working with mirrors
Working with mirrors without catching a refection of the camera, the computer, reflectors or me was surprisingly not too difficult. Everything just needed to be completely dark!
However when the mirrors rotate you never know what will show up until you catch it on the camera! Turns out pale Norwegian winter faces lights up like a torch! Christine Tjore Lervåg , my lovely camera animator, and I would have to duck down between each frame so that we would not show up in any reflections!
Here you can see my hands adjusting the puppet! This was a fun scene to shoot!
Christine would rotate the two mirror boxes less then a millimeter for each frame - 24 frames per second (on ones)
And I would animate the puppet on every other frame - 12 frames per second (on twos)
Planning Each Frame
Every shot was meticulously planned. Several of the shots included camera movements, and the easiest way to do that is to rotate the set instead of the camera, especially if you don't have the right equipment.
Before shooting each new shot Christine and I would sit down and plan how many millimeters we would rotate the set for how many frames before changing up the pace. Christine did a fabulous job as my camera animator! It was intense work!
Adding texture
Christine was also given the task of animating texture for the 2D effect!
I wanted the 2D effect to have texture and life! So the texture was animated seperately, then added to the 2D animation later in after effects.
Christine made this effect by moving plasticine on a piece of paper, and it makes a great moving texture!
I would then animate the 2D effect in white and then add this animation on top with the blending mode "Pin light" in after effects.
