Watch this great stop motion animation tutorial to learn how to make a wire armature for a stop motion puppet. Also, learn some tips on adding clay to the armature and animating the puppet.
Shot with a Nokia N8 cell phone equipped with a 50x CellScope microscope, Dot is the world’s smallest stop motion animated film. Created by the makers of the Wallace & Gromit series, the figures were made with a 3D printer, each hand-painted with the aid of a microscope. Watch as the heroine hops from scene to scene, Mario style: Via PopSci:
Watch this video to learn how to make a simple stop motion animation using a drawing of a knight. It took approximately 90 minutes to make. Use your own drawing to make a stop motion animation movie!
Indy Mogul Weekend Extra peers into the brilliant mind of Javan Ivey, who shows you how to to save thousands of dollars when building your own home animation studio.
Armatures basically stand up on their own, but while animating, the balance might become uneven and precarious. An easy way to keep the puppet standing is to give the armature large feet. Watch this video animation tutorial and learn how to build an armature puppet that will stay down during the stop motion animation without using a tiedown.
This video animation tutorial demonstrates a technique for creating a fabric-like effect out of clay for stop motion figures, or armatures. Instead of smooth clay, try to give a more authentic finish to clay that will be used to create clothing. This technique will also create patterned fabrics. You'll need to chop the clay up first in a food processor, and then put it through a pasta machine. Watch this instructional video and learn how to make clay look like fabric for claymation armature c...
Learn how to use 16" gage aluminum wire to make stop motion puppet armatures. It is very easy to do, and wire works great for anyone just starting out. You can also see how to make basic wood feet using tie downs.
The Lost Thing is a lovely short written by Shaun Tan and co-directed by Tan and Andrew Ruhemann (executive producer of the fantastic doc My Kid Could Paint That). Based on the award-winning children’s book of the same title (also by Tan), the piece was created over a span of eight years(!) using a mix of CGI and 2D handpainted elements. Tan, whose background is in painting, spent much of the duration "carefully building, texturing and lighting of digitial elements to create a unique aestheti...
Pioneered by Rufus Butler Seder in his popular children's picture book Gallop!, and ably demonstrated by WonderHowTo favorite brusspup in the video below, "scanimation" refers to a novel (but distinctly old-timey) technique for cramming multi-frame animations onto a single sheet of paper by a process of superimposition and selective interference. Interested in creating your own scanimations? It's easier than you'd think. In the following clip, Paul Overton of Dude Craft presents a complete ov...
If you're planning on being the next Ridley Scott of brickfilms, then maybe you need to start off with a few basics, like in this video tutorial about how to make a Lego man walking animation. Creating a world of moving legos for your "legomation" masterpiece starts with the simplest things... walking.
Why make a flip book? Because all animation – even stick-figure Flash animation and multilayered, highly technical 3-D effects – is built on, and can benefit from, the basics of the craft first developed by artists working at the beginning of the last century. And while fancy computer programs are nice, you can teach yourself these basics using nothing more than a pad of paper and a pen, and replay them over and over without any extra technology needed.
The phenakistoscope is a predecessor of the flip book, but don’t worry: it’s easier to make than pronounce.
Stop motion animation can actually be created at home. Build an armature out of wire and epoxy. Follow along with the step by step directions in this instructional video and learn how to build an armature. Watch this video and start shooting some stop motion animation.
Are you a fan of Gumby? This video will show you how to make your very own stop motion video with clay figures.
Videomaker magazine shows you how to create rotoscoping effects (the same animation effect seen in their videos) for your videos.
This is not a how-to on making a bánh mi, but I hope it will get you interested in trying out the sandwich. It's delicious.
Construction paper animator Jen Stark teams up with electronic music composer/rabble-rousing party-demigod Dan Deacon in the video below, titled "Believer". The animation is fantastic—likely constructed in a process not entirely unlike animator Ryan Kothe's paper Waves and Weaves. The basic principle: stop motion animation; so if you're inspired, start schooling yourself here.
You don't need a ten-figure budget to make a great movie! With nothing more than iMovie, a camera, and your imagination you can make a stop motion animation. With stop motion, you can bring anything to life. This is a really fun project for aspiring directors of all ages.
Why is it so satisfying to squash, snap, squeeze and splatter? You know, squashing a juicy grape, snapping a twig, squeezing ketchup out of a packet—perhaps with your fist—or splattering mud across a sidewalk. But all of these actions are child's play next to animators Laura Junger and Xaver Xylophon's Joy of Destruction. The real joy of destruction is illustrated below—we're talking sawing ladies in half, exploding corn into popcorn with dynamite, burning cities, and rolling over statues wit...
Kudos to student Tim Wheatley, who came up with this incredibly nifty DIY animation using a bicycle wheel, cardboard cut-outs, and wire to create a magical reinvention of the classic zoetrope, Earth's earliest form of animation (it first surfaced in China around 180 AD!). Simply give it a spin, and the animation comes to life. Inspired to make your own? First, learn the basic principles of the zoetrope here or here. Next, take a little advice from Tim to add the "cyclo" element:
The footage you're about to watch may look CG, and while it is indeed animated, the 5,600 frames used to composite this fly by glimpse of Saturn aren't fabricated—they are real hi-res photographs taken by the Cassini orbiter. Outside In—an "IMAX in a basement"—is a DIY not-for-profit IMAX project-in-progress by filmmaker Stephen Van Vuuren.
Good morning. A little inspiration in the realm of stop-motion animation. By the talented Kirsten Lepore, something heartbreakingly sweet... ...and something a little spicy:
Okay, been a bit rampant with the twisted animations lately (exhibits A, B, C), but this is too amazing to pass up. By photographer and filmmaker Alva Bernadine, behold the magic of After Effects:
Cyriak's latest animation features '50s stock footage remixed into a horror show. Our dark and twisted animator keeps churning them out, each creepier than the last. Be warned: "a journey into horribleness, not recommended for the faint-hearted or fragile-minded..." More by Cyriak:
Beautiful animation with a sinister twist by Beijing Motion Graphics house, 39 Degrees North: "We started down a rather unconventional route for our Christmas card this year and there was simply no turning back. The pull of the dark side was just too strong.
After enjoying the sweet, yummy holiday cheer of the world's beginnings explained with cookie dough, enter Cyriak Harris' delightfully nightmarish acid trip alternative: "The abridged story of life on earth, as told through the medium of walking fingers." Previously, How Did He Do That?
If you're not familiar with the animations of Jan Švankmajer, you're in for quite a trip. The Czech artist and filmmaker is known for his metaphorical, captivatingly surreal stop-motion and claymation films, and is God to many (including talents such as Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam and the Brothers Quay).
Artist Pahnl Whatnow has breathed life into spray paint with his trippy amoeba-esque animated images. Whatnow created his "Aerosol Amoeba" by dripping spray paint on acetate for a total of 144 hours, and then condensed the motion down to four minutes.
In this tutorial, we learn how to create stop motion light painting for animation
Check out this beautiful animation of a biomechanical bug by Autofuss. Entitled "The Experiment", little information is given about the project (except for what looks like an ad for Photoshop at the end).
Dentsu London collaborates with BERG to create this futuristic stop motion animation. Made with light drawings on the iPad, the result is beautiful. The first 1:40 of the video describes the creative process. Enjoy: “Making Future Magic”.
This video will show you how to create a 3D cartoon character using a website called Xtranormal. In the program, you should first pick the scene where you want your action to occur as well as the 3D character which you would like to be present in the scene. You can then type a script and choose a voice for the character to speak. The website will be able to read your script and your character will say whatever you have typed. Next, you can add additional sounds and add actions to the cartoons...
Daniel Larsson and Tomas Redigh are the Swedish band Rymdreglage, otherwise known as two "retard ninjas". Their music video 8-Bit Trip pays ultimate nerd tribute to both LEGOs and old 8-bit video games (and ninjas).
In this video, we learn how to make video clips into animated gifts. First, open Windows Movie maker and import a video file. Now, shorten the video to four seconds or less and save it. Now, go to the website gif ninja. Once on this site, you will see a section that says "tools", then click the button to convert your image to GIF. Once on this, you can browse and upload the file that you just created. Next, click "make my gif!" and a status bar will load on the bottom. When this is done loadi...
Animator Hak Hoisington thinks so: "The Flower contrasts a Utopian society that freely farms and consumes a pleasure giving flower with a society where the same flower is illegal and its consumption is prohibited. The animation is a meditation on the social and economic costs of marijuana prohibition.”
In this tutorial, we learn how to make eyes for clay animation puppets. First, drill a hole inside of a block of wood, then insert a bull so it fits snug inside of the hole. After you have done this, use a drill to make a hole that goes half way down through the pupil. Now, use paint to fill in the hole where the pupil would be at. Push the balls into clay to hold them in place while painting. Make sure the dots you have on both eyes are even. When finished, paint a black circle around them, ...
If you have yet to see the work of famed graffiti artist/filmmaker Blu, you're in for a real treat. Blu creates films with painted still images (graffiti style), installed in various public spaces. He photographs the paintings, and then assembles them into a stop motion animation.
Toy Story 3 has received rave reviews across the board. Curious, a couple of us here at WonderHowTo went to see it last night. We found it to be decent. Not fabulous. The opening was exhilarating. Full of action and humor and a thoroughly dynamic use of 3D, but the rest of the movie didn't exude the same energy. The story was sweet and touching, and the characters were as lovable as ever. However, I was looking for a little more action.
Brusspup once again blows my mind (see previously below). His latest project is an extremely well executed animation, using a grid of tea candles to represent classic video games.
Loving Breakbot’s newest single, Baby I’m Yours, featuring Irfane. But I'm even more impressed by the music video. Created by Irina Dakeva (of Wizz Design), the rotoscope animation was tediously made with over 2,000 watercolor paintings. Check out motionographer's interview with Irina on her process. Previously, Björk Rides Magnificent Waves of Clay.