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Not too long ago, when I thought I almost forgot about it, my brother suddenly reminded me about it. Hmm, I guess an animator's got to pull off something that's not done on their comfy chairs nor desk, if their trying to keep tight of their budget.
As most knows, searching up for an animation desk on the net would usually come up with hard-to-swallow price tags! (US$ is too expensive for ordinary malaysians like me!)
So surfing for another solution, we'd rather make our own because its cheaper comparing to the materials needed to make the animation desk. We got many guidance and info thanks to many readily-available sites and experienced forummers that helped us throughout our project. Credits goes to... The Animation Forum community, the animation-studio-stuff blogspot, and Rio which his idea inspired our design too.
First, we started off with discarded wood pieces we got it from a factory(thanks to our dad, the interior designer, since he knows and works with those people).
Surprisingly, we had all the wood materials needed to construct it, just from those batch of discarded wood pieces. Those long wood pieces made great 'beams' to support the base and the surface of the table.
Adding on...we got off with two thick and 1 thin flat surfaced wood. These(in the pic) were used as the table surface and we made the hole about 16" inches in diameter at the thin one while the thicker one had slightly smaller hole of 14".(This is to make sure the disk stays in place, the way how gravity does its work on it, the usual.)
Later, we glued the both surfaces together, and then nailing it to ensure it's reinforced to stay in place.
From the above^, you can see how the bottom part of the table surface is made like this, if you get my point what I've said earlier.
In Malaysia, I personally think there wouldn't be any carpenter willing to cut the wood for you for free, unless he's a close friend or someone you know quite well, and willingly bare his hands and time for your request...
So, the rest of the wood pieces had to be cut by ourselves
(thanks mostly to my bro).
If you were wondering, the holes made in two of the flat surface wood were actually done by my dad's friend too. Oh, thank those good samaritians!
Putting the stuff together, it really looked like a real animation table already! It's was undeniably exciting for an animator to be able to use and at the knowing that, it was built by your own hands!
Some note to remember, the bolts used to hold the table pieces together needs to have a 'metal washer' to prevent a dent like this. we learnt this the hard way after making this mistake without our knowing, I guess we're not much of a DIY-expert.
That time, my brother ridiculously came up with some "cardboard' washers" to overcome the shortage of our washers, and it did work like a charm! Although just as a replacement...
Over the course of this project, we manage to learn a few things about woodcraft and its technical side, it's a plus for any ordinary people to have actually. Drilling, sawing through, sweats and tears...it's all worth the time, if you're tight on budget and wanting to have an asset of a traditional animator of course!
We finally can be proud owners of this table, so to speak. :D Here's some snapshot of the finished piece of project(without backlighting):
On the side note, we spent about roughly 5 days on it, not really a big deal since we had most of time in our hands..(plus it's school holiday too :)
It's only the table part, not the backlighting though. We couldn't find any suitable light source for our backlights at the moment, so we're just using it as a drafting table right now.
Dream come true...
