Minimate Labs: Searching...

Stop Motion 2 - Spidey Dances

May 18, 2010

I guess I have a knack for biting off more than I can chew when learning something new. My first attempt at stop motion animation was rough and undisciplined so I was eager to make the next project more memorable.

Since Spider-Man is arguably the most iconic Minimate figure, it was an easy choice. Check out the full video in the link below.
Read More...

Stop Motion Experiment 1 - Red Lift

February 11, 2010

I like to use the descriptor 'experiment' for a lot of the things I do. It really helps to displace responsibility for my actions. You can get away with a lot of crappy stuff if you call it an 'experiment'. You were just messing around, seeing what you could do. You weren't trying to make anything good. If it's good, cool. If it sucks, it doesn't matter.

The perfect cop-out.

I learned some valuable lessons from this initial stop-motion project:

It's very important to lock down your camera's tripod.
It's very important to lock down your subject matter.
Pet's should be isolated for the duration of the shoot.
Crouching is not comfortable for long periods of time.
Make sure subject is in focus.
Pants are optional.
Dancing is forbidden!

I though I had everything fairly secure and there wasn't going to be much jitter. After assembling the frames, I found I was obviously quite wrong. I thought about reshooting or modifiying the frames, but after working with it I realized the subject matter didn't warrant the extra effort. It just wasn't interesting enough to devote more time to. There was no vision.

I intend the next one to be much more interesting.