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Scenes of the Absurd
A stop-motion animated short film
On Scenes of the Absurd I worked as a freelancer specialising in props, this began during the initial pre-production stages with initial concepts for some children's toys. Breaking down each prop for dimensions scale and design variations along with construction plans some of the other toy designs were modeled and 3D printed, but the addition of the soft props and hand-made items created a variation in textures for the set.
Sock Monkey + Sock-topus
With sewing being one of my hobbies, I opted to hand-stitch prototypes of the soft props using newborn socks to estimate the scale against the main character puppet and the process needed to create the miniatures. Following their completion I analysed where alterations needed to be made in terms of scale and stitching to create props that would move minimally in the set. and worked to develop the designs to accommodate feedback from the directors leaving the final products, handmade and cosy-looking children's plush toys
Hanging Balloon
Crafting the hanging balloon was a slightly different ball game, following the construction plans for this I built a rough prototype from recycled materials, such as cardboard and paper; I ended up building a second smaller prototype as the initial was too large for the scale of the set it was intended for. I then developed a more refined version of the prototype and used paper mache for a unique texture which was an interesting process on such a small scale, after adding the wires to create the hanging effect I finalised the prop with some acrylic paint for a saturated colour and wood texturing on the basket.
Elephant Toy
The plot of Scenes of the Absurd follows a young girl attempting to rescue her elephant toy; thus we began the process of creating said elephant toy. I was a part of the process, of planning and developing n armature for the body of the elephant toy to make a somewhat animatedly figure, to create such a small figure I created a plan for the joints of the armature and proceeded with some pliers and a lot of wire! it took a couple of attempts to get the full proportions correct for both the head and limbs. This was then handed over to Leigh Cleverly, who added foam to the frame and proceeded to felt the puppet for added texture and flexibility with the small movements.
All in all, this was a really fun project to work on and my first experience working on a stop-motion project, I really enjoyed understanding more about the process and being able to use my crafting skills to be able to create such fun props that are featured in the film. I was also able to have a go at some test animations with puppets to develop some of my stop-motion animation taking on various characters, this was really helpful and though I haven't been able to animation on the film yet, 'I've really enjoyed my experience on the project.
Unfortunately at this time as the film has been released the film to festivals I am unable to link a copy but for more information about my work towards the 'Scenes of the Absurd' project please contact me directly using the information below.
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