Renaissance Unfaire
I took some time to actually get out and pick up some materials I've been meaning to grab since before Christmas. I've had my little stop motion project "RENAISSANCE UNFAIRE" kicking around in my head for a long time now. As I mentioned previously, I've already had actors perform the dialogue for me. It was intended to be a set design project for my wife and I. With an infant in the house though it's rare we both have time to sit down and do anything together. I finally gave in and just got the materials so I could start working on it by myself.
I didn't spend a whole lot of time on it tonight but enough to test out some ideas and see how they worked. The first thing that I did was test out my grass. I want an uneven field with some texture and colour variation. I already know how I'm going to do my uneven field but I wasn't quite sure on how to get text and colour at the same time. I saw some yarn while I was out the crafts store picking up materials. It's nicely textured and have a varying green colour. Perfect.
I tested out putting it together by cutting strips of it the length of a piece of cardboard, putting glue down on the cardboard, and laying the strips over top. It works, better than I expected actually. The only problem is that the yarn I got was a little too dark. It's not bright and cartoony enough. A necessity for this project.
The other, and much larger, chunk of work tonight was figuring out how to make my trees. Jumbo popsicle sticks, a brown marker, and green pipe cleaners. When I started putting it together I had no idea what I was going to do. Once I put together the trunk and branches it just came together. I had intended to do more green sections, covering the top half of the tree, but once I had the tips on it just looked right.
The popsicle sticks are pretty soft so I was able to shave them in to shape easily with an exacto knife. From there I took a brown marker to them. Since the wood have a bit of colour variety to it naturally so I shouldn't need to do any detailing work on them. I took the pipe cleaners and wound them in around themselves like pinwheels. I glued all the popsicle stick pieces together and then the pin wheels on to the ends of the branches.
I still have a few things to figure out, like the best way to ensure they stay standing and stable, but I like where they're at so far. I should have everything sort, my designs all planned, and started on proper building by next week.
