Here is the final scene! The start and end clips I obtained from Getty Images, and are not very high quality. But they set the scene, so until I find some way to get a fancy crowd clapping, I will leave these in. I did a little post work on the animation, adding some color correction and adjusting the position for a couple frames (the set mysteriously moved to the left and then back to the right during animation).
This speech is from Sally Field’s 1985 Oscar for Places in the Heart.
Challenges: With this one I realized how hot lights quickly melt the museum wax. Her eyes were sliding all over. I was going to permanently glue the eyes but I thought I wanted the freedom to move them around. I should have glued them down!
The latex joints at the shoulder prevented her from closing her arms easily. The last time she grabs the Oscar, I used fishing line to keep the hands together.
Her right hand would not stay closed on the statuette! Not clay nor sticky wax would keep that hand on there. If I had planned her actions a little more precisely, I would have hot-glued it to one hand at least.
The second set of eyes (larger irises) were too big and didn’t really work the way I was imagining, so I ended up not using them.
I would have made a separate set of mouths to get more emotional range during the lip sync.
Overall it was great fun watching her come to life, it’s amazing how much voice and sound can add to a character animation!
Programs: Adobe After Effects, Dragon Stop Motion
M for Maria 