#unitx2018

[abiekio]

Scene 7.1 (Raw Footage, only a few seconds)

This is part of the last scene where Gikuyu tells Ngai and his people to multiply and fill all the land.

Once again I filmed this separately, similarly to scene 5 I rotoscoped the footage and added him to the back of the Mountain. His movements are a bit different as he lifts his hands up and down which does look like he’s asking for more. 

[abiekio]

Scene 5 (Raw footage, only a few seconds)

This scene is a part of the scene where Gikuyu asks Ngai for 9 sons to marry his daughters. I recorded it separately because I couldn’t get Ngai elevated high enough to be overlooking Gikuyu all in one shot. I also had to put him on a crate to get him high enough for the camera, I then rotoscoped the footage to get rid of the blue screen, brown crate and, his knees. When I overlayed this footage with the Gikuyu footage, I tilted Ngai to the left to make him look like he immerged from the back of the Mountain.

[abiekio]

Scene 7 (Raw Footage, only a few seconds)

This is the second to last scene of the animation, which is followed by a short speech from Ngai. (seen in finished animation)

Ngai talks to the 9 sons that he finds at the Mugumo tree just as Ngai promised, he tells of them of his beautiful daughters, what they like, what they dislike like. He’s just trying to be a good father and matchmaker, the men are intrigued and ask several questions.

And of course, I tossed in a little bit of humour, actually two little bits. The man on the tree is asked to come down by one of his brothers, he does this by jumping off the tree and landing on his brother. The man at the back right is kind of a bully and constantly bothers the brother in front of him, at one point the brother being bullied confronts his brother but of course, they hug it out at the end.

[abiekio]

Scene 6.1 (Raw footage, only a few seconds)

Gikuyu takes the family back to the homestead. This is another scene where I used the magical crate. Since I added Gikuyu and I decided to add another crate. This meant that I didn’t have to stick them on to the sides and back, however, the second crate is a bit higher. I placed the short puppets in the bigger crate and the tall puppets (including Gikuyu) in the smaller crate.  I placed the short puppets in the bigger crate and the small puppets (including Gikuyu) in the smaller crate. This scene also has some humour, the girl being carried on Gikuyus back plays with her father by placing her hands over his eyes. I think this is really cute and is probably what daughters would do with their dads, Gikuyu responds by pulling her hands down so he can see where he's walking. Another piece of humour is one of the girls managed to carry a piece of meat from the bonfire, she shares it with one of her sisters that catches her eating. (not seen in this clip)

[abiekio]

Scene 6 (Raw Footage, only a few seconds)

In this scene, the family are all at the tree enjoying each others company and the goat meat. This is one of my favourite scenes because; 

I didn’t have to edit the blue screen out because it takes part at night meaning no blue screen

I added a little bit of humour, one of the girls throws a goat leg to her sister sitting across her. (not shown in this clip)

Mumbi has very impressive hand and neck movements, as she pulls out the cooked meat and lays it aside to cool for Gikuyu and the girls.

I didn't have to animate all the girls as they were hidden at the back and side, out of the view of the camera.

It wasn't the easiest scene to record, but one of the most satisfying one. I turned off all the lights in the room and used the spotlight and one side light with a red gel on top. 

[abiekio]

Scene 4.1 (Raw Footage, just a few seconds)

In this scene, the girls are each introduced with their names: (for this short clip on the last 5 appear)

Njeri

Wanjiku

Wangari

Wairimu

Wacera

Waitherandu

Wambui

Wanjiru

Wangui

The scene takes place in the hut as they walk out they each look towards the camera. I realised just recording their faces would make the scene short, and I would find that a bit hard to match with the narration. So I got a bit playful and tried to create a personality for each girl, some are quite close to each other,  some are mean to each other and one of them is slightly hyper since she is the youngest.

[abiekio]

Scene 5.2 (Raw Footage)

In this scene, the girls and Mumbi each carry a stick as instructed by Ngai and walk to the Mugumo tree to build a bonfire. Seeing as the female puppets physical structure wasn’t made for walking sequences, I sat them on a small wooden crate that I flipped upside down with a piece of fabric so as not to catch onto the wood. I pulled the crate in slow increments to create the illusion of them walking, this only worked because i shot them from the chest up. If i set the camera any lower, the legs of the girls would have been seen.

The crate was a bit to too small, so some of the girls had to be taped on the sides and back and pulled along the way.

This scene was a bit tedious as some of the girls kept falling off the crate, and the trees at the back fell down countless times because, as I moved the crate the fabric beneath it would pull the tree as well. 

[abiekio]

Other Props

1. Pestle and Mortar  2. Bowl 3. Knife

These 4 props were made with air drying clay, the knife has a matchstick for the handle and the pestle has a stick for the handle. I painted the clay with light brown and brown acrylic paint, for the knife I used silver acrylic paint.

4. Bonefire

I used 5 little sticks similar to the handle of the knife, glued them together overlapping each other. The rocks are made of brown plasticine clay shaped into little cubes, I used plasticine because I could easily shape them and if I place them close together they don’t move as much during recording.

5. Cloud I cut out two rough cloud shapes from a white 8x8cm felt sheet, I placed them on top of each other and stitched the corners with white thread. I left a little bit of space to pull it inside out, I then stuffed it with duvet fluff and stitched the remaining hole.