Category
Looking Closer
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11.30.09MacroWe've been having some fun with the close-up abilities of our animation kit camera. Macro photography shows the subject large as, or larger than actual life. It allows you to capture intricate details of tiny objects, which is especially useful in stopmotion animation. To focus on subjects like this, twist the camera focus ring all the way to the left, and place the subject very close to the lens. Bringing the camera close to your stopmotion actors helps the audience connect with them. Arrow graphic credit goes to dragonartz.net
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06.01.09FightHey all, This is Ryan here. I've been away for awhile but now I'm back and looking forward to making some neat posts on this blog. I'm excited about the movies that people are making so keep up the good work! I know a lot of people are interested in improving their animation, especially Stikfas which are a lot more difficult to animate. This is one of the coolest Stikfa animations I've ever seen - so make sure to check it out. This short was not made by us but I'm highlighting it as an example of some very creative animating and ...
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02.25.09The Owl who Married a Goose – Sand AnimationSand animation is similar to paint animation. Instead of smudging paint around a square of glass, the animator manipulates sand on a glass-topped lighted table called a "lightbox". Caroline Leaf "The Owl who Married a Goose" The sand blocks the light, creating light and dark shadows on the glass. A camera positioned directly above the animating surface grabs frames of the images created. This film was created by Caroline Leaf, and here you'll find a short explanation of her methods. Sand animation can be used to achieve some surreal effects. See how heat and the dry desert are captured in this short clip. It's ...
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02.11.09Alexander Petrov Paint AnimatorHey! Since we're looking at United Airlines commercials, let's watch another utilizing a very artsy stopmotion technique. United Airlines "Rose" Alexander Petrov is a Russian animator who works with paint and glass. Pretrov literally "fingerpaints" every frame of his animations, using slow-drying oil paint which he smudges into dreamy landscapes of color and motion. His most famous work is a production of "The Old Man and the Sea", by Earnest Hemingway, which took two years to make and 29,000+individual frames. That's twenty-nine thousand individual paintings. Alexander Petrov, Making of: We're sorry this is completely in Russian, but you can watch Petrov's fingerpainting style and ...
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02.04.09Jamie Caliri – Heart & DragonUnited Airlines. "Rhapsody in Blue". All who have waited hours for a "friendly skies" representative to pick up the phone are familiar with this piece by Gershwin. Gershwin's performance is better used as the score for two unique commercials directed by Jamie Caliri. Dozens of 2-dimensional puppets were made by drawing, scanning, coloring, printing and assembling many tiny pieces of paper. The animated results are beautiful. United Airline's page Dragon production photos We'd say more, but "Dragon" has a really great making-of that explains it all. The artistry and effort that went into this film is incredible. Heart production photos We think the little computer setup ...
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01.19.09Rudolph the Red-Nosed ReindeerHear the power of music. Write a few catchy tunes for your movie and it will stay on broadcast TV for decades. We'll save analyzing the dysfunctional Donner family for another day, and look instead at the interesting history of this show. Rudolph was produced for sponsor General Electric by the Rankin/Bass company. First broadcast in 1964, production costs were around $500,000. The movie was shot using the revolutionary "Animagic" technique, an impressive label for simple stop motion. Early animation companies named their unique methods with retro flair, my current favorite is "Supermarionation". If you've ever noticed artistic similarities between Rudolph and other ...
