Cranky Sees the Light, Episode 2

Today I edited the layers in my previous film, adding some extra motion for the inner workings and developing the spotlight techniques. I decided to use two lights- one with a very focused beam to represent the glow from a lantern, and another with a larger, softer beam to reveal more of the inside of Cranky. I also added a lantern, and some gills. The end of the sequence runs for several extra seconds, since the next stage will be to animate his movement (and his gradual sink to the depths of the sea in defeat.) I will also create a sequence to go before this one, showing the lantern being knocked into Cranky's open jaws.

The elements I used to create this sequence were:

• A scanned fabric printed with gold foil to create Cranky's surface.
• A scan of the mountboard I laser cut with Cranky's workings, placed with the reverse side on the scanner bed. I liked the burned edges of the cut, and thought the colours were very appropriate for my Steampunk references.
• A scan of the second layer of laser cut mountboard, again showing the burned edge. This time I used Photoshop to invert the image, creating an effective contrast in colour to the layer below.
• A lantern drawing from my sketchbook, which I altered in After Effects to increase the contrast and lower the brightness.
• Some footage of fire I filmed on my digital camera. I masked off the area I wanted and adjusted the scale to suggest growing flames. I also used a "Hard Mix" filter to blend it into the other layers.
• Two spotlights- one with a narrow beam, high intensity and sharp edge, and the other with a lower intensity, wider beam and softer focus.
• An Art Deco-inspired drawing which I duplicated and fanned to create gills. I placed anchor points at the base of the fan, and rotated the individual drawings to create the movement.

Cranky top layer - Scanned fabric

Cranky middle layer - laser cut mountboard (inverted)

Cranky base layer - laser cut mountboard

Lantern and gill drawings