Towards Expression

For my Final Directed Project I intend to make a music video to the song "Stairway" by Yukon Blonde, a Vancouver-based bad that I love. I always make an effort to keep my work local because I often feel that as Canadian students, we often overlook our own country in our work.

I will be experimenting with puppet animation. I intended to use classical 'under-the-camera' puppet techniques, but this did not work out very well as my control and time was limited. I instead   computer based puppets in After Effects. This way I could have more control with the puppets and a higher resolution video.

In After Effects I can have more dynamic camera moves and create a multiplane effect that I could alter and move more freely than if I was working under the camera on a real multiplane. I love the look of classical under the camera animation, but I don't think I have the time to create a successful story using  this technique.

I spent a large portion of the semester planning out what puppets and facial expressions I would need to create this video. I also spent many hours hand painting, scanning and preparing the puppets in photoshop.

However, my main concern for this assignment was to tell a story, so the aesthetics were secondary.As long as my story structure was readable, I would be happy.

Here is the animatic for my piece:






Animatic/Storyboard for Yukon Blonde's "Stairway" music video from Rebecca Rochon on Vimeo.


I used neon paints to create my tigers and backgrounds, as I wanted the video to be bright and colourful. However, this turned into quite a hassle. Neon colours are outside of a computer's RGB spectrum so my scanned images were never true to colour. 

I have had this idea in my head for quite some time so I thought it would be an excellent opportunity to create a project that I could be proud of, something of personal significance, other than the usual walk cycles and technically driven assignments that I am usually producing!