Now I’ve read what some people say about competitions, that you shouldn’t enter them as they drain your soul or something along those lines. However I feel it’s a great way to get recognised (if you’re good enough that is) and besides, it’s a University brief so it’s not like I have a choice. Well anyway out of the restricted choice of D&AD and YCN briefs I chose the O2 YCN brief as an idea immediately leaped out to me.

At its simplest I went for a stop motion animation about two planets, Thera and Cavolon, whose lack of communication and connection has led to an argument over the colour of their shared moon. The name Thera and Cavolon were chosen because of the simple anagramatic link to their relevant words Earth and Volcano.

I made the two planets by using 8 cm Polysterene and 12 cm Dry Foam balls, respectively, as a base then building on them using Cladium clay, Bass Wood, Modelling Foliage and Acrylic paint. There were 4 Moons each just a 4 cm Polysterene ball with a coat of paint.

A poster I created as part of the brief

In the animation they’re supported on a makeshift base comprising of a bit of Doweling held in place by a Paper Maché Flower Pot and a Dowel cap glued to a plank of Bass wood all of which was then painted black. The various props are cardboard cut outs held aloft by Blu-​​Tac and Kebab skewering sticks. Lighting was provided through artificial means, the windows were blacked out, there was my room light as well as two Halogen desk lamps either side of the set.

Work in progress

I chose to keep the supports visible in the final video because I felt it was part of the aesthetic and not just because I didn’t want to extensively edit 372 photos, I did edit a few to hide the Blu-​​Tac and supporting boxes when they crept into the frame.

Taking these photos I imported them into Final Cut Pro with a default speed of 2 frames per photos at 25 fps, although this caused the Earth-​​like planet to revolve rapidly I felt 3 frames per photo was too jerky and slow. I then recorded a voiceover, using my voice as a placeholder until I find someone better, and imported various free to use and royalty free sound effects.

If the end result was to be given a title it would simply be ‘O2 Has A Solution’. It was captured using a Sony Alpha 100 and at full res it’s suitable for a 1080p HDTV.

Well here’s the final video.

I have the crit for this project tomorrow so I’ll see how it all goes but as far as project go it’s probably been the most amount of work I’ve put into a project and I certainly like the end result.

Well I had the crit and it went very well, the two tutors sitting in on this crit liked it very much, they had a few recommendations that I’ll work to implement over the Christmas break but all is going well this Semester.

You can now find the final piece here.