showreel

2011-02-06T23:53:00.000+01:00

I posted my new showreel on youtube a while ago.
It's also available on vimeo now!

Showreel 2011 from Kasper Werther on Vimeo.

It's ALIVE

2011-02-03T23:33:00.003+01:00

And still kicking.

I've been very busy the last couple of months, so there was no time for blog posts!

Two weeks ago I uploaded two new animations that where made for our 3rd year group project at the HKU. They were made for the website of "het Klokhuis", a long running (since 1988) Dutch television program for kids.
The animations are basically short instruction video's for simple games that kids can play with random household items. It's based on the book "Spelletjes met Spulletjes" by Ferry Piekart and Lars Deltrap.

This was the most fun and exciting project I've had during my years at the HKU, because I used to watch Klokhuis a lot when I was young. There's even a chance that they'll air the animations on tv.
Plus each animation had to be a different style, to add to the chaos and playfulness of the games. They didn't hold us back in terms of creativity.

The intro and outro were made by Nicky van Kessel, and Rover Race was a collaboration between me and Arthur Gorissen.

Rover Race

Bobbel Frommel

Check the other animations by my groupmates in the youtube playlist below, or by following this link.

E-card Compilation

2010-10-07T11:48:00.000+02:00

Some new material, a couple of e-cards I made during my internship at Studio Carambolas.

Clay Sculptures

2010-10-03T15:54:00.001+02:00

Me and fellow HKU buddy Junaid Chundrigar did some concept work for a company logo a while ago. I sculpted the clay models, and Junaid digitally colored them. He also made concept art for the characters.

We didn't get the assignment, but we have some nice portfolio work now.

Ink Drawings

2010-04-08T22:14:00.001+02:00

Yikes, another post so soon! Mostly there's two months in between :p
Here's some old ink drawings:

I should try to draw with ink more often, it can create nice results, although I tend to make a bit of a mess.

Current Project

2010-03-30T12:21:00.000+02:00

Two characters for a current project:

Space Wolf

2010-02-11T20:34:00.001+01:00

It's been a while since I've posted something, because I'm lazy!
So here's a quicky with some stuff I've had laying around for a while, for Werewolves of London.
The project is on pause now and will be changed drastically, instead of becoming a full videoclip it will be a shot promo animation.

I jumped in a bit too quickly without thinking about how long a 4 minute animated videoclip was going to take. But I was a bit desperate to work on something because I wasn't running/doing (however you say it in English) an internship like the rest of my class.

Enough talking, more watching:

It's an astronaut! I designed him to be a bit steampunk-ishy. His legs are a little bit short but once I make the clay version it will be corrected! There's actually a werewolf inside, but he's reluctant to take off his helmet, can't blame him to be honest.

He get's to fly this spiffy spaceship:

Werewolves of London

2009-12-18T15:52:00.001+01:00

Some early clay relief sculptures for my new project. I'm making a videoclip for Mark Corbett for his cover of Werewolves of London.
The basic idea of the videoclip is that Frank (a character from an early animation) is getting chased by a werewolf. At a certain point he gets bitten and starts to hallucinate.
Here's frank, obviously he's not complete yet:

And here's two versions of the head of the werewolf:

Klaj

2009-11-21T15:53:00.000+01:00

Klaj is featured on HKU's very own blog .unstblog, not that I won a prize or anything. You can send in your own work and if they'll like it they put it online. It's nice since more people can get to see your work!

I also submitted Klaj to dropstuff.nl. If you send in your work to dropstuff it has a chance to be chosen to be broadcasted in a glass house that travels around the Netherlands. Or something like that, it's still a bit vague to me but it's also a nice way to reach more people with your work. You can vote on Klaj by clicking this link. I'm not sure if the ratings have any effect in if you get chosen or not, but it's worth a try :p

I originally wanted to make a post about Frank and his many versions that I have used in my animations so far. But since my little cousin borrowed my puppet for a school presentation, I have to wait to get it back so I can take some pictures of it.
I could also scan in some more drawings, but I still have to figure out some of my future projects, since my internship at Beast Animation ended a few weeks ago.

So I still have to figure out what I'm going to do next, and I'm still waiting for some emails from my teachers and other animators.

First post EVER!

2009-11-07T01:14:00.001+01:00

Oh my gosh! My very first post on this here new blogspot....BLOG!

I actually have no idea what to write here, at the moment I don't really have anything to say, at least no things that make sense at all...

So instead I'll post two fresh new drawings!

It's a puker! Wow! Gross! Etc! People who know me and who have seen my latest animation will start to think I have a vomit fetish or something.

This one speaks for itself, me and some class/schoolmates are planning to make a little zombie movie. There just HAS to be a zombie clown in it because:

A. Clowns are scary as hell, let alone a zombie clown

B. I like to see them die in a gruesome way

C. I HATE clowns (see B)