Tarrakk Blackhand:
Hi everyone!
Edit Here’s my BFSP movie so far. I’m keeping the original post below but putting the video in the top. See the rest for a compairison of what came before. Thanx!
And the link if this doesn’t work - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4xzv1kK-nA
I have been working like crazy painting up all the BFSP figures and making scenery (Dwarfs vs Goblins) to make a little Stop Motion movie/story/battle report.
So far, I have made a few little “Clips” about my story and posted them on You-Tube. I just wanted to share those with you and see what you think.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gu-RGXou37s&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ja31tO3O7A
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXxOZ_7DHa4
And I realize the sound is low in the first video. If you have power speakers, it’s not too bad though.
I think I’m going to re-voice it to add in some more dialoge to enhance the story.
Problem is, my microphone records at such a low volume and I usually have to yell into the thing so it can register at a “Normal” talking volume. When I recorded the dialogue, it was late at night, the kids and wife were asleep, and I doubt they’d like me to yell my head off at that time…which actually doesn’t stop the girls…but they’re both under 3 years old, so they can get away with it! 
Anyway, enjoy the videos!
Tarrakk Blackhand:
Any suggestions?
This message was automatically appended because it was too short.
Hashut’s Blessing:
Looks good to me - I especially like the ingenuinity of placing everything on a sheet of the tablecolour and being able to just drag it.
As always, I like to provide constructive criticism, so here goes. The main thing would be to hire voice actors - you can usually get them to do it for free if you provide them with a copy of the footage, a credit and allow them to use it for their showreels. A good place to ask for them is at www.starnow.co.uk, but make sure they have their own recording equipment and can record in wmv or mp3 (P.S. I’ll happily voice someone). Something that all stop-motion attempts can do with, but isn’t necessary: take a lot more pictures with far shorter movements. This brings it closer to being a normal film, although with unposable models this can be ignored for obvious reasons. I liked that you (whether conciously or not) micked ancient Greek theatre by having the person talking moving as they did so - however, make sure it’s very obvious who is talking and who isn’t (another way to help this is to do a close-up of each person in the conversation whilst they talk, like they do in films and programmes). Lastly, try to combine them into as few video-files as possible and give them more appropriate names.
Lastly, to embed the videos into the thread, you can use Youtube tags. To do that you type in [*youtube]enter the bit after the equals sign here[/youtube] and remove the *.
E.G.
Tarrakk Blackhand:
Thanx for letting me know the You-Tube tags HB. On other web sites, it does them automatically.
When I originally voiced the characters for the BFSP intro, I was talking into the mic late at night and I didn’t want to wake my 2 daughters or my wife, so I voiced them rather quietly. The mic couldn’t read them well.
But just the other day, I had my wife and kids look after the hobby store and I returned home where I could really “Yell” into the mic without worrying about background noise or scaring anyone.
I voiced 62 different clips for the Night Goblin Boss (Which killed my throat…badly - I was shreaking the lines at full volume as if I was Bon Scott from AC/DC - surprised the cops didn’t show up at my front door thinking it was a “Domestic Dispute” or something.), 20 for the Dwarf Thane, and 10 for the Slayer, including their original lines from the current You-Tube intro movie and several new ones to drive home the point I was trying to make in the footage. I will voice a few more as I go through the movie/battle report. By the way, all these lines, save for the opening segment, were ad-libed on the spot as I thought them up.
Well, moving the figures around was an idea I had just to let people know who was talking. At this small scale, it’s hard to do an extreme close-up on a single model without catching a huge amount of the background, especially having the camera mounted on a tripod which is hitting the table edge. I also find that if I move the model too close to the camera, it gets “shadowed out” by the camera itself - too far away, and it’s a blurr, or it will focus on some far off tree in the background and not on the model I want to capture in the foreground. I’m now reading the manual about setting and locking the focus point so I can get what I want in clarity.
I’d love to be able to get in close enough to isolate 1 figure and do the dialogue like it was filmed on old Star Trek - Kirk talks to Spock - Camera on Kirk - Camera on Spock - Camera on Kirk - Camera on Spock - Camera on McCoy who rolls his eyes.
Hashut’s Blessing:
Most welcome. Here, if you put a link, you get a link. If you put tags, you get the real thing 
Yeah, you said. Completely understandable 
If you start to use more characters talking, then consider getting some actors to record the lines because there are very few people who can do authentic seeming voices numbering above about a dozen, lol. Crikey, that’s a lot of sound files Still, if you need them, then no harm in having them
It certainly helps and makes it more interesting to look at them during conversations A trick is to not have the camera face-on for the individual close-ups, have it at a 45 degree angle. Of course, I know how paint-in-the-reary it is to get individual models. A trick to get around that is to simply crop the picture after taking it Also, don’t have it constantly flicking between the two talking, have some “two-shots” of them (which you already have), in particular for when the lines are very short.
Keep up the good work!
Kered:
Looking good so far, Hashut’s Blessing has given good advice.
I’v done a few small animations myself and one thing that’s key is making it consistent both in voice acting and animation.
Tarrakk Blackhand:
Well, I just finished a whole lot of sequences of pictures today and when I went to install the pics to the computer, all of a sudden, there was this “Can’t read Device…error in USB connection” message. Now the stupid computer doesn’t even recognize the camera AT ALL, and it won’t allow me to install the thing either. I don’t know what happened and I don’t have the $$$ to have a tech look at it either.
