Welcome to my life reboot

Welcome to my life is now back in full production after a long long time, please check out the making of blog for it here: http://welcometomylifeanimation.blogspot.co.uk/
Thank you
More updates soon

Model making (robot sculpture)

Here's a quick post showing the making of a small sculpture i made recently of a robot.

I first took the image of the robot drawn by the wonderful concept artist Megan Potter (please see link below for more of her work)

Megan potter - Concept art and VFX

 

First i outlined the design of the robot on a piece of cut blue foam

 

I then used thick wire and super sculpy to make the legs and feet

 

 

I added more detail to the body using super sculpy and wire, i then hardened it all and painted it black

 

 

After this stage i built the arms again using sculpy and wire, i then glued the four arms (two large, two smaller) into place using a glue gun (superglue burns through the foam and makes it unusable)

 

 

I then painted the model using a green, silver, white and yellow to make the finished piece

 

 



Finished model



11 second club update

As i mentioned in my last post, i am doing the 11 second club this month, it's been a really fun little project to work on and has been really enjoyable.
The animation is now finished and so i thought I'd post it up here for all to see, i hope you enjoy it.

The mouths i used for this puppet

Here i am hard at work animating him

(Update)
The film is now up on the 11 second club website: http://www.11secondclub.com/
Make sure you visit and vote, i'm keeping my fingers crossed and am now getting ready to start this months animation, more updates soon, thanks for watching guys

Also I have now finished work on the music video i was working on, (more on that soon) and I now have big things planned for the future, i will give more details when things are finalised but these are very exciting times, keep on watching.

11 second club

Okay, so i've been working on animating the animated music video for the past few weeks with a busy looking week coming up soon.

But still i thought for a little light and fun animation i'd do the 11 second club this month.
I have never actually done an animation for the 11 second club but i thought i'd give it a go.

I have made up a puppet and i'll make up a simple set over the next few days and create a dope sheet for the animation and then after next weeks busy animating i'll take a break by animating.... some more....

Anyway, here is the puppet i have made for the animation:

11 second club website: http://www.11secondclub.com/

(Update below)

Here is an updated photo of my character on set, it needs a few bits adding to make it look more like an office, but this is the shot i am going to use for the animation.

Rock climbing tests for music video

I am very exited at the moment, as not only am i now working on recreating an old animation series that i have been longing to start for a long time, but I have also been asked to animate on a stop motion animated music video for a well known band.

I am not sure how much information i can disclose at present but to prepare for this animation i have been doing some very basic tests with an old armature.

I was told to practise rock climbing animation and here is what i have so far:



Rock climbing animation from Kyle Bennett on Vimeo.


Rock climbing animation 2 from Kyle Bennett on Vimeo.

 

 

 

I have also started doing animation tests on the real puppets and sets, but i will have to ask permission before putting up anything from the acual video.

I start animating on this project properly Monday morning, i am very much looking forward to it.

As for my other project, i will post more soon.

Keep following 





Voice acting

I do a bit of voice acting every now and again for various things and will be voicing some characters on my next big upcoming project (stay tuned)



 

As you can see I've also had many different hair colours and styles.

 

The most recent voice acting i have done is for student Faye Wombwell's final film 'The garden gang'

See her stuff here: http://phazeanimations.blogspot.co.uk/

 

I am currently working on a couple of big projects and am voice acting for one of them, so keep checking regularly and i should have more up soon

 

 

Cloudy with a chance of jesus

This is an unfinished film, but a good fun one none the less.


Cloudy with a chance of Jesus unedited version from Kyle Bennett on Vimeo.

The film (shown above) was created when we found an individual who loved telling stories, people said that he should be recorded and so finally I decided, why not, lets record him telling a story and then animate it.

We chose from many funny story's, but the one about his father seeing jesus in the sky, we thought was especially funny.

Cloudy jesus

The film was all shot on green screen and was suposed to be edited with live action footage, unfortunatly a lot of the animation was lost due to computer failiers.

The link below is the only bit of composited footage i own now,  but am still trying hard to salvage what was lost, hopefully one day it will be recreated.
Until then, you will have to make do with this:



Green screen test from Kyle Bennett on Vimeo.

The Obsession

Okay, i already have a blog on this so i'll keep it brief.

For my final year of university i created a film entitled The Obsession (film below)


The Obsession from Kyle Bennett on Vimeo.

It took about a year and a half as i started making sets and puppets during the summer.

It was my biggest film to date, you can see the making of and other behind the scenes stuff on The Obsession blog: http://stopmotionhorrorobsessionfilm.blogspot.co.uk/

The film was first shown at our university degree show:

And then was shown at flip festival:

It got a big applause and i was very happy to see it on the big screen.

Hopefully my next big project will be even more successful than this one.

keep on reading, more posts up soon!

Kyle

Simon Marsh Project

I was asked by a friend Simon Marsh to animate his set and puppet to showcase his model making skills:


Simon Marsh project from Kyle Bennett on Vimeo.

This was a great opportunity to animate someone elses puppet and although i could not give this project a lot of time, i got a good response and praise for the work.

Fan art

Until my next big post, here is some fan art that i created and painted in photoshop, i hope you enjoy:

Adventure time meets scribblenauts

Kero from card captors

I know it's not a picture but here is Psyduck form pokemon as a model i  made!

Next big post coming up soon!

Anti fur fox film

In 2011 i was part of a team that created an animated video for an anti fur campaign for fur free alliance:

 

My role in the animation was to create a life sized fox puppet and animate it alongside a human all in stop motion.

I was about to create the biggest puppet i had ever created in my life

 

I started off by making a small maquette

 

Polystyrene head with wire, foam board and miliput

 

 

 

Cotton wool and latex body

 

 

I half covered the body in fur and left the other half skinned as the full sized fox would be skinned in the actual film

 

 

When starting the main puppet i first made an armature out of very thick wire and very thin wire

 

The armature was secured with plasticine and cotton wool just like the maquette

 

Pink industrial foam was used for muscles and feet

 

Cotton wool and latex was used to cover the fox's body, it was light weight and bulked out the shape easily

 

The ears and snout was created using wire, foam board and miliput

 

The fox was covered in appropriate fur

 

The tongue was made out of foam latex and the teeth were made out of white miliput

 

Here is the puppet in it's cage in the finished film.

 

The film came first in the competition and i was awarded a certificate and a cash prize for my part in the film.

 

The animating was fun and i got to animate a human too, it was a very interesting experience and it was nice to work on something that may actually make a difference to animals lives.

 

The link for the film can be found here:

 

Anti fur fox film from Kyle Bennett on Vimeo.

It came from stoke canal!

The video above shows my fake trailer for the film: 'It came from stoke canal'
This was a really fun project to work on as i got to combine live action and stop motion in one short trailer.

I really enjoyed working with the actors on this and even through in a cameo myself.

Still from the trailer

I wanted to give this trailer the same feel, the really over the top plot and exaggerated acting.

I had worked in green screen before, most notably me playing air guitar with a stop motion punk:

Green screen punk and me from Kyle Bennett on Vimeo.



The green screening process was relatively simple compared to my kraken film, but it was enjoyable none the less.


The animating side of it was also fun, i got to create a nice big kraken puppet using research from old horror movies.

My kraken puppet

Here are some of my initial tests:

Octopus test 01 from Kyle Bennett on Vimeo.

Untitled from Kyle Bennett on Vimeo.

Octopus scratches head from Kyle Bennett on Vimeo.

Animating the tentacle

The picture above shows the bridge and tentacle on the green screen, it was animated and then the green screen was taken out and the film was placed over the live action footage.

I hope you enjoyed this post, i know i enjoyed making the film.

More soon

Kyle

 

It came from stoke canal complete film trailer from Kyle Bennett on Vimeo.

Animal from the muppets and drum kit

For my mums 50th another present i made for her was the animal and his drum kit statue.

Here is how it went:

I made symbols out of kebab skewers painted silver and cuts of wood

I created the base of the stage using foam board

I painted the stage with black spray paint

I created the parts of the drum kit using many materials including, foam board, wood, paper, spray paint and a glue gun

The lips for the front of the stage were made out of Fimo

Animal was created out of wire, plasticine and bits of felt

 

 

Real bulbs were used for the lights

 

Speakers made from spray painted foam board

 

 

 

The final piece