Adaptation Development

‘Code: Green’ – Haran, Affan & Kevin

Stop Motion Proposal

The Pale Green Pants 

I enrolled to 2^nd year of Animation at Westminster from Greenwich Graphic Design. The adaptation project is new to me so I couldn’t present a proposal. However I had the opportunity to watch other groups or individuals present and I collaborated with Affan’s project which caught my eyes. I liked the action and dark vibe in Affan’s porject I felt it will be very challenging and I was willing to accept the task. 

Whilst the actual story of ‘The Pale Green Pants’ had a first person finding a suspicious character, our project intends to make the suspicious actually terrifying. I spoke to Affan regarding extra elements to make simple logic and fun to story. The story we all decided on based around a terrified but stubborn security who is willing to fight and take down the escaped evil jeans that will just eat anyone that comes in its way. The only way to stop the jeans is to belt lock it, will the security succeed?  

Extended Plot Outline 

The plot starts with many ringing alarms, people running in fear with a voice over through radio ‘It has escaped! Get the belts!!’ this will hint the fact that the belt is a key weapon and will leave the audience curious about what exactly escaped that will require a belt? The atmosphere will be dark and flickering light to show suspense and pressure throughout the film. The original idea is about an action scene that occurs at midpoint of film, however I felt the need more suspense, tension and jump scare. The security guard seeks for the jeans and shoots a few bullets and misses the jeans, he then meets a dead body split in half separated by inches. It is in within seconds, the security learns that the bottom half of body is alive and that the jean is the escaped jeans. Then the following scens are intended for full on exciting violence till the jeans stays strong. 

Affan’s digital drawing of a scene concept

Storyboard

This is the storyboard we planned at beginning, I’ve requested further changes to climax and aspects of story regarding tension build up, logic and excitement.

Here below is my storyboard with the addition of tension, plot twist and jump scare.

This a 12 FPS quick acting and shooting of my team members, I asked them to try different poses and I tried various shots and effects to get a feel and kick start for the Stop motion animation. This experience was good as I can pretty much see how choppy and rough chase scenes can look in stop motion which is effective..

This is my sketches of the different aspects that can be covered in the film in key highlight, I worked out how I can use my strengths in this project in general.

Affan’s Hallway render, I really liked the dark and spooky vibe and lighting in this render and woudl love to see it in practical.

Character Design

Pants

The original idea for the pants was to wireframe and then overlay with card, however I thought soft cloth will look more pleasing on screen and the colour choice was light green, later I decided for a khaki strong green which will suit the jeans more.  

This is my idea of having teeth within the jeans as a evil feature.

Below is my version of the jeans looks.

Thought this colour scheme is perfect to suit the jean’s character. A khaki colour is suitable.

Security Guard

The above three designs are made by Kevin, I thought that the third guard looked great.
Below are my sketches of ideas for a guard.

My versions are below

It was difficult to keep in mind that the puppets will be for stop motion and not 2D, so I spoke to Kevin and he preferred Affan’s idea of having Armour on security guard instead of shirt.

Set Design & Lighting 

The single hallway will be made of foam. The material should look shiny or create the illusion of it. The light should come through the cut holes within the set using tube lights. 

Making of the Jeans Character

Feedback 1 : Originally I tried making the jeans without using a template with the help of my team members. The structure was not sustainable and would not balance well. We only used wires, we were given feedback advice to cut pen tubes and foam to give solid strength to puppet.

Feedback 2: Having made the body structure using pen tubes, I was struggling to carve the foam in right amount and form, I was advised to use more suitable cloth (green and thin) for jeans that will be very practical when animating. In addition I was told to focus on foam too.

So having had great feedback I went on to creating the jeans puppet and partially helping towards other puppet and set.

Images for feedback 1 and 2

I first used wire for the main frame of the legs then to give the legs shape and emphasize on its shape I cut foam in to small circular shapes to resemble and full fill the look of muscles. 
During this process I realised to make the puppet sturdy and easy to manoeuvre I need to keep a support frame to act as the bones in the leg  
To do this I used several pen outer shells / tubes as it is a hard plastic circular properties that help the puppet to stay in a position then poked these pieces through the foam pieces to make a whole for the wire pass through and then using a glue gun to secure the two together.  
After successfully creating the inner frame for the trousers I then needed to work on the material to make the trouser look realistic  
To do this I used an old khaki coloured cloth and measured the lengths of the trouser and then sewn the inside out then to complete the little details I cut a thin piece of cloth to look like outlines of the cloth such as a zip and pockets  
The hurdles I had to overcome with this is process is that I when making the frame of the trouser I realised it was very difficult to cut the foam to a precise shape and when making the trousers it self I come to realise the length was to long and width was too big and I needed to recut and sew the trousers smaller to have a perfect fit on the puppet. 

I am very happy with my outcome, I also decided to add some pockets to add bit more character, the images will be at end.

Creating Security

I used blue tack to fill in the space for the shoes and to make it steady and secure for the puppet to stand when the puppet is on set. I then painted the blue tack in black to give the illusion of the puppet wearing shoes. In addition, having evaluated my puppet I realised it needed to be trimmed at the top as there was to much foam sticking out where the mouth should be. The final two puppets are ready for shooting, a green pant puppet and a security guard puppet !