Started animating when he was 12. Inspired by Morph. Found his way into Aardman at 22.
Animated Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep.
Shaun the Sheep was first seen in the Wallace and Gromit film 'A Close Shave'. He was a popular character from his brief appearance and so that made him his own show.
Order of production.
Script.
Storyboard (Cintiqs. Every scene broken down.)
Animatic + Voice actors.
Set Building.
Character building.
Animating.
Post production.
Creating the world.
Everything is made by hand except for skies and some special effects.
Large fully coloured drawings and designs.
Very Large scale sets- needs a warehouse with very high ceilings.
Floor+ Scaffold+ Wooden pallets underneath sets for stability.
Polystyrene for cliffs and things. Stick it to mdf and carve away.
Teddy bear felt painted green for grass.
Glass made by a local man.
Character build.
1. Plasticine sculpt.
2. Armature.
3. Break down into parts- hands and head gone.
4. Foam latex inside fibre glass moulds for body and baked.
5. Trimmed and hand painted.
6. Mouth sets and moulds made.
Head made up from hard and soft elements. Detailed/ textures- hard. The rest plasticine. Latex hands. Foam body. Tie down onto set through feet.
7. Movement tests.
8. Mouth mould made and silicon poured in.
9. Plasticine colours mixed in house.
More than 120 sheep were made for the film. Hard elements for the head and feet. Black and white plasticine is really hard to work with. The only plasticine on Shaun is the eyelids.
In the Studio.
Background figures sometimes in 2D. 2D cut outs look like puppets if they are far away or very close and not in focus.
Big sets- need to climb on set to reach characters.
3 seconds a day on average done. Less if there are more characters to take care of.
Sets designed so that they can come apart easily for access.
Live action video.
-Perform the shots.
-Tiny web camera.
-Acted out by directors and animators.
Water Drops- glass beads, perspex, vaseline, glycerine.
Use dragon frame and canon cameras.
To make scrubs costumes, they 'borrowed' scrubs from a hospital.
Post production.
Rig removal.
Skies added.
Sound- they recorded a full orchestra.
550,000 shots in Shaun the Sheep.
Start to finish took 9 months, Pirates tool 16-18 months.
Heat can affect the set- can cause movement.
If moving camera through a set, motion control rig. It'll move the camera frame by frame. Can't animate camera on twos or it would look juddery.
To get into animation:
Luck.
Be Persistent.
Get in as a Runner/ Junior model maker.
Just get your work out there. Make sure people know you're there.
Just keep getting feedback, reach out to companies just to ask for feedback.
@will_becher on twitter.
Useful sites.
Skwigly.co.uk
Animate-it.com
Dragonframe.com
Aardman.com/jobs
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