[ explorations in audio and moving imagery ]
World backup day is March 31st. Even though I’m writing this in July the topic seems relevant at any time and the sooner the better if you are not backing up already. Stopmotion, or most animation productions for that matter, are very time consuming endeavors. Even though stopmotion productions involve real puppets and sets, a…
FADE IN INT. ANIMATION STUDIO – NIGHT An experimental animator posts a final blog update about writing a script in one month for something called Script Frenzy. A printed copy of his final script sits nearby waiting to be read. Empty stage sets from some unfinished stopmotion projects hug the nearby walls. Puppet parts huddle…
Seventy-six pages done! I continue to write my script non-linearly. As one scene is written, the dialogue or descriptions will spark ideas that are incorporated into other scenes. Celtx has an index card view that lets you drag-and-drop scenes anywhere in the script. It is a great feature and is similar to moving video clips…
I made it past page 50 this week for Script Frenzy! I spent some time this weekend using MindMeister which helps since I dove right in on April 1st with no real character or plot outlines. So far, the combination of mind-mapping in MindMeister and writing the script in Celtx seems promising. The mind map…
Sometime on April 1st I learned about Script Frenzy via news feeds and tweets and looked into it further. For several years, I have had one idea for a feature length, live-action film so I decided to sign up for the frenzy to see what I could come up with. I usually storyboard my animation…
Some highlights of from the past year. If you finished or started an animated film in 2011, or have news that I overlooked, let me know so I can add it to the list. Happy new year! Justin and Shel continued to work on their next animated film titled “Line”. Their other film, “Gerald’s Last…
I am pleased to announce that my short stopmotion film, Man Drawing a Reclining Woman, will be playing at the Northwest Animation Festival. The festival runs from June 3rd through 5th and my film will screen on June 5, 2011 in the Block-F section between 3pm and 6pm. This is the premier of the festival…
A 12 frames per second animation test. I animated various objects to a music track set to 100 beats per minute. This test was used to determine how many frames were needed to move objects at various speeds and also keep those objects in time to with the music.
Attention all animators and fans of the medium! Sven Bonnichsen (animator, playwright and artist from Portland Oregon) is launching a new film festival! NW ANIMATION FESTIVAL 2011: Call For Submissions The NW Animation Festival is now accepting entries for 2011. Films from anywhere in the world are welcome. Deadline is May 1, with discounts for students…
PLAYING AT LIMITED TIMES ONLY! Lincoln, my unrealized experimental animation. Synopsis: The supernatural trial and judgement of John Wilkes Booth for the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Running Time: 3:42 Format: NTSC, 1.77:1, Black & White Audio: Mono Genres: Animation, Computer Animation, Experimental Location: Atlanta, GA, U.S.A. Producer, Writer, Director: Grant Goans Music: Grant Goans (Variations…
Some highlights of stop motion animator projects from the past year. If you finished an animated film, are starting one in 2011 or have news that I overlooked let me know so I can add it to the list. Justin and Shel continued to work on their next animated film, posting great photos and videos…
I viewed a work in progress video by Justin Rasch and Shel Wagner Rasch recently. The support rig is still visible, which is fascinating to see. What appears to be a free weight is being used for the base. I had previously been drilling holes in the floor of my sets to hold wire support…
I am happy to announce that Mirror has been selected for the Stop Motion Montreal festival.
My experiment with clay continues. VICTUAL 2 is now on Vimeo.
Watch on Vimeo My short experiment titled VICTUAL 1 is now online. I did the animation one evening during the week and completed the audio tracks this weekend. Sven Bonnichsen’s recent “mutate” project inspired me to try something quick and improvisational. I haven’t worked with clay before, but wanted to try something simple and organic…
Quote (by a stopmotionanimation.com forum member named glenglen) about clichés. “A teacher told me once that clichés happen when an artist in a particular medium looks to the same medium for inspiration. I think many of us are inclined to imitate the stop motion films that inspired us, but for originality, we have to look…
I stopped by the xtranormal site, set up an account, and played around with the system.
Watch on Vimeo Watch on YouTube
VITRVVIVS screened during the Experimental Block at the 2009 Rome Georgia International Film Festival on September 11, 2009 at 11pm. I estimate that between 20 and 30 people attended the block. Many thanks to those that came out to see and support the experimental films at the festival. The live-action-stop-motion film cycle.break. by Stephanie Shadden…
VITRVVIVS will be screening at the Rome (GA) International Film Festival on Friday, September 11, 2009 at 11pm. It is part of the experimental block…and a nominee for that category! I am humbled and excited that they selected my film. It looks like Mythic Journeys is also playing (and a nominee for american documentary) which…
Figure 1: One dimensional content delivery. Elements: Content Format: Oral and written communication Figure 2: Two dimensional content delivery. Elements: Form and Content Format: Oral, written, and visual communication Figure 3: Three dimensional content delivery. Elements: Form, Content, and (Context, Time, or Space) Format: Oral, written, visual, and (psychological, experiential, or referential)…
Facet A (absence of sound) is more important than facet B (noise or tone). Facet A or B exist individually as data. Facets A + B together equate to information. The existence of facet A provides definition or identity for facet B. Without A the accumulation of sounds from B results in noise. The illustration is…
I was thinking about my stopmotion projects and also what I find attractive in the work of other creatives. I then thought about ways to visually represent this method, approach or general philosophy. So… A is more important than B. More to come…
I decided to do a quick post of independent stopmotion animator projects with movie poster style marketing images. Send links for your project’s movie poster or others that I may have missed. My general rule for posting these is that the image has to take the form of your typical movie poster, teaser poster, or…
Really cool animation-related news that took place in 2008. Karl finished My Uncle’s Dental Health. Congrats Karl! I’m very much looking forward to his latest project (using binder clips – brilliant IMO) called Saint Ignatius the Beneficent. Justin and Shel finished Gerald’s Last Day. Can’t wait to see it since they get a gold star…
After watching a pretty amazing Adobe R&D video on vimeo, I browsed through the comments and stumbled upon this: “There is totally a better word: Tesseracting. Because what you are developing at Adobe is a prototypical system for frameless, hypercubist cinema. I write a blog on the future of cinema and your tool fits nicely…
I found another post on the web about the impact, or influence, of technology in filmmaking, videomaking, and animating. In this case it is the ideas borrowed from the semantic web that could be used to enhance traditional narrative structures and possibly change the way people consume-create media. This approach lends to the portability of…
I made some story cubes over the weekend as a creative project. Story cubes seem to be used for brainstorming stories or narrative content. You roll them out and based on the icons that are showing formulate some kind of story. Since they are physical blocks it adds a tactile quality to the activity which…
In my previous post I was pondering the impact of technologies on content in film-video productions. While searching for more examples of emergent or disruptive ideas regarding film-video making I ran across the Future of Cinema Debate on YouTube. It’s worth a watch, specifically for the ideas offered by Arin Crumley on the idea of…
Festival Entry Specifications Title: VITRVVIVS Running Time: Approximately 17 min 35 sec Format: DVD, NTSC, LETTERBOX, COLOR, STEREO Language: Esperanto Subtitles: English Date Completed: September 2008 Now that the film is completed I am burning DVDs to send to a few festivals. I have plans for a future official DVD release which will have a…
More test footage with the forest and house.
In addition to making tiny steps toward the completion of Vitruvius I’ve also started pre-production on some other projects. Part of the process is getting familiar with the HV20 and further development of the sets. Doing these tests help determine composition and lighting but instead of just taking a single photograph I animate several seconds…
In local news… Justin Curfman, a local animator, is putting together a fundraising and networking event on June 7, 2008 to support the creation of his next stopmotion film called “Ticks”. View the Ticks teaser trailer and other videos by Justin on his YouTube site.
Vitruvius is still being edited in between other activities (including prep work for the next project). I actually find taking time away from a project to be good because when you view it again after weeks or months of absence you can view it fresh and sometimes differently. As I recall, it was almost a…
I did an animation tonight using the pop thru ideas mentioned in the previous post. Here is the result. Plant a Tree – An Arbor Day PSA and Pop-thru Animation Test
Sven posted some intriguing ideas about utilizing pop-thru in a project as the actual method of animating for stopmotion. The idea appeals to me especially in terms of time. Wanting to see what it felt like to I threw my character on the stage and tried some poses and here is the result. The total…
I tried out the dolly and confirmed that the current tripod mount is unstable…although I kind of like the uneven quality of the movement. I’ll probably try to mount the whole track on something more stable. Click to view
Recently I read some information about camera rigs and the concepts found in model railroad designs inspired me. So, I browsed the “orange” home improvement store and found some items to build a dolly over the weekend. All photos are on the Flickr site (click the photo to see them). You can probably get the…
I have a printed copy of some info attributed to a Ron (aka RF) from the Fantomized web site [around April 2004] but I can no longer find the information online. [UPDATE: the info appears to be located here: http://forums.rolandclan.com/viewtopic.php?t=2735&p=19561 ] So I’m reproducing it here along with my visual representation of the grid he…
Ok, so I’m done with the exercise. Here is a photo of the final board. I forgot to mention in the previous post to work the exercise quickly…do not over analyze anything…it’s more stream of consciousness in that respect I suppose. Just go with the ideas that come to mind as disjointed as they may…
Some time ago I posted my analysis of “The Frogs Who Wanted a King” by Wladyslaw Starewicz on stopmotionanimation.com as a benchmark for developing shots and scenes. I am running through the exercise for my next project tonight as I draft storyboard cards so I thought I would re-post the info here at my blog.…
Well, while brainstorming ideas for future projects and researching things on the web I came across the MonoMyth site. What I like most though is the interactive MonoMyth creator and also the preset MonoMyths of some films to help illustrate the concept. UPDATE: Actually it’s only sort-of-nice. I thought it would let me create a…
Slowly I am getting back into the Vitruvius project. Most of the puppet filming is done and now begins the task of creating the assets for post-production compositing. The Flash animation below is a test for the various line drawings that are planned for the film. The idea is to export animations such as this…
Update. I took another pair of carved shoes to try a modified design of the wire and brass nut. This time I wrapped the wire around the groove on the outside of the brass nut (see original posting below for context). I then placed the nut in a hole at the toe (instead of in…
October 29, 2007 was International Animation Day. The Atlanta Chapter of ASIFA screened 21 films at the High Museum of Art. In 2002, ASIFA, the International Animated Film Association, launched a global event to celebrate the art of animation. October 28th was proclaimed as International Animation Day, commemorating the first public performance of Emile Reynaud¹s…
Breaking news! Nellybob has posted a complete solution on Stopmotionanimation.com for using the Philips with a DSLR camera. He has addressed the specific issues I had with the webcam and attaching it to the camera and it looks really good. The only issues that remain for me at this are specific PC config problems for…
It is fitting for the Halloween season to visit sites with illustrations of fantastic beasts. Monster Month and Monster Month South are two primary resources to check out.