Mouse

About the Video

Mouse was the second major stop-motion animation project I had ever made, and probably the most fun project I have worked on! It was time consuming and difficult and everything was made from scratch, but I think it was worth all of the work put in.

The brief was to make a short animated document surrounding "identity", so I decided to make a film about wanting to change your identity. In this case, the story was that Malice (the lead character) wanted to become a mouse. It was a nice simple story that was easy to execute, and allowed me to emphasise and work on the visual style more.

Mouse was filmed stop-motion using replacement techniques. Malice was made of card coloured with markers with all of her limbs seperate, so they could be moved frame by frame and replaced when needed. All in all, there were 2 sets of eyes, 2 sets of eyelids, 1 smile, 7 arms, 1 body and 11 legs for the main frontal Malice, as well as a "back" Malice used in one scene. The moon also had 4 faces, 1 eye and 2 sets of eyelids, and there were 8 mice made, 1 headless mouse and 4 replacement faces.

I think of all the projects I have made I enjoyed making Mouse the most. The sets were all original and made from foamboard, recycled paper and tiny christmas spotlights. The sets themselves were the most expensive and difficult parts to make, despite playing very little part in the final film due to the way it was filmed.

All of the audio was original too. The music was "composed" with Virtual Keyboard and recorded with a microphone. All of the sound effects and voices were recorded by me, too, and then edited in Audacity.

Malice will hopefully feature in future projects, too, so keep watch for her!

DVD Artwork & Disc Artwork

Here's the DVD cover and Disc artwork for Mouse. Mouse was submitted in a standard DVD case with a picture disc.

Set & Puppet Construction

Here are some photographs showing how the set was made as well as constructive images of the puppets from after filming. Hopefully this will shed some light on how Mouse was made :)

Malice, Mice & Moon Puppet Photographs

Final Set Photographs

Additional Technical Information

Recorded via: Direct camera stream
Original Recorded Format: .VPS files
Original Resolution: 4:3 standard
Original Frame Rate: 25fps
Original Audio Settings: 44100hz, 16bit mono / 44100, 16bit stereo

Edited In: Animate & Velocity
Edited File Exported As: RAW stream

Audio Used: Originally composed music from Virtual Keyboard, original sound effects & voices
Audio Mixed With: Audacity

Re-Encoded For Web Distribution With: TMPGEnc
Final Length: 1:09 (including titles & credits)
Final File Exported As: MPEG2 file
Final Resolution: 720x540
Final Frame Rate: 25fps
Final Web File Size: 23.7mb (24,872,960 bytes)

File uploaded to: MySpaceTV's streaming media servers


	Mouse Video hosting by MySpaceTV! About the Video Mouse was the second major stop-motion animation project I had ever made, and probably the most fun project I have worked on! It was time consuming and difficult and everything was made from scratch, but I think it was worth all of the work put in. The brief was to make a short animated document surrounding "identity", so I decided to make a film about wanting to change your identity. In this case, the story was that Malice (the lead character) wanted to become a mouse. It was a nice simple story that was easy to execute, and allowed me to emphasise and work on the visual style more. Mouse was filmed stop-motion using replacement techniques. Malice was made of card coloured with markers with all of her limbs seperate, so they could be moved frame by frame and replaced when needed. All in all, there were 2 sets of eyes, 2 sets of eyelids, 1 smile, 7 arms, 1 body and 11 legs for the main frontal Malice, as well as a "back" Malice used in one scene. The moon also had 4 faces, 1 eye and 2 sets of eyelids, and there were 8 mice made, 1 headless mouse and 4 replacement faces. I think of all the projects I have made I enjoyed making Mouse the most. The sets were all original and made from foamboard, recycled paper and tiny christmas spotlights. The sets themselves were the most expensive and difficult parts to make, despite playing very little part in the final film due to the way it was filmed. All of the audio was original too. The music was "composed" with Virtual Keyboard and recorded with a microphone. All of the sound effects and voices were recorded by me, too, and then edited in Audacity. Malice will hopefully feature in future projects, too, so keep watch for her! DVD Artwork & Disc Artwork Here's the DVD cover and Disc artwork for Mouse. Mouse was submitted in a standard DVD case with a picture disc. Set & Puppet Construction Here are some photographs showing how the set was made as well as constructive images of the puppets from after filming. Hopefully this will shed some light on how Mouse was made :) Malice, Mice & Moon Puppet Photographs Final Set Photographs Additional Technical Information Recorded via: Direct camera stream Original Recorded Format: .VPS files Original Resolution: 4:3 standard Original Frame Rate: 25fps Original Audio Settings: 44100hz, 16bit mono / 44100, 16bit stereo Edited In: Animate & Velocity Edited File Exported As: RAW stream Audio Used: Originally composed music from Virtual Keyboard, original sound effects & voices Audio Mixed With: Audacity Re-Encoded For Web Distribution With: TMPGEnc Final Length: 1:09 (including titles & credits) Final File Exported As: MPEG2 file Final Resolution: 720x540 Final Frame Rate: 25fps Final Web File Size: 23.7mb (24,872,960 bytes) File uploaded to: MySpaceTV's streaming media servers