Lego Fun

So me and my house mates had a lot of fun building my lego castle parts today, a few of the photos are below.

Dragons

A few of my ideas for dragons below are:

Dragon Egg Assortment

Lava Dragon

Arthurian Legend Cont.

I also found some information on this site http://www.ramsdale.org/legend.htm which i found quite interesting. It is a vague background story on Arthur and his life.

Although there are innumerable variations of the Arthurian legend, the basic story has remained the same. Arthur was the illegitimate son of Uther Pendragon, king of Britain, and Igraine, the wife of Gorlois of Cornwall. After the death of Uther, Arthur, who had been reared in secrecy, won acknowledgment as king of Britain by successfully withdrawing a sword from a stone.

Merlin,the court magician, then revealed the new king's parentage. Arthur, reigning in his court at Camelot, proved to be a noble king and a mighty warrior. He was the possessor of the miraculous sword Excalibur, given to him by the mysterious Lady of the Lake. At Arthur's death Sir Bedivere threw Excalibur into the lake; a hand rose from the water, caught the sword, and disappeared. Another sword, sometimes mistakenly identified with Excalibur, was drawn from a stone by Arthur to prove his royalty.

Of Arthur's several enemies, the most treacherous were his sister Morgan le Fay and his nephew Mordred. Morgan le Fay was usually represented as an evil sorceress, scheming to win Arthur's throne for herself and her lover. Mordred (or Modred) was variously Arthur's nephew or his son by his sister Morgawse. He seized Arthur's throne during the king's absence. Later he was slain in battle by Arthur, but not before he had fatally wounded the king. Arthur was borne away to the isle of  Avalon where it was expected that he would be healed of his wounds and that he would someday return to his people. 

Two of the most invincible knights in Arthur's realm were Sir Tristram and Sir Launcelot of the Lake. Both of them, however, were involved in illicit and tragic love unions - Tristram with Isolde, the queen of Tristram's uncle, King Mark; Launcelot with Guinevere, the queen of his sovereign, King Arthur.

Other knights of importance include the naive Sir Pelleas, who fell helplessly in love with the heartless Ettarre (or Ettard) and Sir Gawain, Arthur's nephew, who appeared variously as the ideal of knightly courtesy and as the bitter enemy of Launcelot.

Also significant are Sir Balin and Sir Balan, two devoted brothers who unwittingly slew one another; Sir Galahad, Launcelot's son, who was the hero of the quest for the Holy Grail; Sir Kay, Arthur's villainous foster brother; Sir Percivale (or Parsifal); Sir Gareth; Sir Geraint; Sir Bedivere; and other knights of the Round Table.

The Link to Celtic Mythology

Formerly, it was thought that the Arthurian legend was the work of several inventive poets and romancers of the Middle Ages. The generally accepted theory now is that Arthurian legend developed out of stories of Celtic mythology.

Athurian Legend

According to this site - http://www.arthurian-legend.com/

The Legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table is the most powerful and enduiring in the western world. Yet King Arthur, his knights, Lancelot and Guinever have never existed in real life. But their names conjure up a romantic image of gallant knights in shining armour, elegant ladies in medieval castles, heroic quests for the Holy Grail in a world of honour and romance, and the court of Camelot at the centre of a royal and mystical Britain. 

They're purely figures of legend. There might have been someone called Arturus (or Riothamus) in Britain's distant past, but if there was, he was probably a Romano-British leader or military general campaigning against the marauding Saxon hordes in the 5th century AD. In that period of history, however, there was no such thing as knights-in-armour - horsemen didn't even use stirrups until much later, so they couldn't have worn and fought in armour. There are several theories about the location of the 'original' court of Camelot, and although research continues, these are irrelevances: King Arthur and his knights will always be figures of fantasy, and Arthurian legend should be appreciated for what it is: a large and unique body of wonderful early European literature.

Childrens Tv

So whilst watching childrens tv this afternoon, i came across the OOglies. Which i have seen before, but have only realised now that it is relevant to my animation idea. The OOglies is a stop motion animated children's television series produced by BBC Scotland for CBBC. The show involves short humorous sketches with household items, virtually all of which have googly eyes stuck on, hence the show's title.

The show first aired on 10 August 2009 on both CBBC and CBBC HD. The commission was for two series of 13 shows, each 15 minutes long. The shows were produced in a block over five months in Glasgow. Voices are provided by Tim Dann, Peter Dickson and Shelley Longworth. The series was created and written by Nick Hopkin, Tim Dann and Austin Low. Here is an example of the OOglies:
OOglies Strawberry

After the OOglies was on, Shaun the Sheep appeared, which again is another stop motion tv program, but by the makers of Wallace and Gromit. The link to their website is attached below.
Shaun the Sheep

Brainstorming

So when i was supposed to be listening to a guest lecturer for an R & D lecturer, i was busy concocting ideas for digital. Below is my said ideas, and brainstorming.

 I saw my tutor today and he really liked my idea, so its full steam ahead basically. The cheque has been sent for the castles so they should be here next week, my housemates are already looking forward to helping me build them. But my main focus for this week is to sort out my pitch and proposal and also do test shots of my lego men, as well as checking that i can get the lighting right at home, if not i will have to shoot in the studio at uni. That is all at the moment.

Castles

After many failed attempts at Ebay, i have finally managed to win a castle, it is Lego though instead of Playmobil. But it does not really alter my idea. Picture shown below.

Digital Animation Idea 1

The basis of my idea is a stop motion short story using Playmobil or Lego, ideally a castle to create an adaptation of a Arthurian Legend/Merlin short story. I love the Arthurian Legend type Merlin story anyway, i just hope i have the patience to create 24 frames per second. One of my ideas is possibly putting in speech bubbles, with rolling text, instead of finding a voice over, but this is only a preliminary idea.

I have been looking on Youtube for ideas, and inspiration and came across:
/http://www.peteandrob.com/ - They create stop motion shorts.

One of my favourites is: Pete and Rob Adventures - Pete Bungee Jumping

I came across a spoof of Robin Hood - named Hobin Rood, im guessing for copyright purposes.
Hobin Rood

Once i have found a castle i will update more ideas.

Introduction

Hey.

Time to introduce myself i guess, I am Holly Robinson. Currently I am a third year media Production student specialising in Digital Media, at the University of Lincoln. As part of my production module for Digital Media I have to create two animations, one in each semester. The lecturers have asked us to set up a blog so we can show them our progress, and so others can see our ideas. I will be posting updates on my work, including previews and renders, and links to things that have inspired me. Thank you for visiting and I hope you enjoy :)