I'm a bit behind here, but here's Monday's events
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This week the Wallace and Gromit Crew is on holiday, and I am in the test unit, shooting some gesture animation with the test puppet. I was prepared to do anything, but the Head of Animation told me that first I should just get used to the puppet. How convenient is that? It doesn’t feel like an assessment at all, which in reality it is. No grades or anything, but a chance to prove I can animate. He would look at my stuff just after luch to give me feedback he said, before he went off to animate on his own project.

So, one of the camera assistants, a real nice fellow that I got a good tone with, set me up in the test unit, showed me how things worked, and I was ready to go. The puppet is pro! Full armature innside, and underneath the feet there are holes for tie-downs. Two different methods are used to lock the feet to the ground. First there are strong magnets that stick to the metal table underneath the ”grass” surface the character stands on. The metal table is very thin, and is also full of holes (i’m sure that type of plate has a name, but I’m not sure what), which allow for thin screws to come through, that can be screwed innside either his heel or toes, then locked underneath the table, called tie-down. I tried both, and I found that the tie-down is definiately the most efficient way to make sure he stands still, but it takes preparation as you must make a hole through the grass that fits through one of the numerous holes in the metal plate underneath.

I animated some different stuff to try him out, all with his feet tied down in the same position. It was alot of fun. It was a little bit intimidating at first, having a professional puppet to animate, but I soon rememberd the formulas I learnt by making ”Egyptian Taxi”, and things went along nicely. I almost missed lunch as I wanted to have as much as possible to show, but it turned out he couldnt see me until around four. Which was ok. More time to animate. In the end I had animated a few different gestures with weight shifts and arm moves.

So, feedback of the day’s production was that I was not afraid to move the puppet. He didn’t like my ”sausage-fingers” (making the fingers seem boneless through a movement) and said they only suit fast movements. I like to put them in everywhere, and I also have to work on how much follow-through I use, depending on the speed of the movement, as I am a fan of the more exaggerated versions.

After that I continued to animate until the camera assistant came back around at seven and switched off the lighs.