The making of; Glammies Stings

So I made/provided the two sets for the stings. One set was for the corn and had to be a stove top with a frying pan that will be the stage for him. Another set for the tomato which I will have to replicate a kitchen counter top. 

So I used MDF for the base of each of the sets, timber for a frame under each and for the legs, another small piece of MDF to cover the front of the sets, a thinner MDF for the sides and chipboard for the backs of each.

To cover the kitchen counter top I used Fablon which is a sticky vinyl to give the look of a kitchen counter and a wallpaper for the sides, both from B&Q.

Then I bought a utensil holder and used some of my own utensils to give the idea of proportion so the audience can compare the tomato's size to objects they are familiar with.

                        

I did the exact same method for building the base of the stove as I did the kitchen top, the only differences being that the stove needed a replaceable back and needed a hole through the base so Nicki was able to animate the corn through the frying pan. 

I used the same wallpaper as its the same kitchen that these fruit and vegetables come to life! And used aluminium paint on one side of the back board and the other was painted acrylic black. 

For the stove rings I sprayed the underneath of 4 china plates with black spray paint and then painted silver around the edges. I used caps to attach the front panel so the screws wouldn't be seen. For the knobs I used spare cupboard handles that I had around the house. I attached the frying pan with mastic. 

From the offcuts of the timber and MDF I made a stand for the eggbox/audience seats so the eggbox could be attached to it for easier animation. 

Then the Cornstar was born, abs, bum and all! Nicole did a great job on this guy!

And here's the eager and excited audience!

Nicki made our very own one of a kind Glammies Ketchup!

So here they are, our final stings! Enjoy!

Tomato's Dream

Cornstar

Glammies Prep!

I had an amazing time at the Glammies 2014! So much talent in Screen 8 yesterday! Well done to all of the winners, their work was incredible. But as first years, we had the important job of creating the stings for the show, we had to make funny little videos that played in between the main parts of the show - whilst keeping the audience entertained and laughing! I can definitely say we were successful.

So Team Stop-Mo, the "Good Eggs!" were obviously one team. We had the themes of 'Growth, Fusion, Flourish' so that was interesting. So we threw some ideas about and suddenly were weak with laughter when we thought of our final idea! 

We planned out who would do what so we could work effectively as a team and get the job done quickly and efficiently! 2 week deadline! But our idea literally 'blossomed!' So we decided each of our roles...

Sophie Lewis - Props & Sets

Bailie Lovell - Storyboarding & 2D Drawings

Nicole Brookes - Felting Character Puppets, Animatics & Editing

Sarah Trigg - Felting Character Puppets

Nicola Bilbie - Animating 

We have to give credit to my friend Amy Thomas in third year, as she did her Final Major Project film with felted puppets, scenery and props. We wouldn't have thought about using that technique if it wasn't for her! Check out her blog here; http://amytanimation.blogspot.co.uk Thanks Amy!

Above: I did some planning sheets to give myself an idea of how the two sets would look and work, but firstly! Here's some of Bailie's initial storyboards...

So we went down the route of using fruit and vegetables, in a... well, strange way!

Our first idea was Corn Star. A corn that has a profession of being a stripper! And our other idea was Dreaming Tomato. A tomato that has lots of thoughts of how is life is going to turn out but unfortunately things don't go exactly to plan!

Check out my next blog update for felted characters, building sets, Photoshop sheets and final stings!