Zoë Hutber Animation

@zoehutbersworld

Animation student at the University of Edinburgh pursuing a career in stop motion animation/fabrication/story.

263 posts

SOUND TEST - This is the first sample of sound effects for the film as it stands. Its very early stages yet, and Denisa, my sound designer/composer wants to record all the sounds herself for more accuracy. In this clip I like how tactile the poor couple seem, but I would like the banker to be heavier and deeper sounding, as well as his gavel being more resounding and intimidating. For the opening montage I think it would be great if the sound of coins built up as if there are loads of unseen coins in the room and the whole atmosphere is very confusing and overwhelming, then it all stop with the single clinking of the title coin.

CHARACTER ANIMATION TEST - This is an old test I found from when I first wanted to get a feel for personality with these very basic puppets.

TIMELAPSE - A quick video of me laser-cutting double sided coin business cards

TIMELAPSE - A quick timelapse of me animating one scene.

COIN DESIGN - Just some of the coin files for laser-cutting I designed on illustrator then exported to CorelDraw

POST PRODUCTION - This shot is the final scene of the film, and since I only built half a set I checked I could mirror the shot in after effects before I animated it. I actually plan to reshoot/rethink the version of this scene I animated since the puppets are not really built to walk like sober people.

RIG REMOVAL - As some people know, I prefer to do as much as I can in camera to avoid post production. Therefore the most I am doing in post is rig removal and the odd touch up on tacky wax residue. The straight line rig removal Mike showed me is simply marvellous.

PRODUCTION - There were various minor setbacks in shooting, including one of the tiny poor couple’s arms breaking off and the banker’s head falling off, but most of the time I was able to fix it with something on hand and it not delay shooting too much. There was a lot of drama which you can keep up to date with on my instagram story at @shortchanged_gradfilm.

MONOCLE - I wanted the banker to have a threatening inspection tool, one he ideally didn’t have to hold since that would be really annoying to animate with his questionable arms. I decided on an eyepiece/monocle which I sketched some ideas for, but then on the day I wanted to laser cut some designs, the workshop was all booked up for the whole week. The best things I had to use instead were two hip coins of the copper couple which had ridged edges and holes in the middle, I therefore painted them gold and attached some acetate, which I then poked a giant eye pin through to hold it in place and give the magnifying effect on the banker’s eye.

SCHEDULE - I made a schedule on Google sheets shown here. This was helpful in avoiding continuity errors and prioritising shots. I began with shot angles which used the copper couple, then introduced the banker for scenes featuring them all, then moved onto the banker’s shots. Some shots I animated in reverse which meant that sometimes it made sense for a different production order which this schedule helped me spot.

TUBE - All babies come from somewhere. In coin world they are delivered by a big metal tube onto the banker’s desk. It’s all very tidy and clean. This tube is made of 4.5 Pringles tubes of various flavours, cut up and stuck back together. I patched up the gaps with squares of foam, then put glue gun dots along every boundary. I then painted it black and rub n buffed it gold. I really love this piece and when super clamped in position doesn’t move much at all.

GAVEL - I wanted it to be clear that after the banker finishes with each customer he clearly shouts “NEXT” for intimidation and ominousness. This was tricky since no one in this world has a mouth. Therefore I made a gavel for him to bang on the table to suggest the same thing. This was a circular piece of K&S glued to a cork all covered in foam, glue gun dots then painted black and rub n buffed. It was a little hard for the banker to hold but masking tape fixed it and i think it worked pretty well.

SET - I liked the steampunk texture of rub n buff on foam so I made everything on set like this. I covered everything in foam, added glue gun dots, then spray painted it black then used a sponge to rub n buff, mostly gold but also silver and copper. This has worked really well and is flexible for when I need to alter the set and can be moved around for different shots. The set wall was hard to find a good material for because card was unstable when bent into the curve I needed. I eventually used scored foam board which was very stable when clamped.

BABIES - I was unsure whether I wanted the babies to have one or two coins in their bodies, but since it would have been very hard to construct the puppets with only one coin, I chose two. both the babies’ armatures are the same, basically a five point star. The gold baby then got encased in a very short tube, whereas the copper baby’s coins have a gap between then. The gold baby is the only character to have squeezed shut eye pins instead of the standard closed and open.

BANKER ARMS - I made two sets of arms for the banker, one set which goes through a coin on his body and two separate arms which can be clamped and rigged for shots in which the banker’s hands appear but not the rest of his body. All these arms work quite well, except the glue has come loose inside his arm coin so he cannot raise both arms at the same time since they flop down, but luckily this never comes up in the film. I used thicker aluminium wire and covered it with wadding, then used a bucket of embroidery thread to finish stuck with copydex since its flexible. The arms worked well except some fingers were too short and they were not the easiest to animate since they were quite stiff.

BANKER - I wanted as much difference in scale as possible between the poor couple and the banker. I also wanted him to be able to grow out of his desk and bend forwards. He has a central spine which comes through a hole in the set floor, through a weight, and his lowest coin sits on a jack-like device which allows him to be hoisted higher and lower. His individual coins are made of stacked cardboard discs, covered in foam, the edges of of which are ridged using a homemade tool, then spray painted and rub n buffed. I then drilled holes through the centre of all of these to fit them one by one onto the wire spine.

RICH PUPPETS - These puppets are bigger and did not need the same flexibility and durability of the poor puppets, so I made them differently. These ones only needed to be able to extract one or two coins from each of their bodies so I made hollow tubes out of cardboard for most of their bodies which was light and allowed me to put aluminium mesh inside so they could have some sway and movement. I made the gold coins bigger by cutting them 54mm then gluing two together and lining their edge in ridged foam, the tool for which I made myself.

Zoë Hutber Animation @zoehutbersworld - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag