Albi the Racist Dragon

oliver43 · Post by **oliver43** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 6:11 am

Here are two animatics I made using ASpro for a short video 'Albi the Racist Dragon' on HBO's Flight of the Conchords. They landed me the job of making the whole video.. puppets and all... Very fun.

Animatics...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DpJ0xT-y5I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRTVLzIODvs

The final video...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9Qu3iP3RYA

chucky · Post by **chucky** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 6:37 am

Flight of the conchords are too good, I'm their second biggest fan.

I wush I hed got thit jub, I cin spik Kiwi 'n ivrethung, suh cimmunucetion wud be nuh prublim bro.
But watching that was a really emotional experience

Mikdog · Post by **Mikdog** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 8:40 am

Well, I gotta hand it to you. I'm amazed that its actually the person behind Albi, because that's one of my all-time favourite shorts. With Jermaine and Brett sitting at home, Brett in his favourite box and crying, I watched FOTC earlier this year for the first time and I was immediately a cult fan. Been reading about how they managed to crack a series, their humour is super inspiring.

And ALBI! Ha ha ha. That stuck in my brain like an axe. Had the perfect overtones for a kids show. My brain still laughs hard when I replay the Albanian kids singing voice in my brain. Absolutely wonderful. Well done. You cracked this on the head.

Springymajig · Post by **Springymajig** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 9:21 am

OH MY GOD...

I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M POSTING IN THE THREAD OF A GUY WHO WORKED ON FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS!!!

Last year Jemaine Clement came into the studio I'm working at at the moment. I was too shy to say anything to him tho. I just kinda... stared at him like a rabbit in his headlights... making sure he didn't notice I was staring at him

It's likely he/they will make further appearences in the studio... I hope if that happens I'll work up the courage to actually say something (although that's unlikely).

Springymajig · Post by **Springymajig** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 9:24 am

BTW I always wondered how that segment was done. Sometimes it looks like stop motion, but other bits look like it was puppeteering with the frame rate slowed down to give the illusion of stop motion... would you mind letting us know exactly how it was done?

oliver43 · Post by **oliver43** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 5:20 pm

Springymajig wrote:BTW I always wondered how that segment was done. Sometimes it looks like stop motion, but other bits look like it was puppeteering with the frame rate slowed down to give the illusion of stop motion... would you mind letting us know exactly how it was done?

Funny.. I like to think i pioneered a new type of animation, i call it 'faux-motion'. they wanted stopmotion but we didn't have the time needed. so what i did was made little rod puppets and when i filmed their movements i moved them incredibly slow and i mean really really slow. A simple head turn that would normally last 2 seconds i would film over a period of like 10-15 seconds. keeping the movements slow so as not to get any motion blur. Then in the computer i would speed the footage up to 1 second(or half the amount of time i needed the shot to last) and then stretch it back out to 2 seconds thus giving it the 'choppy' look of stopmotion. It definitely worked better in some shots more than others.

I spent a total of 3 weeks making this, from construction to completion. My good friend Reet did most of the puppeteering for me, hunched under an old pingpong tabletop I found in an alley and built the set on. We ran a smalll monitor from the camera to under the table so he could see what was happening.

ps. http://www.rhubarbzoo.com looks awesome! I really like the style. are you guys using ASpro to make your animation? I am downloading 'Ectype's end' right now...

edit: (still downloading) I am looking at screenshots and it looks like I can see ASpro's "smoke" coming from the stacks in Clone City..

DK · Post by DK » Mon Sep 08, 2008 12:04 am

Hey Oliver43.

Great to see the stopmo stuff getting a leg in on the forum. Just wondering...have you ever used Stop Motion Pro with the breakout box camera connector for doing stop motion animation?

Cheers
D.K

http://www.wienertoonz.com/ERCETUS_S1E01.wmv

toonertime · Post by **toonertime** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 2:36 am

love your site!

Springymajig · Post by **Springymajig** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 10:17 am

Oliver43:

Heh yeah I thought it didn't quite look like stop motion, that's a really clever way of creating the look of it tho! It does work quite well for at least half of it I reckon.

Thanks for checking out our website too

We didn't use ASpro at all for Ectype's End, actually, it was through selling DVD's of it at a convention that made us aware of ASpro (someone who works with it, still called it Moho, told us about it). Ectype's End is all done in After Effects actually.. but jeez I wish we did have ASpro for that, it would've made it way easier!

I did the little banner animation loop in ASpro, and also most of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgV3_amXuzw

oliver43 · Post by **oliver43** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 5:09 pm

Springymajig,

The banner animation is awesome, style and animation, but i really love the colors and especially the ways the trees are painted. Your 'Ode to James' is very cool.. it really flows nicely, although personally I find the cat in the cake is a little unsettling

. I joined your emailing list(artrockets), so please keep me posted. I am anxious to see your latest 'Entropy'.

DK,

I hadn't heard of Stopmotion Pro til you mentioned it here. I checked it out WOW, they are using it for Wallace & Gromit etc.. I love those movies. It looks like it's PC based only and I'm sure you can see where I'm going when I say that, I am on mac. I have used something similar 'istopmotion' which I think is a great little program. I have a little canon HV20 which shoots HD and a 'Blackmagic Intensity card' for my comp which allows me to import HD via an HDMI cable.
I just did a claymation using my setup for a short 30 second segment in a comedy central pilot called 'The Bobby Lee Show'. As soon as the show airs I will post the animation. But here is one of the conceptual illustrations of the characters.. they are 'skin tags'

DK · Post by DK » Mon Sep 08, 2008 10:31 pm

Hi Oliver43.

It jst so happens....

I have a copy of Stop Motion Pro and the breakout box that connects to a camera. It has been sitting on my shelf gathering dust for about 3 years. Unfortunately it's for a PC but If you are intersted in it I would be happy to send it to you as I have no use for it at all. In the right hands it would be a darn awsome tool for doing stopmo. PM me and let me know.

Cheers
D.K

Springymajig · Post by **Springymajig** » Tue Sep 09, 2008 8:38 am

I should probably give credit where credit is due and point out the my collaborator Jeremy was primarily in charge of colouring that image, and as usual he did an awesome job

Thanks for joining the mailing list. I gotta be honest tho... we don't send newsletters very often

Albi the Racist Dragon

Albi the Racist Dragon

Making Albi

rue barb