Short stop motion films – Self Defence

These are a couple of stop motion clips i did to explain the concept of biolumenescense for self defence. This was my first attempt at making a stop motion clip, they are abit shaking at times. I would of loved to have created a longer stop motion clip and of better quality, if I had more time to complete this. However I feel I have developed some strong research behind the idea of bioluminescence. My experiments are in a unique and fun style which conveys my personality and chosen approach I would have used if I created a more full filled and longer stop motion.

Ive added some of my development process along the way whilst creating these short clips.

Light Painting stop motion experiments (First Time)

I starting to use my light painting to portray bioluminescence through the jellyfish tentacles, I combined both light painting and paper stencil art to create forms of jellyfish, experimenting with different colours (blue/white) in Photoshop. I also developed some short stop motion films using windows movie maker and Photoshop. These consisted of merging some of the underwater coral and fish photography I managed to take whilst snorkelling. Also using images I had already drawn of some jellyfish and the Photoshop manipulations of jellyfish I had created. I mixed my light painting and stencil art within these short clips as well.

Light painting Photography

I used a light to transform into simple shapes in the air at night time with a DSLR camera. This is what i used to create most of the tentacles for the short stop motion films.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Snorkelling Trip

Aquarium Visit

More Research – Thailand Trip

As I went to Thailand for nearly a month this summer, I knew I was going to struggle on completing this resubmission to my fullest of capability because of time. However, I took going to Thailand as an opportunity to gather extra research for when I arrived back in the UK. I ended up visiting an aquarium on my stay, which held a specific type of bioluminescent jellyfish. I used photography to capture this and also filmed the jellyfish so I could get a sense of how they moved under water and reacted towards each other in a group. I thought I could maybe use these for a stop motion or some Photoshop experiments portraying the jellyfishes behaviour and of course, bioluminescence.

I managed to book a couple snorkelling trips on the islands, fortunately I managed to capture real jellyfish in their natural habitat. I also have video footage of them moving underwater and was lucky to capture one jelly being attacked by a group of fish for my evidence. Although I didn’t manage to get a glimpse of the jelly fish using bioluminescence, I also went on a short bioluminescent dive to see plankton light up on the surface of the water; unfortunately I couldn’t get any pictures because of poor lighting, but was able to view how they light up when approached. It was not only a great research experience, but a personal one too. Another form of self-defence mechanism that jellyfish use is a sting, which I also encountered for myself when traipsing through the seas of Thailand. This was not such a good personal experience!

Storyboarding

I wanted to create a mixed media style for this project as I feel I work best this way also the final outcome will stand a better advantage of portraying the concept ‘bioluminescence’ well. This is where I started to storyboard; I chose to focus on one specific theme, Self-defence. As I chose a Jelly fish for the main story idea, I needed to find out how they produce light, what colour and what actually attacks jelly fish in the deep sea. I came to realise that turtles and groups of fish gang up on jelly fish and strike their attack. I combined this into a short story and some experiments just to get the point across about bioluminescence and defence.