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My finished cast! I’m really not massively happy with how the shells turned out, but until I can sit down and work on my digital art skills a little more, this was the best representation of iridescence I could come up with. 

I tried to feature a range of body types from my initial experiments, as well as the colour schemes - though I kept the overall theme of ‘green + at least somewhat harmonious hues’. Any colour that was too far away from green on the colour wheel got muted, ideally so that the green would stand out as the unifying theme. That worked a bit too well - the green is now slightly overwhelming. 

I think if nothing else, these designs are clear on each character’s role and something of their personality. I had to work with body language primarily, as the faces I gave them are quite insectoid still and don’t lend themselves well to expression. That might be a problem in a 2D animation, but thankfully it won’t be a concern in the finished product. 

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Poses part two! I tried to be a bit more playful once I’d figured out some basic emotions - for example, shooting one where the character is stuck on her back like an actual beetle. I also went for a bit of a narrative in the very last ones: stretches/exercises, followed by the character leaning exhaustedly against a wall. 

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This is with the finished sound. I think some of the effects actually needed to be louder, for listening without headphones, but they’re still just perceptible enough that they add texture to the scene. I’d say the weakest sound design is the first shot - the hands and feet move around so much that it was hard to know where exactly to place the scuffle/impact noises. I really like how the ambience in the second scene turned out, and I ended up finding quite a fitting sound for the footsteps on the log, even if it took a lot of messing around with one of the rain clips. 

The final shot’s footsteps are less effective, I feel, but I’m really proud of how I timed the tiny sound of the knuckle crack. The movement of the sticks, too, feels nicely realistic, despite the slightly cartoonish whip sound. I left in the car engine at the end to try and nod to my initial concept for this character: she’s travelled from a wild, windy perch on a tree, to a tranquil forest, to finally somewhere where the human and machine presence is much, much more audible. 

In terms of editing, I found it was most effective to have some of the next scene’s sound bleed into the previous one, instead of vice versa. I’ve read before that this gives the audience an easier time processing the transition, and always wonder if it has something to do with the comparative speeds of light and sound. 

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A work in progress of my sound; beginning with a soundscape for each environment, which I’ll then build into with footsteps, the impact of the rock, etc. 

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Part one of poses. I tried to get a range here of both emotions, and scenarios the character might find herself in - whether that’s scouting territory or just sitting and relaxing. With most of the poses, I tried to give the idea of her centre of weight being in her legs, despite the fact that in terms of the physics of the puppet, it’s actually a little further up than that. But I had to make her lean quite dramatically in some poses anyway, to compensate for her tendency to tip backwards, so I think that sort of helps the illusion. 

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My character turnaround - it’s looking at her here that I wish I’d had the time to give her clothes, to add more interest to the design at the front. I tried to compensate with the stomach pad and redundant legs, but I don’t know if it’s worked all that well. 

The leatherette, at least, is perfect for providing the appearance of an exoskeleton. I actually had to fold it in two places on the thighs, to fit, but the texture’s so busy that it’s not as noticeable as it might otherwise have been. 

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I didn’t have the time to clothe my puppet, in the end, but besides the ‘natural’ materials I looked at earlier, this was the other avenue I explored: essentially, trash. Some things I picked out for the colour, such as the net fruit packaging, whilst knowing that I’d have to either be very creative or take some creative liberties when it came to scale. Others materials were chosen for their uniformity, like the blue plastic bag - this was one of my first inspirations, when I began thinking about clothing my characters. 

The other thought I had was of logos - obviously, I couldn’t use regular-sized litter on a larger-than-intended-scale puppet. But I buy a lot of snacks in bulk, for convenience, and I realised that the multipack wrappers often reproduce the same logos and aesthetics as the regular wrappers in a larger format. This was going to be my cheat, then, if I’d had the time: giving the illusion that a 6-pack Walkers crisps bag is actually just a regular, smaller single packet. 

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I composited the footage, then did a little bit of editing to make sure it flowed. The first shot could probably have done with more accurate masking, if I’d had the time, but I think the movement at least syncs up well with the background. The log balance has a trick with the shadow that I’m really quite proud of - I masked up to the end of the log, and I think the result is that this one looks the best integrated. 

The final scene was originally a little more believable: the puppet had a shadow, in the same direction as those in the photo, which went a long way to blending it in. Unfortunately, there was just too much noise from dark patches elsewhere in the footage, and in the end all of it had to go. Another if-I-had-time improvement here would be adjusting the contrast levels.

In terms of editing, all I really did was extend the last frame of the first shot, to give the audience time to get up to speed, and shorten the second scene a little. It’s a little rough and ready, but what I was aiming for was a cut on action - as the foot swing forward on the log, it comes down on the ground, so there’s that little bit of continuity to ease the transition between shots. 

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I was really worried about this scene right up until the very end, where it all seemed to come together. The arm movements in the first half were a problem until I did some extensive messing around with the hold frame tool; but I think looking at this, it was worth the time I spent fussing. There’s a really nice sense of anticipation and effort in the stretch, especially. 

The twig pickup took me a while, and I wasn’t sure, at first, whether having such big movements from frame to frame was a good idea - until I played it back. The speed helps to reinforce the character’s strength, making all the lifting that she does look effortless; if I’d had her take her time, I wouldn’t have the narrative I was after. 

The little shift at the end turned out to be a nice little movement to ‘wind down’ the shot - I originally put it in just because I wanted the leaf on the twig more visible, but it also works to extend the story beyond the final big movement of flipping the stick onto her shoulder. 

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This will be a pain to composit, but the main thing sticking out for me right now is how much more fluid it looks than the other two - because this shot composition put the puppet within so much easier a grabbing distance. I’m glad I left this scene for last, as it was much easier to finish up working at close quarters, than reaching right across the table and having to guess half the time at the right position. It let me really put a lot of thought into the movement of each individual component - and the result is lovely and smooth. 

I’d originally intended this to be at a slower pace, again wanting to suggest caution in the character, but I do like the speed it’s ended up at instead. The cautiousness is still there in the tilt of the head to watch her feet, the separated shifting of limbs and the way she waves her feet about looking for purchase. The accelerated pace just adds an extra dimension to the story; now, she looks like someone who is used to having to climb, but still not completely at home with it. 

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This is the rough footage of the log-balance scene. I ended up having to play around with held frames quite a bit, here, trying to get the right pauses where the character’s weight hangs in place before she musters the strength to drag herself back upright. I’m quite pleased with the movement of the arms; I think the way they move to balance her looks realistic. I also managed to get in the knee-bend walk cycle, adapted for this setup. I think here it works to denote caution, a powerful stride kept in check by a precarious perch. 

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This could, obviously, still be worked on, but looking at what I still have to do for my other projects, I decided to draw the line here. I’m quite happy with the lip sync itself, and I think the reason it works is partly down to having found my own way of working with a dope sheet. 

The movements are still a little jerky, but I’m really conscious that if I’d let myself get too into smoothing them out, I would’ve gotten consumed with it. I think the emotion and character behind the gesture and expression is at least clear, and that the movements themselves are quite realistic and believable. One thing I noticed in the old reference video was that Seth would do gestures in a circular motion - hand starts up by the shoulder, then moves outwards, then down, then in to the chest, then back to the shoulder, all while gesturing. I tried to emulate a bit of that here. 

The one thing I’m really disappointed about is the eyebrows - I don’t know if it was a bug with the rig, but I couldn’t actually get them to move. 

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A rough walk cycle test, that unfortunately ended up cropped - what I was going for was a distinct sense of weight, to try and get across that most of the character’s bulk is muscle mass. I think that at present, she moves a little too quickly/fluidly to fully communicate that, but I did come up with an exaggerated knee-bend that I want to recreate in the final shoot. 

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I did a very rough test of the character walking along a log, mostly to get an initial feel for how it differed from the regular walk cycle. Aside from the arms and the swaying of the torso for balance, I think the trick is to have the legs swing more and bend less, giving a feeling of urgency and care that the character wouldn’t need to exhibit when walking on sturdy ground. 

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Photos from the actual shoot: a revised tree-tower, using glue dots as well as blu tack this time, and an example of how I staged the scene with the props. 

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More progress! I have all the ‘plating’ cut and shaped now, ready to be covered with leatherette, although I need to remember to glue the segments together first. In between that, too, is making the little redundant legs - evolutionary holdover that let the Tansy-people turn their abdomens into thighs with minimal fuss, since the attached middle legs simply fused to each side. I think they’ll add a bit of much-needed visual interest to the front of the puppet. 

I managed to paint the head fairly neatly in the ned, though I had a couple of disasters trying to create the mandible-like mouth. dripped, half-dried PVA ended up too flat, while sculpted nearly-dry PVA just melded into a formless blob. I changed tack, and glued some beads to the head instead - two teardrops for the lower mandible-lips, and a larger squarish one for the upper. If I’d thought of this earlier, I would have carved a bit of a socket into the lower face, so they don’t stick out so much. 

I’ve also started work on the props, which should all be fairly straightforward - a rough lump of Styrofoam, dry brushed, for the rock, and some pieces of dowel covered in hot glue to make some textured bark on the twigs. I have some small paper leaves that I might make use of, too. 

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The other two shots are fairly straightforward in their setup, but the tree climb required some set-building. I’ll need to revise what I used here, as it was a bit unstable - blu-tack and Styrofoam don’t really mix - but I think with a stronger adhesive and the pins in the bottom of the tissue box, it should hold well enough. It’ll also mean more work compositing, since there’s no way to be rid of all the folds in the fabric, but I think that’ll be worth it for the effect. 

Happily, it doesn’t take much to keep the puppet stable on the construct; a single pin through the fabric on the furthest arm worked well enough.