Christmas Google Doodle - Process

Hey,

Last week I was given the go-ahead to start planning my final since I had already settled on my chosen concept, Christmas. That being said, the type of stop motion I’ve planned to do is a little different than generic types, as I will be using a “Chroma Key” background. Those of who you do not know what that means, it is simply a background that can be removed and given a substitution.

I mentioned that I would be using wooden blocks as my typography. However, it may come as no surprise that I ran into a few problems. One, the blocks weren’t giving me the “look and feel” I was going for and because of that I decided to design my own letters and place them on mini cardboard easels. When I say it like that it sounds a bit weird, but trust me when I say it looks great!

The second problem I ran into was the “green screen.” My Christmas colour palette contains shades of green and that became a problem when removing the background. The “keying” process started to remove some of my green letters so I had to come up with another screen. Thus, I created a “blue screen” which in turn solved all of my problems.

I pulled out my table, decorations, and letters then set up my camera and tripod. The next part was making sure the lighting was perfect otherwise my substitute background wouldn’t blend well with the foreground. With many hours taking shots and perfecting the light I now have a collection of photos in need of editing.

A portion of my basement turning into my "blue screen" and shooting area:

Here is a sample of one of my shots. Here I have edited the glass table out for a cleanliness:

One screen shot of some photos: