You can now make your very own Morph, and friends including Chas and Grandpa out of plasticine. Follow the step-by-step instructions DVD containing original footage from Aardman starring Peter Lord, the man who created Morph. Then sit back and laugh your socks off with 15 Morph episodes. My own Morph comes with fun pieces to accessorise your character and create different poses. Plasticine never dries out so you can re-pose your model time after time!
To find out more, check out the competition details here.
It’s been an interesting month on the Noddegamra Forum. I’m aiming to possibly summarise some of the highlights each month on this blog, to help those who aren’t yet members to see what is going on, or to remind members about some of the bits and bobs that made us laugh or inspire creativity.
Adventure Game
One of the biggest surprises this month was the creation of a point-and-click game by one of our members (Hudders). Point-and-click adventure games aren’t as common as they used to be, but are still very much loved by the gaming community (games such as the Broken Sword and Monkey Island series are probably the most memorable).
The game is currently only a demo of things to come and features some of the members of our forum. The game can be enjoyed by anyone and features some very original humour with some genuinely “laugh out loud” moments. To read more about it and download the demo, click here.
Claymation
I feel a bit dirty plugging my own stuff as a “highlight”, but for those interested I have been trying my hand at some stop-motion animation.
You can see most of the stuff I have made on the blog already, but there is the possibility of a new competition coming in May. I have discussed it on the forum to see if many people will enter. Even if you are not a member you will be able to take part. If everything goes ahead, I will be posting about it on the blog. So be sure to come back soon for an update.
Topics of Interest
There has been some great stuff posted on the forum this month. Below are some of the links I recommend you checking out:
I finally did it. I tried out a lip-synced claymation (stop-motion) video!
It’s not quite perfect, but not bad for a first attempt. I’m quite pleased with it!
It took ages! The whole process of preparation, creating the model, setting up, shooting, creating the video and then editing it took just over 2 hours! At first I was a little bit disappointed of how the mouth didn’t quite match the words very well, but then I thought it would be better to create something than to throw it all away. My old art teacher used to go mental if I threw anything in the bin, so if you ever stumble onto this site I hope your happy! lol.
Another claymation video, another original name and.. er.. script!?
“The Blue Blob” is my second attempt at stop-motion. Whilst in my previous blog post I said I would try out new software, I was riddled with technical problems. So, I stuck with Windows Movie Maker. Not because there is anything wrong with AnimatorHD (that I have found yet), more due to the fact that the camera I was using let me down and didn’t quite give me the options and settings I require.
Whilst filming, I was hit suddenly with a message telling me that the battery was low. About 3 seconds later the camera completely died on me. Unfortunately, the cable connecting it to my laptop does not recharge the camera. The batteries that required replacing are situated underneath the camera, which meant I couldn’t remove them whilst still connected to the tripod. It was a bit of a disaster. Moving the camera or tripod slightly would mean that I’d have to start all over again.
After much frustration, stomping around the house looking for batteries, and making weird growling noises I finally managed to resolve the problem by replacing 3 of the 4 batteries (which was very difficult). Once I finished filming I transferred my files over the my laptop to find that several frames (photos) were missing. This is why the walking animation at the start suddenly jerks forward, and why the ball rolling in and up to become the Blue Blob’s nose isn’t very fluid. This may have had something to do with the camera saying it’s memory was full on the last photo I took, or because the batteries died? I’m not sure what happened really, but I will definately have another pop at this once I get my new camera (which I recieved today, with a cracked screen.. dammit! - now awaiting a replacement).
Loads of stuff went wrong, but I was determined to get a video out of the evening’s work. I learnt a lot as I tried to make the animation a bit more complex and I’m still happy with the results, but hope I am not quite as unlucky next time.
After recently posting my Green Blob Claymation video on this site, the forum, and my facebook page, I have received some great feedback. One of the common questions I received was how did I make the video. Rather than post a lengthy reply to numerous people, I thought I’d post up an article here on how I made “The Green Blob” animation.
In order to make my stop-motion animation I used the following items:
A digital camera (although you can use a webcam)
A tripod
Windows Movie Maker (free with Vista)
White Card
A paperclip
Plasticine (I bought a big box from Toys R Us for £9.99, although they also do packets for about £1 each)
An unimaginative title I know. The video below is an “experiment” I carried out over the weekend. I’ve always wanted to try my hand at stop-motion animation (or claymation.. I don’t really know the correct term), but until recently I’ve never really had the right “tools”.
It’s a fairly short clip bulked out a little by credits and stuff to help bring site traffic and turn off potential media thieves. The animation sequence is about 6-8 seconds which required over 70 separate photographs and took about 30 minutes to make. The software used to create the final result was Windows Movie Maker (bundled with Windows Vista).
For my next claymation video I will be looking at adding more fluid animation, adding sound, and experimenting with Stop Motion Pro to see if it offers much in the way to justify it’s hefty price tag. I have several story and character ideas for when I get a little bit better at this, so be sure to check back at the site often for more videos.
Whilst the blog hasn’t recieved much work lately, there has been plenty of work gone into the Noddegamra Forum. The latest updates include some new areas for discussion and a new awards mod, rewarding members for their input.
The new forum areas focus on reviews for both movies and gaming. If you have played a game or watched a film lately, this is the perfect place to voice your thoughts and share opinions with other members.
We have also added a new topic called “Game Deals” which will keep you updated on all the great special offers that are on the Internet at the moment and in nearby stores.
As for the awards, you can get the latest details and updates here
As you are probably aware the Noddegamra website has been updated and moved to our new hosts!
I would like to thank the following forum members for making this possible:
XxRockFairyxX
Hudders
Lunicks
Lanzaned
Fugue
IronBat
There is loads of new stuff to come, but I will post about that once I have finished setting up the forum. If you are a forum member, please check your e-mail inbox and junkmail folders for your activation e-mails. If you have any problems, please leave a comment here and I will get back to you asap.
Note: If you are getting an “Error 404″ page after you click the e-mailed link, or you are still seeing the old forum, please try again later as the transfer process (new noddegamra website) can take up to 72 hours to appear correctly on all servers/computers.
Continuing the current “Dark Knight” theme, I have decided to provide a list of interesting trivia related to the latest Batman film. Please note that some of these items may contain spoilers, so you may wish to come back here after watching the movie.
As a joke, one bat suit was made with nipples, as in Batman & Robin (1997). It was presented to Christian Bale as the real bat suit, but he knew instantly it was a joke, having seen a few design pictures during preproduction. He did pose for some publicity photos in the “nipple” suit.
To prepare for his role as the Joker, Heath Ledger lived alone in a hotel room for a month, formulating the character’s psychology, posture and voice (the last one he found most difficult to do). He started a diary, in which he wrote the Joker’s thoughts and feelings to guide himself during his performance. He was also given Alan Moore’s comic “Batman: The Killing Joke” and “Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth” to read. Ledger also took inspiration from A Clockwork Orange (1971)’s Alex and Sid Vicious.
I love seeing what people can achieve using Lego. Whilst this may have been done before though, I haven’t seen it executed this well. Check out these cool remakes of famous photo’s using Lego by Balakov.
After recently posting my 
Continuing the current “Dark Knight” theme, I have decided to provide a list of interesting trivia related to the latest Batman film. Please note that some of these items may contain spoilers, so you may wish to come back here after watching the movie.
