RatOBat 2003

Rat on a skateboard A stop motion piece done with a new camera (Olympus 5050Z) about an acrobatic Rat on a Motorised skateboard.

The model "RatFink" is from www.finktank.com .

The music is from a Punk Bank called "The Finger".

The frames were put together into small scenes using "Microsoft Movie Maker". WMV files were created for each and were imported as clips. A new project was started with these clips, spaced with blank scenes and adjusted to the music before generating the final file with credits etc.

A wood block with 3 natural light bulbs and a dimmer Jasc ImageRobot was used extensively to make up for subtle variations in colour due to the filming taking place over a long time.

My tips:

Making of ratobatIf I was to film this all again, I would put more effort into blacking-out the room to give more consistent lighting. I had used a set of daylight bulbs on a block for this project but my curtains were not totally light proof so the lighting changed during the filming. The other change which I notice everytime I watch the film is the background in the jump sequence. I took several photos of the rat on a cardboard track, I then took a second photo with just the backdrop, I then using Paintshot Pro painstakingly painted bridge out of all the images. The problem being that the backdrop is in sharp focus for that shot but for the other shots the focus is on the rat and I foolishly did not keep the intermediate files because they were quite large. 

What has Ratobat been upto since 2003? Well he is now living in an old humidor and likes to spend his evenings with a "wee dram" of whisky.

Ratobat resting


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Email : [email protected] - Last updated : Jan 2007

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