Qajaq Scale Model

Hi there,

As previously mentioned, the main characters of this animation are child kayaker, so of course, kayak appear in the play. He carries it, paddles it, and rolls it too. I am building this scale model of a kayak as close to the actual process as possible. The parts are so small that it's quite difficult to work with. However, I believe that the challenges faced in "craftsmanship" are part of the joy, so I welcome these kinds of challenges. I might make scale models in several scales depending on each scene.

Yes, it's relatively easy to arrange the materials and tools required. If you have a short holiday, give it a try. By the way, the tools I prepared are a model saw, a pin vise, wood glue, a needle and thread. I will eventually wrap this frame in fabric. I'm still thinking about the fabric. Usually, when Greenland Kayaks are wrapped in fabric or leather, the beauty of the frame is hidden, but in this animation I want to show the beauty of the frame, so I might use a thinner fabric.

I should explain the historical context of this animation to you, but I'll do that another time. Do you think Greenland's Qajaq culture will survive into the future? I believe it.

The development of Qajaq started from nothing. Is it a miracle? I think it's a kind of instinct that humans have innately. The people of Greenland looked to the sea for a way to find food. To do so, they needed to develop a "boat." However, Greenland did not have materials, such as wood, that were needed to build a boat. They waited for it to wash up, but it wasn't a long tree to come by. They made Qajaq by processing and connecting short pieces of driftwood. It must have taken a long time of trial and error. Many people may have been killed during the test ride. However, they did not give up going out to sea to survive and protect their families. I believe that when, for some reason (for now, it's most likely war), our current civilization completely declines, these instincts will be rekindled within us.Qajaq as an instinct is eternal.

What I'm trying to say is that the historical setting of this animation is not necessarily modern.

Comments

Molding

Hello everyone. It's been quite a while since my last post. So sorry. For the past few months, I've been having trouble creating a "mold" for a character's face. In the end, it turned out as shown in the image, but I'm sure we'll encounter some difficulties as we continue working on it. However, I think that even this is part of the charm of stop-motion animation, right? 😁

Scale Model and Silicone Mold ver.2

Our test shoot went reasonably well, so we've been hard at work creating assets ever since. Recently, we welcomed a graduate of Tokyo University of the Arts as a member. It's very encouraging. However, since we are still a small team, it is inevitable that each person will have to handle multiple tasks at once. Currently I am making two scale models of kayaks, one for normal shooting and one for "distant view". Additionally, I am reworking the default mold for the main character. It is possible to mass-produce faces using the molds I made previously, but I didn't like them because they looked too distorted. This remake was a good experience for me in terms of getting used to working with silicone. As for our future plans, once the main character is complete, I would like to do some more test shooting. I'm sure we'll be able to see some expressions there. I'm really looking forward to it. You may think that the production process is slow. But I'm n...

Realization

Due to the division of labor, the material for the characters gradually came together. When the things I imagine begin to materialize, they become real. The fact that the character I had drawn on paper now had volume and weight meant that the vessel was finally ready to breathe life into it. The very meaning of "Animate" is to give life. We also did some "stop motion" testing with the armatures. In stop-motion animation, we can't use a technique called "in-between." We have to create one motion consistently from start to finish. This is called "straight ahead" as opposed to "in-between." This means that there are no frames that correspond to milestones, so animators are required to have very high levels of skill. For now, we tried shooting 24 frames, which is equivalent to 1 second. After that, we removed the prop that supports the character, called the "tank." This was done using an automatic digital deletion funct...

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