Sunday, November 1, 2009

Top Three Stop-Motion Animations

The comments below are from stop-motion animator, Michael Stevenson, who was kind enough to serve as special guest judge for the last homework assignment.

It was a tough choice, but here's my top three:


Cat & Dog clay animation
Miyuki Maruyama

This is a great example of taking a few simple motions - head turn, mouth open/close, and a tail wag - and infusing them with life through carefully planned timing. There's a very good use of holds - the characters' motives would be unclear and the humor would fall flat if the animation was driven forward at an even pace, but the characters' reactions are given plenty of room to breathe.

There are a lot of nice touches that help make the characters feel alive: eye blinks, turning the head before the eyes, reaction delays that imply an inner thought process, and so on. Great work.


Dance video group project
Chris Lam, Astro Leon-Jhong, Joe Tirasuwan, Marleah Edwards

The ease in/out in this animation helps the dance moves to feel fluid without becoming slow or floaty. There's a nice snappiness to the motion, particularly in the shots of the police figure, that can be tough to capture in stop motion. The shot of the Gundam has a fun bit of overlapping action when the feet rebound up into frame - it really helps sell it. Overall a very nice piece.


Mannequin worship
Sam Debey

Great concept! The motion is quite fluid, and the loop point is hidden well. There's a nice and subtle whip action going on in the spine, and the overlapping action is well-integrated. My only suggestion would be to add a bit more anticipation (perhaps even just a single frame) to the apex of the swing, but it's very solid as-is.