I decided my next personal project was going to be:

“Create stop motion animation using plasticine”

For the record (as will be clear any minute now): I know nothing of animation. I decided I wanted to learn a little of this art myself. No idea where to begin.

This is a true beginners project – which of course is kind of the point of doing personal projects: Aquiring new skills and doing something different.

My colleague from the Norwegian Design Council, Kristian Paulsen, has some experience in animation and has promised to help me out. Check out some animations he has done on his website (under “Produksjoner” in top level navigation. Select the link “Blikk på musikk” for example).

But as I had some time off today,  I decided to get started and do test some small things so that I have an idea of what is entailed.

What is stop-motion?

Stop motion means taking an image, stopping and adjusting the movement of whatever you are animating, and then taking a new photo (hence the name: Stop motion….as you start and stop, and just play the photos really quickly in sequence). Every photo then becomes one frame in the film. Usually there is about 25 frames per second in a movie, which means you need a LOT of images to create just a few seconds of film.

Links to excellent animators who deserve your kudos:

I love stop motion animation films and shorts using plasticine. Everyone knows Wallace & Gromit of course, but other people are worth checking out as well:

• Russian/Norwegian animator Pjotr Sapegin are well worth checking out, it you don’t know of him. View his filmography here (IMDB.com).
• Robot Chicken – check out the Star Wars episode
• Passion Pictures and their ad for Sony Bravia Website
• Pingu – used to love it as a kid! Watch here.