Stopmotion test

Yesterday I tried creating some 3D stopmotion for the first time in years, and below is a video of what resulted:

The video above features a plasticine fish, filmed from several angles, moving tail and fins. It was made as research for an animated music video, however I've since discovered that this won't be a suitable technique for the final video...

While working on that animation test I also filmed a live-action video sequence of myself animating the fish, which has since been edited as a short time-lapse style documentary of the animating process:

The time-lapse style video starts with a playback speed of 4x the original footage, and quickly "ramps-up" to a playback speed of 200x the original footage, before coming to a sudden conclusion at real-time speed.

Commission: Machrihanish Beach

Here is a painting commission of Machrihanish Beach (near Campbeltown) that I completed earlier this week:

Not only is this my first painting since July, but surprisingly it is my first acrylic painting in 12 months (according to the blog history)!

I can understand why I've not done any major paintings in the past 3 months, and I'm aware that I've not painted on a regular basis since my Film-inspired Painting Series exhibition last December, but I still find it hard to believe that I've not touched my acrylic paints in 12 months.

Mr Spin at the Edinburgh Festival (part 1)

On Thursday I finally got time at work to finish editing some of the footage that I shot of Mr Spin performing at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival way back in August:

The video above is the first part of Mr Spin's wonderful street performance: Consisting of amazing hat tricks, devil-sticking, and one-ball manipulation.

I got to film the full 30/45 minute performance, which includes more devil-sticking and hat tricks, along with some crazy juggling and extreme unicycling! I intend on making a second video to showcase those tricks too, however the footage appears to be missing from the work computers, so until someone locates & re-loads the original tapes we will just have to wait...

Related links: 

- Mr Spin at Bamboozled Productions

- Mr Spin at Onya Soapbox

- Edinburgh Fringe Festival

First filming of a live gig

On Friday night I was at Mucky Mulligan's in Perth to film metal band Kill The Commodore as they played their first home gig since appearing at Bestival a few weeks ago.

I used my [very] recently purchased Sony DCR-SR58E Handycam; which is a big step down from the kind of camcorder I have
access to at my day-job, but it'll do for now until I discover whether a bigger camera would be worth it...



The little Handycam is very much just a point-and-shoot type of camera, which is simple enough to operate, but its manual controls (via touchscreen) are dreadful compared to the high-end camcorders that I have been used to at work. As a result of that issue (along with the short time I had to get familiar with the camera) my footage was rather hit-and-miss with numerous automatic controls conflicting with my manually-operated intentions. I also found, as per the warning in the operating guide, that loud noise (ie: live music) can interfere with the camera - to such an extent as to automatically cut the recording process after only so long on several occasions!

My above video, We Will Not Be Moved (live), should hopefully become the first of several to get edited from Friday night's gig footage; with the rest of the videos getting posted as they are finished.


To hear more from Kill The Commodore check out these links:
Kill The Commodore on Facebook
Kill The Commodore on Myspace
Kill The Commodore on Reverbnation