MAKING STUFF

"MAKING STUFF MOVE IS EASY...BUT...MAKING STUFF MOVE YOU IS HARD"

The line came to me while pitching on some commercial or other & trying to explain what I loved about animation, & what was particularly hard with certain kinds of animation - trying to get that emotional connection out of a basically inanimate object. I think I was also attempting to explain to some agency people that, yes, I could animate a particular foodstuff (even though I didn't have that on my reel ) because, guess what...I'm an animator!

Rather than try to tell a particular story I decide to animate the actual words, & in as many ways as possible (by the way, I love typography). I wanted to include every kind of 'traditional' model animation technique that I could within the framework of the film - from modelling clay balls to pixilating human hands & bodies, from animating food (the chopped peppers) to timelapse (the scene in the woods), from 2D drawn animation to moving sand, etc.

Basically, it's meant to be a fun piece showcasing various methods of stop-frame animation!

The whole thing was shot in camera using Nikon digital stills cameras (I really wanted to keep that certain 'feel' you get) with a bit of cleaning up in AfterEffects in post.

I would like to give a big thanks to everyone who helped, especially:
Sam Morris (cameraman)
Gary & Cat at ScaryCat Studio (where I shot most of the film, & who gave me a huge amount of help with modelmaking)
Kev Harwood (who helped me with production)
Emma Kingsnorth at UN1T (for post work)
Dave Reynaud (for composing a fantastic piece of music especially for this film - I've always loved the juxtaposition of electronic music to stop-frame animation)
Mcasso music production ltd. for providing the audio track