Wow, it's been how long?

I've been crazy busy lately! School is just wearing me out this semester, but that's okay. :)

The other day, I went to the park and I found a fallen bit of a branch that looks just like a full sized tree...in miniature. It has roots and everything - just perfect for my film! I am so excited about it, and will be posting pictures of it soon (like this evening probably). I've also got a few new things for the shop that I'll show you. They are paperclay sculptures. ^^

Also, while at the park, I was nearly bonked in the head with a hedge apple....0.0;

I haven't had time for much of anything else, which is crazy sad. Hopefully, since I think I've gotten into the swing of things, this week will go much more smoothly. I'm going to start taking my dogs to the park in the morning for a walk instead of the neighborhood blah that we do. That will be nice for us both, and I can take some work with me to do as well. That would be soooo nice.

Well, my cats believe it's time for food! Thanks for reading :D

Character Design!

I whipped out my gouache last night and went to town! I want to try to stay as true to my initial design as possible, which means I'll need to be able to control the hair...and there will be A LOT of hair. Ah, challenges. :)

Me and my resourceful self are considering using this HUGE bag of wool roving for my film. I tried out painting a little needle felted ball with gouache (I'm waiting for it to dry now), just to see how it would look. As far as I can tell now, it looks like it would make some interesting rocks and scenery, but for use on a character...not so much. I'll have to break down and buy some acid dyes to play with.

I'm thinking that I will felt a base for my character and then punch in synthetic hair of some kind (sort of like how they did the hair for Coraline) with wire. This way I can show it blowing in the wind, and bounce a little when they walk. I would love to do it with silicone, but I have a very limited budget, and am trying to use what I've got sitting around here...which is a ton of wool. :D

Any ideas you might have would be crazy helpful! Thanks for reading :)

What Good Curves Can You Throw?

I learned how to throw a "fastball" last night. :)

Better yet, I talked to my dad as well, and he said he would write the music for my film! I'm so excited! I'm sending him the story today, and he should be writing soon. In the meantime, I've got some armature wire to play with today. If I have time I may do a few set designs, and see where that goes. I know what I want it to look like, but I need to hack out those details! Wish me luck! :D

Oh, and I started my classes yesterday and I'm taking History of Animation! I have a whole bunch of old cartoons I have to watch this weekend, and I'm seriously looking forward to it. In a few weeks we are having an entire module devoted to stop motion! lol I can't wait for that either. ^.^;

Thanks for reading!

How It Took My Breath Away

Well, I've been cranking out ideas all morning and I've got a rough outline of a short involving one of the characters from my last post. (The little guy with the hump on his back). The third photo has a nice view of him. I acted it out roughly, and it should be about 1 1/2 - 2 minutes. I'm really excited about it.

My plan is to post a new "episode" every other week. This is just for me to practice stop motion since I don't have any experience...I would LOVE any constructive feedback you have for me! :D

I'm off to make a storyboard now. Thanks for reading! ^.^

Insert Nifty Horn Intro Here....

Well, I've been up for about 2 hours just kicking back browsing the internet, which I've done far too much lately. Anywho, I decided I would upload a few character designs for my new stop motion project. As of this moment, the story isn't set in stone yet, I just know that I have to do something with these characters...I'm just hoping the story will come to me soon.

These are just quick sketches that need fleshing out quite a bit, but I am loving the ideas so far. Enjoy :)

Squish, Squash, Pumpkin Sauce

I listened to the Coraline commentary yesterday while I crocheted. Twas so awesome I followed it up with the Nightmare Before Christmas commentary. lol After which I watched all the behind the scenes stuff for both...*sigh* Oh, how I LOVE stop motion. I would have given anything to walk around the Coraline sets, or see the puppets in real life...Those people are all so incredibly talented!

Anyway, I'll be opening up shop as soon as I can. *shrug* I'm trying to wait for my medium sized boxes to get here, but you can see everything I'll be selling on my blog before I open up. That will give me a bit more time to make some more dolls beforehand though. I'm thinking about selling some sculptures, but I'll have to buy a whole new kind of clay (I use modeling clay here, and there is a TON in my house). Oh well, I need to make some set pieces anyway...



Here is my first doll. She's pretty floppy, and her head is heavy. Could you just see a little girl running around with her?! I totally could, and she would be the coolest kid in the cul de sac because her doll is handmade and awesome to the max. :)




This guy is only 2 3/4inches tall when standing, 2 when sitting. As you can see, he's only as big as her foot! He is 5-way thread jointed (head, arms, legs) and has a super awesome purple helmet.

So, I kept my promise of two pictures! Yay! Today I'm crocheting another doll, and I may do some sculpting. Thanks for reading, and be looking for another post tonight! :D