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Hi guys,
just a thought, was hoping for some thoughts and suggestions....

About a month back I purchased a copy of Claymation 3.0, which comes with a camera and software to make you're own stop motion movies. having played around for a while, I developed a short succession of clips, in which I used my old orks as the subject and characters.
online I found that the major flaws in many people's 40k stop motion movies was the lack of character movement, as figures don't re-position.
so, I took some Ork boyz, broke all the limbs off, and used tiny balls of blue tack to re-assemble them, resulting in fully posable, articulated orks!- that promptly fell apart after 2 weeks....

-so I've been thinking again, and I've come up with yet another solution. the illusion of movement within generic styled models- movement will be done by base, but each time the guardsman will change, thus giving the illusion of a moving figurine... the base will slide and the effect should be that of a marine that is able to run, crouch, twist, aim and change facial expression within the limits...

Thoughts?- I've 10 different posed men all the same, bayonets, helmet with strap. 10 without bayonets, and am building some crouching models as I type this...literally, the paint is drying...

comments and feed back appreciated, the story so far was going to follow a pair of deserters in xenos infested territories...- orks, 'nids and 'crons all within my household...(brother's)....

Thanks for any thoughts in advance, they are in desert Camo at the moment and isn't looking subject to change, so please make suggestions relevant. as to setting and plotlines...

Cheers

Could always use pins to secure arms and legs to models. That way they stay on the model, but won't randomly fall off when you move them up and down. If you use a blue tack for the head, you can swap heads based on whats going on.

I imagine a very "Thomas the Tank Engine" sort of vibe watching a 40K stop motion. Sounds great

Strong magnets on the arms will help make it look better as you can pose the arms around, but hiding them properly will take some work.

Magnets be your best friend

- first of all I'd like to apologise for not responding sooner, I broke my laptop, but replaced it now with Christmas cash!, but thank you for responding...

-I tried magnetising some guard and it all went horribly, horribly wrong... let us never mention it again....

-Pinning guard worked well, though not quite as well as I'd hoped, but some figures are now slightly posable...

-I don't really know what to do with my guardsmen now, I've got 1 Character, with very little he can do... I was thinking I might make a handful of models with the colour of their shoulder pads as their distinguishing feature, and maybe I'll include a Leman Russ...
-perhaps they could be lost, trying to re-unite with the main force?

-any further suggestions as to the plotline for my guard stop-motions would be great, ATM, I'm experimenting with effects that should really enhance the quality level of the production...
Thanks again!

Do you have like a youtube channel you're gonna post them on? So far this sounds really cool. Definitely interested in seeing the final project.

And magnets usually are a really good way to add movement. I can't really talk about the merits of using them and hiding them, as I've never used them :S

So best of luck!

Hmm... How about drilling a distance nto the arms/legs/waist as though your pinning but instead of using pins, use flexible wire? hen use the blue tac at the joints to cover it up.
I like the idea of the different head swaps or repositionings.

Hey Guys!
-I cannot apologise greatly enough for my absence from Dakka and the 40k universe, but, hey- I'm back now!
-I was thinking about starting a youtube channel up for my creations, but the camera quality is so infuriatingly low at the moment that the time I put in to my experiments aren't rewarding enough when I watch them back...so I'm investing in a new camera, and possibly some new ruined buildings to give an interactive setting for the guardsman, but I'm still low on ideas thus far as to what to do with said guardsman...should he accumulate a group of mis-matches like mwg's misfits? or should I go with something new?

-Chaplain Xenophobe-

Having done some stop motion in the 1980's....

Make a series of models in a collection of poses.

So, you have one model of an IG or SM that is holding a Boelter/laser rifle, and you have that same upper body pose with four lower body poses (right leg forward/left leg back, right leg returning/left leg traveling, left leg forward/right leg back, left leg returning/right leg traveling).

Then you have that model in a "standing" pose.

Then you have that model in a "firing" pose.

You can then add models that are in a crouch, and in a prone position, and use these as transitions between the standing and a prone position.

Another option, after "breaking the arms/legs off" is to simply glue them back on, and break-re-glue after every shot.

The magnets idea is OK, but you will find that it is easy to knock a model out of pose.

"Real" stop-motion models have terrifically stiff joints, and often the joints are machined with locking positions that allow each motion to be meticulously moved a precise amount, and then locked in place.

MB

The main problem you're going to have with stop motion is what everyone has with stop motion - not enough resolution.

And by that, I mean that motion picture usually runs at about 30 frames per second. That means you need to take thirty pictures for a single second of movie. That's nearly 2,000 pictures per minute.

But in order to make it look realistic, you shouldn't have duplicate frames. That means you need to have nearly 2,000 different poses for a minute of film. That's a huge amount of time spent posing and taking pictures.

Meanwhile, 10 different poses will get you a third of a second. You've really got to put a truly epic amount more work into this if you want it to look good.

Ailaros- this is so, so true... but the effect isn't going to be that of a motion picture film, as I simply don't have the time to apply that amount of work. I was going for a more, as put by orkamorka, Thomas the tank engine sort of vibe.- motion won't be perfectly fluent, but hopefully the effect will be excusable... it's looking ok so far, especially for a 16yr old working out of his basement/cellar. the resolution isn't exactly 30 frames per second unfortunately, closer to...an unfortunate 3-5 frames per second I'm afraid, but the quality isn't unwatchable, in fact it's quite easy on the eyes, surprisingly so...

-BeAfraid, cheers for the advice- thank you for sharing your experiences in this field... having read your post, I think I'll avoid magnets, and continue down my current path...

-Cheers guys, updates soon!-

(P.S Ailaros- I'm a huge fan of you're foleran 1st site and batreps, it was my inspiration to play guard, and I still visit your page from time to time...)

Another thing you could do would be to get a real animation program.

Poser, from Smith Micro usually goes on sale about 4x a year for about $50 for their basic package.

You would then need a program to create the base meshes. Silo is good, and also is cheap, but powerful (It does not have texturing utilities, but with a simple art program, Poser will handle that).

And then create the necessary base-meshes to simply re-pose using squares motion trails and tangents to get a "stop-motion" effect from the animation.

MB

-you, sir,- BeAfraid, are a goldmine of good ideas.
EBay(ing) 'Poser' software now...
Thanks for all the great responses so far guys, you've been really helpful in aiding me on my quest!

-I'm still open to ideas as to storyline...who would be a good 'bad guy' figure/figures? I was thinking maybe tyranids- a large creature (probably a carnifex) and his swarm of dispensable minions? what do you think? or maybe necrons- man vs. machine terminator style?

Why was it a problem for the orks to fall apart? Presumably you just stick the part back on and keep filming...