Stop-motion animation may seem like a tedious endeavor, but the riveting results make it well worth it. The process requires superhuman focus, obsessive attention to detail and endless dedication. To bring the objects in a stop motion animation to life, animators must create scenes frame by frame, photographing every movement. Once they have all the photographs, animators sequence them together to create the illusion of motion. Just a few seconds of a film can take a week or more to create.
Stop-motion animators master a different level of artistry. We found some cool stop-motion animations from around the web (though there are many more besides those mentioned in this article). Check out some of the more imaginative ones we’ve seen lately.
Brilliant Stop-Motion Animation
How To Catch a Bird
Vera van Wolferen created this stop-motion animation for a graduate school project about a childhood memory.
“When I was eight, my dad taught me how to fish. He told me to take the worm off the hook after fishing, but I had no idea why. After fishing, I forgot about the worm and left it dangling on the hook. If I only knew then what the consequences would be.” – Vera van Wolferen
Busbud
by:Marketing Director: Alain WongDirection / Art Direction / Postproduction :Marion FavierDOP : Joris CottinArt Department : Pierre-Alain Loiseau, Marin ValléeBusbud Illustrations: Meg RobichaudHelp on set: Dorian Petrovic, Kaisa Martiskainen, Thao Tram Ngo, Frederic Gingras, Gaël Meagher, Simon Lejeune and Naïko St-Wong
Busbud, a new online bus fare searching engine (like Kayak.com for buses,) created their ad using stop-motion animation. Check out the design process for their latest commercial:
Storyboard for the stop-motion animation:
Sotr
And here’s the final product:
Hello Kitty “Pomme Party”
by Mike and Katie Tado
Commissioned by Sanrio and the Japanese American National Museum to commemorate Hello Kitty’s 40th Anniversary. Mike and Katie Tado’s first adventure into the world of stop-motion magic and they opted to use wooden puppets. They give special thanks to Sanrio USA, Japanese American National Museum and Jamie Rivadeneira / Japan LA. Made in Sheffield, UK. © TADO and Sanrio 2014. Hello Kitty and Sanrio characters used with the kind permission of Sanrio USA.
Watch the making of Hello Kitty “Pomme Party”
3D Printing Meets Stop-Motion Animation Design
With the advent of the 3d printer, we’ve been anticipating the projects creatives will produce. And we are not disappointed.
View some of these fecund stop-motion animations using 3d printing. As 3d technology continues to advance and become more affordable, the future stop-motion animation projects are certain to be spellbinding.
Bears on Stairs
Bear on the Stairs stop-motion animation received broad acclaim for using 3d printing to create the illusion of a bear walking up an infinite amount of steps. As a notoriously painstaking artform, stop-motion became slightly less painful with the invention of the 3d printer.
Box Trolls
One animation studio, Laika, is a leader in the stop motion animation. Laika uses 3d printing for their productions, often to print characters’ faces instead of hand-sculpting each expression. Their first full-feature film, “Coraline,” featured 3d printed objects, and subsequent movies have since, such as the 2014 animated film the “Box Trolls.”
< a href="http://www.chasemefilm.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Chase Me
“‘Chase Me‘ combines the magic of film with the wonder of 3D printing. This short film follows a ukelele-playing girl who is chased through a dark forest by the monster that emerges from her own shadow.
Filmmaker Gilles-Alexandre Deschaud spent two years 3D printing 2,500 parts to create each frame of the film. From the characters to the set, all elements were printed using the Formlabs’ Form 1+ SLA 3D Printer. Each precise detail comes together to form a beautiful representation of a magical world.” from the “Chase Me” Website.
Diaries Downunder – The TV Show
“Modeling in 3D, then printing in biodegradable plastic and animating in stop-motion via Dragonframe. These are the opening titles for Diaries Down Under – The TV Show for Fuel TV Australia. They were modeled in Cinema 4D and printed in PLA plastic.”
Interested in learning animation design? HOW Design University offers a Motion Graphics and Animation design course. Whether you’re curious as to how those title sequences, logos or infographics were animated or simply want to learn the software, this hands-on, information-packed course will give you a strong understanding of motion graphics, animation design and After Effects.
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