Animating.

Some problems I have come across while animating have caused me to slow down and rethink things. I found that, although three of my puppets came with strong magnets to hold them onto sets, once the silicon had been applied to the feet, the magnets weren't nearly as strong and they weren't able to get through the wood of the set and the silicon, so are basically useless for animating with. This means that I will have to use the tie downs for these puppets which will mean drilling holes through the set where I need them, which will take more time. I also had planned to use a rigging kit for the king puppet, however the rigging kit doesn't attach to the kings armature as planned so I have had to slide it between the sponge and his clothes and hope that is strong enough to hold him. This will make it more difficult to animate with. 

As I didn't know how a spinning wheel worked, I have looked for some videos as research and found this very useful video and have used it as reference so that my Rumpelstiltskin character looks like he is in fact working the wheel. 

As I have limited experience in animating in stop motion, some of my movements are quite shaky and the light occasionally flickers and I can't work out why. The shaky movements aren't too much of an issue for me, but the light flickers I will need to clean up in post production.

Another issue I faced with this animation is working out how to make the campfire look like it was giving off light. I bought some little LED candles that I thought might be useful, however they are too bulky to sit above the set inside the campfire as it was too obvious that they were there, and the LED light bulb itself wasn't big enough to show through the wood if we had drilled a hole through the set and attached it underneath. Because of this I have decided to add a light source in in post production and maybe footage of a fire inside the set. 
The biggest issue I have had with this animation is the King puppet, as I couldnt attach his arms properly and his bulky shape make it hard to position his arms without them springing back again. 

The last issue I have had is the Rumpelstiltskin puppet. At the end of the animation he is supposed to tear himself in two, and originally I was planning on making a duplicate puppet that was in two halves, loosely held together by clothing. Unfortunately, I ran out of silicon because the first Rumpelstiltskin puppet didnt work, and I have run out of time to order new silicon and make a full new puppet. 
Therefore I have had to think of a new way to do this last scene. I had wanted the audience to be able to see the whole scene as it would have been a fun challenge, however because of a lack of time I think I will either have to make a plasticine puppet that maybe wont look exactly the same as the original puppet, or, to save more time and definitely get the animation finished by the deadline, I could just make use of creative angles to shoot the scene at to make it look like he might have torn himself into two. I think because of the time I have left, I will go with the second option and show a shot of Rumpelstiltskin pulling at his leg, use a ripping sound effect and then show Rumpelstiltskin lying maybe in pieces on the floor.