stop motion Tag

I finally have a few more short screen tests of the tiny animation armatures I’ve been working on.  These little guys have been incredibly challenging for a number of reasons, but its worth it to see them come alive on screen.  Despite all the hours invested so far, I’ve still only spent a few of them actually behind the camera so there is still much to be learned about the actual art of animation.  Up to this point I’ve been focusing on miniaturizing my process and learning how to produce reliable linkages between the parts that will allow for a nice range of motion.  Up next is further study of the pacing and strategy required with the camera work to produce smooth, lifelike motion.  As you can see in these clips, things are still pretty choppy.

For as long as I can remember I’ve been in love with stop motion animation.  I would say it was early exposure to films made this way that helped convince me to pursue a life in the arts.  I’ve made a number of half hearted attempts to try the technique myself over the years, but have always met with some level of disappointment or failure.  Well, I recently mustered the nerve to give it another go:

In the span of just seven seconds I think I managed to cram about a million rookie mistakes, but its a good start none the less.

Not visible in the clip above is the rigging that had to be made in order to position the character:

mosquito1This rigging was photoshopped out of each frame after the sequence was filmed.  Now that I have a serviceable character, and a way to position and pose it, I have a lot to learn about the actual art of animation as well as pesky details such as narrative, sets, sound etc.

I mentioned before that I have usually met with some kind of misfortune at this stage.  This time my camera broke during my first day of shooting!  I’m shipping it off for repairs today, and won’t let this setback stop me this time!

mosquito2