Got a New Green-Screen!

It’s been slow news for the past two month, but all that is changing.

I had ordered a green screen from www.tubetape.com and it arrived earlier this week. It’s a massive 10 by 12 feet (compared to the other screen I had that was 8 by 8 feet) and cost 20 dollars. Add thirty dollars for shipping and ten dollars for customs clearance and the total cost ended up coming to just over sixty dollars. I don’t feel like that’s too much money to spend. It was important for me to have the correct green to key out.

So it came as a surprise to me when, upon unwrapping the packaging, I found out that the green screen was significantly darker than the last one I had used. I’m not complaining. I have to test it out first. I was just taken aback. Maybe because after shooting two scenes and having some difficulties getting a solid key on some shots I’m realizing I may have been using the wrong green.

According to tubetape.com, to obtain a perfect key you need to light the green screen evenly and have a screen that’s as close to pure green as possible. Sounds fairly simple but I think in practice there are other factors to take into consideration such as the how the color of the lights you are using to light the screen may modify the color of the screen itself.

Without getting into specifics, if you are using a DV camera connected to a computer you should be able to use software to check whether your green screen will key out using a chroma vectoroscope. I don’t have either so I guess the only way for me to find out will be to test it out. Before that I need to have the screen ironed to remove folds and I also need to install a rod to support the screen in place.

Before I resume shooting (or testing for that matter), I need to buy lights. I found two types of red-reads in town. One type is Chinese and the other is German. Both use the same bulbs which are available in plenty, but the Chinese lights have a lifespan of a few years while the German red-heads apparently last forever. I’m not picky, so I might get the Chinese lights (unless anyone raises any objection between now and next Saturday).

 

The Damage Report 4

…lack of damage last month. Not to worry there will be more news soon.

 

This just in…

…and now we have some  complications.

1. 1. After shooting the drumming scenes Maena (bless him) needed his lights and green screen back so I have to find some way to substitute these. Fortunately I am starting a new scene, so I’m not too worried about switching lights as opposed to doing the same in the middle of a scene. The drumming scenes were fundamental to the whole film and having the Lowel lights and the screen made shooting it a lot more painless. The new green screen consists 2 pieces of joined cloth with a huge seam in between. It suck, but will have to do for now.
2. Olokut just broke his shoulder, and the Omulosi puppet lost some fingers after the drumming sequences. I need to ensure that both puppets are structurally sound before shooting.
3. I begin production on an animated series in September so this gives me five weeks left to shoot. No pressure.

 

Update

The drumming scenes are looking great!

I am now gearing up for the first (sequential) scenes in the film right now. I want to start shooting on monday. I found out that Olokut’s shoulder was broken yesterday and this made me strip down both arms for re-building. I will also make an extra set of hands just in case they need replacement during shooting.

I am also designing a chicken for use in the first scenes. I had to build two actually, one for close-ups and one that Olokut will carry and throw on his bicycle.

The bicycle is a very important part of the story. I got it from a wire-maker in Kisumu who specialises in making them. Initially I hadn’t planned to have it in the film, but I looked at the storyboard and felt that having it in would be potentially interesting for the film. Then I looked at the bicycle and saw that it fit Olokut perfectly. I made slight modifications so that It could be animated, but that little bicycle model was a godsend.

 

The Damage Report 2

So far I am in the region of three and a half minutes out of 12. I’m still closing in on finishing three scenes, but that’s because the I’m still animating the drumming sequence. I was going to cut it short to move on to other scenes; In fact, the footage I have now is just enough to tell the story; but after reviewing the assembly Thursday, I really felt that it needed to be the original length so that the audience could enjoy the performance. It felt like it needed that extra bit so that it becomes a truly complete scene. I also took the time to repeat one shot that I felt was really important to the whole story, but wasn’t animated to my satisfaction. I feel really happy with the scene now and that’s a good thing considering that it is one of the biggest scenes in the film and one of the most technically challenging. Having said that I’m out of patience and short of time so I want to wrap up the additional shots and start work on the other scenes.

 

The Damage Report 1

Welcome to the first principal photography damage report. I have done over a minute of animation in one month which brings the total tally of minutes photographed to two out of ten (or a possible fifteen). I am almost done with 2 scenes. These for me are the hardest since they involve drumming.

I worry for this month since I will be switching scenes so I will need to break to develop additional peripheral characters like a chicken and a cow for example.

I feel good about last month since I finally completed all my voice recordings last week and I’m feeling pretty good about it. I think the actors did a really great job and went out of the way to lend some credibility to my dialog which I felt was a bit dodgy in places. You do sympathize with the characters just hearing them speak. This simplifies things for me as an animator but then again I feel like I have to work that much harder on the poses just to capture all the nuances in the acting. News on the cast will be forthcoming soon.

 

Animate, Break, Fix, Animate

That’s the way things go. I’m closing in on having 2 scenes done by the end of the month. So far so good. I just had a really good shot destroyed thanks to my battery running out of charge mid-shot. I have to do another take and make it even better.

Every shot has it’s own challenges and there are many little ways to fix te problems that every shot unravels. It’s like a path of discovery that ends either when you have learned something new and have a really good shot or when you just have to abandon ship (hoping to fix it in post) and then moving on to the next shot. Luckily I haven’t had to deal with the latter yet.

 

Production Upgrade / Working with Gimp

I upgraded my lights thanks to Maena Mucoki who was kind enough to lend me his Lowell Kit and a green screen as well. I owe him big time. The green screen is 8 ft square and the light kit has two TOTA lights and one OMNI light. A huge improvement from my simple reading lamp with a really bright energy saver.

Keying is going to be 80 percent easier with this equipment because I can get a consistent green on the plates. The puppet I’m using keeps breaking, but I am used to that happening by now.

I’m not using Gimp anymore thanks to that unworkable window system. Having given it some thought the best way to work with GIMP without losing your mind is to have a dual monitor setup. That way you can throw the palettes on one screen and save one screen for your working window. I don’t have a second screen right now so… no GIMP. They have made quite a bit of headway in development so I’ll be sure to give it a try sometime in the future. Maybe around version 2.5 that promises to fix the UI.

 

Scene 6 Update

I spent the week doing 3 shots from scene 6 (Omulosi drumming at the shrine) and they worked out really well! This despite several breakages in the armature as well as the puppet’s hands. I was in the middle of shot 63_1 in when his left arm broke off at the shoulder. I was miffed and disappointed. Then I removed the puppet from the shot, did a quick fix on the shoulder and replaced the puppet. By the grace of god and some skill I managed to match the position of the last frame that I had shot so I completed the shot with no other major issues.

Then the next night I had to deal with a similar thing in shot 63_2, this time with the hand snapping off right at the elbow. This was much harder to fix because the breakage happened at a point where there was very little wire to use to re-attach it. Still I managed to force a quick fix and finish the shot.

Now I have to perform major surgery on Omulosi before proceeding further. I also have to plan in advance, taking breakages into consideration and making multiple parts that I can replace quickly. I always felt that the drumming scenes would be hard on the puppet so I was sort of expecting it, I just didn’t think it would happen so soon after I started shooting.

Frankly I felt really discouraged last night after the hand broke off. It was fun animating the puppet before the breakage. After the fix I had to concentrate more on positioning the hand without having it fall off or slide off. All this made the whole animating process less fluid.

So, one puppet is up for radical hand and shoulder surgery this weekend.

 

Things I Have Learned in the Past Few Months

1. Peace and Stability are fragile things
2. I do lousy voice overs (tried to VO Olokut’s character and fired myself)
3. I am lousy at updating my blogs (thanks to terrible internet connection)
4. Making an animated movie that is longer than a minute takes really hard work.

I am still at it though.