This is Bucket Boy

Bucket boy is a character who comes to life from everyday litter and junk. He begins as just a bucket and broom – shuffling along the ground with a couple of bricks for support – but gradually evolves a humanlike appearance, and humanlike behaviour. His problem is isolation. As an animated character in a time lapse world, he exists in a different timeframe from real people. Lost in a sprawling urban environment of waste grounds, alleys and underpasses, he experiences passersby as fleeting ghosts, blurry and incorporeal. How can he hope to communicate with them?

I’m still developing Bucket Boy’s story. My aim in building him is to test the feasibility of shooting stop-motion on location, with a puppet much bigger than the conventional twelve inches. By shooting a series of shorts – starting with the extremely short one below – I hope to expand my knowledge of location shooting, time lapse technique, photography and creative use of sound.

A dead man in my spare room

Ever fancied summoning up the virtual apparition of an executed murderer? This website tells you how.

I had a quick play to see if it would work - and it did, first time. It’s the same concept as this iPad app, but with pleasingly sepulchral overtones.

 

Manchester Evening News Article

A nice little write-up of the St Ambrose Barlow project:

St Ambrose Barlow - THE MOVIE!

This project taught me that ambition is everything. Even after we expanded our shooting schedule from two days to three, I seriously doubted it was possible to finish a seven-minute puppet animation film in so short a time. These amazing pupils proved me wrong.

Unlike most ‘workshops’, where the kids are shown some basic tricks and left to experiment, this was a genuine creative collaboration between pupils, students and media professionals – and I think the results speak for themselves. I’m new to the education game but I can’t help thinking this has to be the way forward. Are you reading this, Michael Gove?

Full credit must go to Chris Conlan (who set the creative bar), Sally-Ann Duis (art director and miniature wardrobe lady), David Hanson (script development genius), Lee Mann (sound dude, in more ways than one), Caitlin Clancy (production assistant and Mac-hacker), teachers Bernie and Matt, and student mentors Anna, Dan and Divya (who are actually the ones who made it happen) and, not least, the redoubtable Deborah Davidson, who should exec-produce movies if she ever finishes proving to the world what a talented bunch of kids we have in our schools.

St Ambrose Barlow - making the movie

Behind-the-scenes of high school animation project St Ambrose Barlow THE MOVIE!

2 weeks to make 5 puppet armatures

I made these wire-and-balsa puppet armatures while tutoring a high school animation project. The pupils will work on costumes and faces to develop them into fully-fledged puppets, and then use them to animate their own film. Watch out for future posts about ‘St Ambrose Barlow – THE MOVIE’!

Camera Move Test

View in HD by clicking 720p during playback

I love the way time-lapse can draw your attention to movement you wouldn’t otherwise notice, like the bits of litter flapping in the breeze. Next time, I’ll shoot at a slower rate to heighten the effect of the shadows creeping as the sun moves.

The point of this test was to see if I could achieve smooth movement by animating the camera by hand, then digitally stabilising the result.

Royalty-free music courtesy of Taylor Hayward.