EKIOY

Final year project Ba Illustration with Animation class of 2018 Manchester School of Art

Stop-motion 3D puppet animation based on the origin story of the Kikuyu people of Kenya.

For those who have been waiting to see the final product of my stop-motion animation, here it is. I know it took me 4 years to post, but I decided not to continue doing animation after completing this film. I moved on to exploring 3D animation and visual effects, however, this film highly influenced me to try the 3D world.

I apologise for the sound quality and the subtitles, this IS a student film and therefore I only had a few weeks to finish it.

Scene 7.1 (Raw Footage, only a few seconds)

This is part of the last scene where Gikuyu tells Ngai and his people to multiply and fill all the land.

Scene 5 (Raw footage, only a few seconds)

Scene 7 (Raw Footage, only a few seconds)

This is the second to last scene of the animation, which is followed by a short speech from Ngai. (seen in finished animation)

Ngai talks to the 9 sons that he finds at the Mugumo tree just as Ngai promised, he tells of them of his beautiful daughters, what they like, what they dislike like. He’s just trying to be a good father and matchmaker, the men are intrigued and ask several questions.

Scene 6.1 (Raw footage, only a few seconds)

Scene 6 (Raw Footage, only a few seconds)

In this scene, the family are all at the tree enjoying each others company and the goat meat. This is one of my favourite scenes because; 

I didn’t have to edit the blue screen out because it takes part at night meaning no blue screen

I added a little bit of humour, one of the girls throws a goat leg to her sister sitting across her. (not shown in this clip)

Mumbi has very impressive hand and neck movements, as she pulls out the cooked meat and lays it aside to cool for Gikuyu and the girls.

I didn't have to animate all the girls as they were hidden at the back and side, out of the view of the camera.

Scene 4.1 (Raw Footage, just a few seconds)

In this scene, the girls are each introduced with their names: (for this short clip on the last 5 appear)

Njeri

Wanjiku

Wangari

Wairimu

Wacera

Waitherandu

Wambui

Wanjiru

Wangui

Scene 5.2 (Raw Footage)

In this scene, the girls and Mumbi each carry a stick as instructed by Ngai and walk to the Mugumo tree to build a bonfire. Seeing as the female puppets physical structure wasn’t made for walking sequences, I sat them on a small wooden crate that I flipped upside down with a piece of fabric so as not to catch onto the wood. I pulled the crate in slow increments to create the illusion of them walking, this only worked because i shot them from the chest up. If i set the camera any lower, the legs of the girls would have been seen.

The crate was a bit to too small, so some of the girls had to be taped on the sides and back and pulled along the way.

Other Props

1. Pestle and Mortar  2. Bowl 3. Knife

These 4 props were made with air drying clay, the knife has a matchstick for the handle and the pestle has a stick for the handle. I painted the clay with light brown and brown acrylic paint, for the knife I used silver acrylic paint.

4. Bonefire

I used 5 little sticks similar to the handle of the knife, glued them together overlapping each other. The rocks are made of brown plasticine clay shaped into little cubes, I used plasticine because I could easily shape them and if I place them close together they don’t move as much during recording.

The Hut

For the base I used 28 jumbo lolly sticks that started out as 15cm in length and i cut them down to 13.3cm. I glued them side by side to make a circle shape and layered several layers of plaster strips. That took about a day, day and a half to dry completely. 

I then painted it with 3 shades of acrylic brown, 1st colour is brown and the lighter colour is a mix of yellow ochre and light brown. I stuck a double layer of rope that has wire in the middle, 2/3 at the top of the hut. 

The top of the hut is a large 30 cm cone shape cartridge paper, painted with brown acrylic paint and covered with 3 different coloured raffia paper strips. I stuck the raffia paper strips a 1cm over the end of the cone. 

I covered the tip of the cone with dark coloured twine to make it a little bit neat, and also because it looked like a straw hat without it.

Scene 5.3 (Raw Footage, just a few seconds)

In this scene, the girls (just two of them) help Mumbi build the bonfire, the first time I recorded the scene it only lasted 2 secs because the movements were too fast and followed the script. I decided to move the plasticine rocks one at a time, and I made the girls fight at the back to add a little bit of humour.  I think it’s kinda funny how Mumbi tells them off, the girl that started the fight ends up the innocent one whereas the one that didn't start the fight gets in trouble and out of anger she slowly moves away from her sister.

Scene 5.1 (Raw Footage, just a few seconds)

In this scene, Gikuyu sacrifices the goat and the kid. I tried out a different camera panning technique to make the shot a bit longer, I moved the camera out of the trees from the left to the center. This scene was a bit gruesome and required a lot of blood, therefore, i decided to record Gikuyus back to the camera and summarise the whole sacrifice as the quick movements of the knife. The little kid tries to get to its mother and is pushed away by Gikuyu, when it hears the cries of its mother it runs to the other side only to picked up and sacrificed too.

The Granary

I used pipe cleaners and wire to create the skeleton of the granary, I then covered it in air drying clay and left some space as the opening.  The top is made of paper, cut into a circle and folded into a cone. I painted it with acrylic paint and covered it with 3 different types of raffia paper. 

The bottom of the granary has 6 rods made of air drying clay, painted with acrylic paint and tied together with twine that looks like rope. It helps keep the little fruits inside and makes the granary look like it's on a platform.

Scene 4 (Raw Footage)

In the original story, this scene isn’t really described The homestead is not talked about or used as a stage. But using my research from authorship and talking to my Grandma, I got a rough understanding of how the place would have looked like. Visiting the Bomas Of Kenya really helped visualise the whole scene as I got to interact with an actual Hut.

In this scene the puppets interacting with each other, Gikuyu at the back relaxing and talking to some of his children. Back in the day, the Kikuyu were Matriarchal - power in the hands of women, meaning the women controlled the homestead and the men provided security and food by hunting. That is why Gikuyu seems to be doing less than Mumbi in this scene.  Mumbi is grinding down maize to create maize flour, at the time I didn't realise that I used green clay instead of a yellow-white clay so she looks like she crushing peas. 

The girls are interacting with each and some are weaving trying to create baskets. I made the scene a little humorous because it seemed dull, the goat jumps on one of the girls trying to get to its baby.

Scene 2 (Raw Footage)

Gikuyu went to the chosen spot. Here he found a beautiful woman whom he took to wife. He named her Mumbi meaning molder.

I reshot this scene from my previous project, Authorship. The old footage seemed slightly boring, so this time I gave Mumbi a little paper rose to play with as she daydreams in the forest. This was a great chance to play around with her new hands and really push the use of her fingers. 

This time I didn’t use any fishing wire instead,  I relied on the tree being her main support. However, this caused the scene to take about 1 to 1.30 hours to record.

Scene 1.1 (Raw Footage)

Ngai gave Gikuyu a share of his land with rivers, valleys, forests rich with fruits and animals of all types. Then Ngai went to stay on Kirinyaga.

With the help of the blue screen, I added in the forest and mountain using the keying feature on after effects. I used images from stock photos, and images of my paper trees to create a dense forest scene.

Autumn Leaves, a coming of age.

2D stop motion animation.

A young girl takes a casual walk through the forest where she finds an apple and takes a bite. The apple transforms into a magical creature and takes the girl into a dark dimension where time can be manipulated. There she learns that beauty doesn’t last forever and eventually not only her beauty will fade but her whole life too. The end is her cute little hat gliding through the trees, this represents the girl losing her innocence and becoming a woman.

Foley Sounds From: FreeSound.org

Music: J.S.Bach Mass in B minor BWV 232 15. Coro Et incarnatus est [Herreweghe]