Last semester I stumbled upon Kishi Bashi, while I was looking for some new music. The clip above is a very unique music video for their song The Ballad of Mr.Steak. While I had a hard time finding any information on this video and its animator, I thought it would still be an interesting animation to share here.
I really enjoy how well the animation lines up with the music, especially in the very beginning when the axe comes down on the cow. I'm also a fan of the stars at the beginning, which seem to have a bit of meat texture. Since it was difficult to find information on the animation specifically, I don't know exactly how it was made. Judging from my own observations, it looks like the meat was animated using stop motion. The whole video was probably created using a variety of animation techniques, as as certain elements (like the light, stars, and clouds in the beginning) don't look like stop motion.
Overall, I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with this animation. I find it original and well done, but at the same time, the "booty shaking" meat can be a little freaky!
For my final project, I was weighing on what exactly to do and then I saw this video and was instantly inspired. I think stop motion is so fascinating and doesn't nearly get enough credit on just how difficult it is to create this type of animation. This particular video was so unique and I loved the sound effects, it's definitely worth checking out!
As a film major who also doubles as an art student, I am always thinking of new materials that can be incorporated into projects in unique and interesting ways. Sometimes it can be hard to remember that even common everyday items can be works of art within themselves.
OK Go is is band that is not only known for their music, but their creative viral music videos as well.
Their music video Last Leaf was created using over 3,000 pieces of bread (all past their sell-by dates) that were etched with a laser and then photographed. The 2D animation is mellow piece about the passing of time, which is a self-reflexive theme regarding the material used themselves.
To me, this video simply shows that the possibilities of animation are endless, transcending any medium imaginable.
As a kid I loved the Wallace and Gromit animated movies and am still amazed with the amount of time and effort that it takes to create films like these. Although his behind the scenes isn't incredibly specific it still gives good insight to how long even a short like this can take, two seconds per day. The attention to detail is incredible and makes stop motion an intimidating platform to approach as someone who has never taken it on before.
I’m at a bit of a standstill when it comes to my
next project in Motion Graphics. I’m really thinking that I’ll give stop motion
animation a try but I’m kind of lost at where to start. From what objects to
animate to where they should be animated to when I’m even going to find the time
to do such project. Although I planned to work a lot over spring break the
sporadic weather made it difficult and other plans fell through. My next attempts we're quickly overshadowed by prior engagements leaving me shotless and somewhat anxious about if this project will actually go through.
BUT I STILL HAVE HOPE! And instead
of letting that get me down (and maybe you down?) here’s a speed run of QWOP
with the most inspirational soundtrack ever!
After seeing such a wondrous stop-motion film like Anomalisa a few weeks ago it got me thinking about some of the other stop-motion and claymation films I know and love. I grew up with Wallace and Gromit, Chicken Run, and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, all of which are definitely geared towards kids, and even as a young adult I still find so much charm in the style of animation (even though I would never have the patience for it). Some of the stuff I've seen in recent years is absolutely wonderful. My favorites include Wallace and Gromit's the Wrong Trousers, Community's Christmas special called Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas, and Coraline, Corpse Bride, and Nightmare Before Christmas. (Why is that creepy directors decide to do stop-motion animated pieces?) That thought right there made me want to venture onto the other side (for some unknown reason) and see just how creepy stop-motion can be. One of the films that Mike suggested I see was called The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb, something that I can't entirely process even after seeing it. I'm not sure what to think of it... But I'll let you form an opinion on it by posting it here, the video upload option wasn't working.
What was intriguing about this film was that it was made by using a combination of model stop motion, and a technique called pixilation, which is essentially animating the human actors frame by frame. At first when I saw that option I wondered why they didn't just shoot the humans in full video and just drop every x number of frames, but after thinking about it the pixilation technique would allow the humans to appear consistent with the animation style of the models.
My internship last spring was with a music promotion company and Rose Betts was one of the artist that we worked with. I worked and promoted the launch of her new EP, where they did a first sneak-peak of this video of her stand out song. She was describing the amount of time she poured in this doing stop motion and thought to myself different ways she could use the after effects program to her advantage in this situation.
Its strange to think about the different perspective I've had watching this from a year ago to now. I hope to maybe do a project to a song of maybe a poem instead of a typical title sequence. I have learned this week how important movement and audio are when working together. I want to learn more and work with audio more to express visually the feeling the song or sound is conveying.
The Most Popular Girls in School is a stop motion web series on YouTube. There are four seasons of these animated Barbie, Ken and other fashion dolls being ridiculous, crude and completely hilarious. The main focus of the show is on high school cheerleaders and how they run the school and treat their family, friends, and enemies. A Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign helped launch season 2, and Indiegogo campaigns helped launch seasons 3 and 4. If you haven't seen it, here's an episode featuring Tyler Oakley:
One of my favorite animated movies has always been The Nightmare Before Christmas which is a stop motion Disney film. In typical Tim Burton fashion, it is a creepy, cynical, and humorous film that has it's quirky songs and lines throughout the film. The film is extremely impressive because it was filmed in 24 frames per second which means every character was moved 24 times per second in every scene, which made just one minute of the film take a whole week to make. The three years that went into creating The Nightmare Before Christmas was well worth it. The beautiful animation has created for some iconic still photos and characters that people still rave about to this day.
There are probably over 60 characters in this movie, which makes it more impressive that the animators had to use the technique of stop motion with them for three years straight (and there was only 4 of them!!! what!!!!!) Overall, this movie is amazing watch, but even more fun to research and look into. Stop motion is something that has always intrigued me, and I believe that this movie might be what started that interest.
I, like many, have grown up watching some form of animation, from classic Disney and Pixar films to Spongebob. I’ve always thought about the difference in production time between two-dimensional animation and stop motion animation. The two offer completely different feels, especially two dimensional because of the vast amount of artist styles that can be employed. Well I guess the same can be said about stop motion and and three dimensional and just about any type of animation. The fact that animation can range in not only content but style as well is very interesting to me and a reason I chose to at least learn a a little about it.
I’ve always felt more connected to stop motion animation, only because my skills with a pen and pad aren’t as great as skills with a camera and figure. Growing up the animation in Henry Selick’s “Coraline” or Tim Burton and Michael McDowell’s “A Nightmare Before Christmas" has always mesmerized me and on many occasions I have thought about making them myself. (I’ve realized I might not have the patients for it, although now I’m in an animation course that will be equally time demanding.) Watching these films now I think about the movement and precision and the dedication each person these sets must have. Recently I watch the film, Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson’s “Anomalisa" and was completely astounded. When I first viewed the trailer I was amazed to realize that it was stop motion animation and not a live action film. (The trailer also lead me to believe the film would be taking a completely different turn than it actually did, but that’s a topic for another time.) Clearly during the film you knew the character weren’t live action humans from the line that splits the face as well as the the way the characters walk. It was a stunning film as strange as it was.
All in all, even though I seem to be stuck on stop motion, I do enjoy many different animation styles and I am excited to be learning new skills throughout the next couple months that I will hopefully develop beyond this course.
So for my last blog post I found another Parabella commercial for "Belgian National Lottery". This one minute animation tells the story of a snowman who wishes to go somewhere tropical and is transported there by his woodland friends. I adore the cartoonish design of all the animals and the snowman, and the clean detailed layout of the forest. But what's great about this commercial isn't just the video itself...
I think animation has taught me that it is a large part of our visual consumption. I used to think that it was solely used for cartoons or animation movies, but now see that this skill is applied for commercial bases as well! So many big companies are using animation as a means of telling their story or representing their ideas because, let's face it, there is nothing impossible when it comes to art.
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a stop-motion animation film made by Rankin-Bass productions back in 1964. It is a Christmas classic, that I know I can personally say I revisit every holiday season. In fact, Ruldoph has been telecast every year since 1964 making it the longest running Christmas TV special in history. Just last year we celebrated the film's 50th anniversary.
Here are a few fun fact about the movie:
1. Rudolph was filmed in Japan (where a number of Rankin-Bass specials were produced).
2. The soundtrack, however, was recorded in Toronto (as most of the cast are Canadian).
3. Sam the Snowman was was designed to resemble his voice actor Burl Ives.
4. The Santa puppet is about 8 inches tall and the Rudolph puppet is about 4 inches tall.
5. In the original version, nothing is mentioned of the Misfits after the first visit to the Island of Misfit Toys. The producers received letters from children complaining about this. They then produced a new short scene at the end where Santa and his reindeer land on the Island to help the toys find homes, and that has been the standard version of the program ever since.
Rankin-Bass is also responsible for the similar, and equally fantastic Little Drummer Boy, Frosty the Snowman, Santa Claus is Comin" to Town, and Year Without A Santa Claus christmas specials. Rudolph, however, was the first of the bunch.
Here's one of my favorite scenes from Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town.
This post relates more to how amazing 3D printing is and how it relates to stop motion animation. There is nothing I love more than miniaturized anythings. Whether it be a doll house or claymating characters, I think the intricate art of piecing together detailed aspects of characters/ houses/ any setting, just highlights the artistic talent and dexterity. Doing all of that handmade is a feat on it's own, however now that we have 3D printing, I think it's a step towards efficient and ground breaking animation. Please check out this amazing video on how the artists for Paranorman were able to capture an unrealistic amount of expressions by 3D printing every characters face!
I have always been fascinated with stop motion animation and have started to do small projects on my own (I will post a link to something I have done in one of my future posts).
In case you did not know, stop motion animation is a technique where an object is physically moved to make it look like it is moving on its own. For a while now, I have noticed that the Buzzfeed Food channel uses a lot of stop motion in their videos. I think that is a very brilliant marketing and promotions idea as it is quick and very appealing. This is a video of a stop motion pizza.
Stop motion has had a long life in movie history and it is often seen as a very reliable animation technique. This is one of the coolest stop motion videos I have seen and probably one that took hours and hours to make.
One last thing that I wanted to talk about is brickfilm. This kind of film typically uses stop motion to be created. It is so called because the film is literally made on LEGO bricks or similar small objects.
Brickfilming has been around since the 70s and it uses digital still cameras (DSLRs, etc.). The frame rate is usually 15fps as a compromise between minimum production time and smoothest motion.
Watch this video for a cool brickfilm of the Darth Vader vs Luke Skywalker fight scene.
So I know that this video is old, and by that I only mean a few years old but still thats practically ancient in internet year. Anyway, I know this video is old, but it is one of my favorites. Some of you may know the YouTubers Rhett and Link, they are most well known for their morning vlogs "Good Mythical Morning", however they also often make goofy videos such as this one that was an awesome use of stop motion.
They had a different shirt for each position of each object, which as stated in the beginning of the video is 222 shirts to be exact. I also like that they incorporated both 2D objects on the shirts and 3D objects in real life to make this cool video. Anyway, hope you guys enjoy!
As quotable as Mean Girls and as saucy as South Park--if you're a college student who has to check out The Most Popular Girls in School, I highly recommend you do so immediately. The Most Popular Girls in School is a stop motion animated web series found on YouTube. It chronicles the daily lives of a number of Overland Park High School cheerleaders, their boyfriends, enemies, and the constant battle to stay atop the social ladder. The creators, Mark Cope and Carlo Moss, use various Barbie dolls to depict their funny characters, who curse a lot and occasionally talk about poop. In my opinion, MPGIS is arguably one of the funniest projects on YouTube at the moment. After the reception of the first season, a Kickstarter campaign funded season 2, and an Indiegogo campaign funded seasons 3 and 4. Up until season 3, the show was solely animated and produced by Mark Cope. With enough funding, however, Cope was able to produce season four as a professional animated series at the YouTube Space in Los Angeles. To this day, MPGIS has four seasons and a total of 70 episodes. Interestingly, I just took a look at their YouTube page and found they even have an app now too! Crazy where that one silly idea can take person...
So in class Arturo was talking about how not all of our animation has to be computer generated, and he mentioned stop motion animation. This wasn't the first time I had ever heard of stop motion or anything, however it did get me thinking about it.
First, my mind immediately went to the TV show Parks and Recreation. In the show, when a character named Ben gets fired from his job and decides to start up a stop motion film. After a few weeks of non-stop working on his film he finally shows it to his friends and this is the end result
As you can see, the show is kind of making fun of how hard stop motion animation can be if you do not have the help of a professional. I was thinking about the process of making them, and how now a days even with the quality of cameras that we have access to, it still takes roughly 10 shots for every one second of film.
So next I went online and found some other really cool stop motion videos, that while must have taken a lot of work, look really cool.
As you can see this video is made entirely with post it notes. Each variation of each of these images had to have been created, then photographs and then slightly changes, and then photographed again, and so on and so forth. This video is also cool because it shows that anyone with a camera and an idea can make a stop motion video or film. It also proves that not all stop motion, is made with clay
After some time spent watching videos like this online, I started to get more and more interested in stop motion, and then when I thought more about it, I remembered that one of my favorite movies is a stop motion film. Fantastic Mr. Fox came out in 2009 and is a film by Wes Anderson. It follows the life of Mr. Fox and his family and friends. As a Fox, Mr. Fox spent most of his life stealing things from the farmers that live above his borough, although he says that he has given that life up when he started a family, he soon returns to his life of crime.
This movie is absolutely beautiful in its use of stop motion to show the story of this crazy fox and his family. So while you can still make a pretty cool film with just your camera and some post its, the quality of stop motion animation can be absolutely astounding. I think that is pretty cool.
The full length French & English trailers for the Le Petit Prince film were finally released the other day. Considering this is one of my favorite books as well as the book that made me fall in love with the French language, I'm extremely excited.
One of the most interesting and exciting parts of the film is the mixed mediums used to create it. There is a wraparound story of a little girl who is introduced to Le Petit Prince, and this "real world" is created with CG Animation. However, what makes this film truly special, is all the scenes inside the book are stop motion, combining cut paper techniques and wooden dolls.
Not to mention, the French voice actor for Le Petit Prince is exactly the one I imagined.
For those who don't know the story/don't speak French/want to know what's going on, here's the English version as well.
The animated show, "Chowder," on Cartoon Network ran from 2007 - 2010. It was created by C. H. Greenblatt, who has worked on Spongebob Squarepants and Fish Hooks. Chowder is one of my favorite animated shows of all time.
It centers around a food-loving apprentice of the talented chef, Mung Daal who runs a catering company with his abrasive wife, Truffles, and assistant, Schnitzel. Yes, all the characters are named after foods. It is very silly and fast-paced.
The animation is very fun to watch. The characters clothes and fabrics are filled with a pattern that stays stable as the characters move, creating a cool aesthetic. They also incorporate stop motion into the transitions.
Here's an amazing interview with C. H. Greenblatt, in which he explains the process for creating an episode of Chowder. It takes the length of a pregnancy to create the baby - an 11 minute episode.
Also, Chowder is on Netflix, so you have no excuse not to watch it now. You're welcome.
My favorite animation of all time was created a few years ago by a stop-motion artist who goes by the name of "PES". It was called "Fresh Guacamole". The short animation looks at the process of making fresh guacamole in a totally unique way, using common household objects in place of the ingredients. It was widely popular and racked up more than 11-million YouTube views. If you haven't seen it already, take a look for yourself before reading any further. This is one of the only videos I've seen that I can say anyone in the world would enjoy watching:
"Fresh Guacamole" won the Academy Award for best short film in 2013. The video was actually somewhat of a sequel to an earlier short film along the same line called "Western Spaghetti" which you can watch here:
If you are craving more videos like this, you are in luck, because two months ago PES released a third video called "Submarine Sandwich":
What I love about this video is that PES released a "Making Of" video to show you how he shot the entire thing, frame-by-frame:
