Here's the Animation

Well, it took me a little longer to get the animation up than I expected. I ran into some upload problems and wasn't able to get to reuploading it until now. Here it is though. In the second "scene", the blob is supposed to be sleeping when it bobs its head up and down. It might be hard to tell since there aren't any sound effects.



Also, for the site, I'm still trying to come up with a name. I think I'm probably trying too hard in some ways, but I decided to do some research to try to help come up some ideas. Hopefully I'll find something good sometime so that I can actually start getting some work done.

Her Morning Elegance

This stop motion video was featured on Yahoo.com today and has over 2 million view on Youtube. Just thought I'd share it.

Work Update

Hey Guys,

Just wanted to let you know that I've been working on what I'll just be calling the 'stop motion site' again. I think I found out a better organization style and technique to get it moving again. Part of the reason I was having trouble was because I wasn't organized enough and able to look at the project as a whole. Now I can do that so I'm pretty much making an outline of main ideas that have to do with the site and refining and adding details to it. I guess the idea that you use in art to start out rough and then refine works in many areas as well. The outline idea also gives me a chance to come up with solid ideas first and then build what I know I want. Too much guess work was making it hard for me to visualize certain things before. This way I don't have to worry about certain things until others are out of the way. So now I'm just filling that outline in every once in a while until I feel it gets full enough to move onto something else.

In other news, I finished the new KK design not too long ago. I actually finished it soon after I posted about it first. Now all that needs to be done is to get the coding finished which may take a while since I'm not all that knowledgeable in the ways of CSS which I would like to use.

Thats all for now.

The Great Hat Heist - Lewimations

This is about a video that I found by Lewimations that was completed over a year ago now. I remember when the film was still in production and getting hyped to see the final product after watching a short trailer. Since then, I lost track of the film, the website that was once up also seemed to stop being hosted, and the film only became a distant memory. Something jogged my memory today, however, and I went and decided to search for the site again to see if it was up. Instead of finding the site, which is still gone, I found the completed video on YouTube. What's neat about the video is that it's really well done and also that it's all done by a 15 year old. Although the animation isn't the most advanced(it's still very good) in the video, Lewi conquered the most important parts of a film. He created a great story, gave it style, mood, and atmosphere, and completed it. Those were the things that mattered. He succeeded in where many have failed, and best yet, he's got it all figured out at a young age. Aardman has realized this as well as different film festivals. When Lewi sent in some of his work to Aardman without actually giving them his name, they were interested in hiring him, at the time he was only 14. He's also won a variety of awards for different shorts he's completed, but I don't know if they are available to the public anywhere.

Well, here's the video. I encourage you to enjoy it the first time around, and then watch it again and study it. Try to find out what makes it good. Then look at the flaws and imperfections. Look at the lighting, animation, set, special effects, camera angles, ect. Hopefully this will make you realize that stop-motion animation doesn't have to be perfect, and that you very possibly have the ability to make something great as well. It takes work and time, but it's possible.



Here are some of the articles I found about him:
Teenager Turns Down Animation Job
Success at Film Festival

If anybody finds out or knows of a website or anything new that Lewi is working on, please post it in a comment or email it to me. I'd like to keep updated with his stuff.

Video: Making of ASP "Me"

A video of the making of ASP "Me" was put up on You Tube recently, and is a way to get a look at a how short animation was created. The animation uses a lot of digital effects like green screen and chroma key so it was interesting to see some of those things being done as well as pre-vis, animation, and other neat things. The video is below. If you would like to watch the actual ASP Me video I've also included a link.



ASP "Me" Video on You Tube

Blog: Stop Motion 101

Here's a new blog that I became aware of that looks like it is kind of like mine. It talks about various stop motion related things and has videos and things along with the post. If you like my blog, you might like this one too, so check it out. The link is below.

Stop Motion 101

Claymation in the Comics

M-Flem-Jr over at Stop Motion Magic posted some of the comics he's found that have been clay animation related. Right now, there's a series of about 12 strips from Heart and the City. I've read a couple of them before and thought about cutting it out but didn't get around to it, good thing Mike did. Here's the link to go see them.

Heart of the City Claymation Comics

Video: Human Flip Book

Here's a neat stop motion animation done with shirts. In each frame, the shirt gets changed and a little story gets played out. See it for yourself below.

Video: Become

Here's a cool animation done by Dan Mackenzie from Mack Productions. It shows the creation of a clay stop motion animate puppet.

Light Painting

Light painting is something that I've experimented somewhat with still images, but I'd like to try putting more of them together to form an animation. Light painting is pretty much what it sounds like; you take a light and draw a picture in mid air in from of a camera. Since the camera has a long exposure time, the path of the flash light or what ever you're holding gets recorded onto the final image(cameras take in light to make the image). If you change the path you draw a little each time and do a bunch of them and put them together, you'll have a light painting animation. The final output looks really neat and is probably really fun to make. Below I've included a few videos from You Tube. Some are tutorial videos while others are just cool examples. If you're into animation and you have a camera that you can control shutter speed with, I encourage you to take a friend out and try this sometime. I know I will when I have the chance.

Awesome Tutorial Video


Example Video 1


Actual Sprint Commercial


Have fun and go make some awesome stuff. Remember pre-planning might help you make sometime more story oriented or thoughtful than sometime random. Something thought provoking will get more response than something random.

Video: Tips from Javan Ivey

Here's a video done by Indy Mogul where they interviewed Javan Ivey (I've posted about him before) and asked him some easy tips for clay animation and stop motion animation. They're basic tips, but good ones nonetheless. Enjoy.

Blog: The Mason

Here's a blog about a stop motion project called The Mason done by Vibeke Cleaverly. It looks like it is finished now, so there isn't any posting going on, but try going back into the archives and seeing some of the processes it took to get to the final result. You may learn something or even get inspired to make something yourself.

The Mason Blog

Nofby's Corner

One blog I've been keeping close track of lately is called Nofby's Corner. It's done by a guy by the name of Seamus Jennings who enjoys both music and stop motion animation. On his blog, he posts updates about the projects he has been working on as well as other things that he would like to share. What I'm keeping my eye on mainly at his blog though, is the project he's working on. Right now, he's mainly been creating different set pieces and props and I'm loving the style. It's all new and interesting to look at, but you can tell you don't need a huge budget to make something like that. It's the perfect scenario, awesome style without a huge budget. Each time I see a new piece, it looks awesome. I can't wait until the final film is out. If you would like to check it out as well, the link is below. I've also included another blog of his in the list.

Nofby's Corner Blog
Nofby's Corner Tips and Tricks Blog

Stanley and the Dinosaurs

Here's another one of the shows I watched when I was little. It's not claymation, but still stop motion nonetheless. I remembered it a while ago and realized that it probably was, then not too long ago I found it on You Tube. I think the puppets are probably some kind of latex or something. Anyways, here are the videos.

Best of Aardman

Like the stuff that you've seen from Aardman? Well, I found out that you can see a bunch of their stuff on AtomFilms. There's a collection there called the Best of Aardman and features a lot of the stuff they've made. I think there are around 45 right now (The number may change if more are added or some are taken away from some reason.). Here's the description of it given on the site:

From the Oscar-winning creators of Wallace & Gromit, Creature Comforts and the Angry Kid series, here's a library of top shelf Aardman classics.

So, if you want to sit back and watch some good animation, go check it out.

AtomFilms: The Best of Aardman

Brick Films Wiki

When checking out the Brickfilms site not too long ago, I found a nice little Wiki/encyclopedia there. Although Lego stop motion isn't exactly clay animation, it still uses much of the same techniques and software. On the Wiki, I found that there were many links to tutorials ranging from how to make objects fly to basic cinematography. It's a very good place to learn a few tricks of the trade and it's almost a shame that it's labeled as part of Brickfilms because many who have no interest in trying to animate Legos skip out on some good information. If you're one of those people who have never checked it out because of that reason, or simply haven't heard or stumbled apon it, go have a look at it today. The link is below.

Brickfilms Wiki/Encyclopedia

Animator: Andreas Francis

I posted something (the Wallace & Gromit tribute video) of Andreas Francis a while back, and afterwards, I did a little more research and found out more about him and his work. He seems to be a good animator and might even work at Aardman (not sure if it was an internship or work) based on some of the stuff I've read and see. To see some of his animations and still images, which I suggest you do, you can either visit his Deviant Art page or his You Tube page.

Andreas Francis - Deviant Art
Andreas Francis - You Tube

Making of Nightmare Before Christmas

If you've ever seen The Nightmare Before Christmas, you may be a little bit interested in how it was made. Even if you haven't, you still may be interested in how it was made. It is "an animated musical 1993 film produced and written by Tim Burton, directed by Henry Selick and scored by Danny Elfman. The film was based on Burton's characters and original story." If you want to read more on the story, click here to go to the Wikipedia page on it. To see a little of how the movie was made, just look below.

Anim8 Stop Motion

Here's a stop motion animation social community called Anim8 Stop Motion. On the site it gives this description of what it's about:

In our opinion stop motion is a way in which to explore and push your imagination to the limits. It doesn’t matter if you use clay, puppets, toys or what ever objects affection you can conjure up to animate. Stop Motion is a great way to tell a story or to just have some fun be you young, old, professional or amateur.

With Anim8 Stop Motion we wanted to create a place where everyone interested in this timeless art could come learn, aspire, showcase and meet other like-minded people. More than anything else we just wanted you to have some good old-fashioned fun.

With this in mind we hope you all enjoy the site and can’t wait to see what you and your imagination can create.

Best wishes

The Anim8 Team

That pretty much sums it up, if you would like to view it or join, just click the link below.

Anim8 Stop Motion

Stop Motion Magic

Stop Motion Magic is a Social Networking site created by Marc Spess (the owner of Animate Clay and creator of Zombie Pirates) and was created to bring different animators together and to just share and help each other learn more about the art. On his About Us page, he says:

Hey, I'm Marc Spess. There's a chance you heard of me - as I also run AnimateClay.com for about eight years now. StopMotionMagic.com is a site I decided to created to be the ultimate place for stop motion animators to network and share their art. So what you see here today is the final site which took months of planning - money and hard work.

If you want to check it out and join, check out the link below. I'm on the site under the user name of kramerklaymation so feel free to add me as a friend if you do join. Have fun!

Stop Motion Magic