Lately, I've found myself watching lots of stop motion films. It's something I've always wanted to try (I've tried very simple things thanks to Vine), but never really dove into. Now, after watching "Infinitude," my head is spinning at the possibilities of what you can create with stop motion.
Stop motion animation is by far one of the most forgotten mediums for filmmaking, yet it holds high respect for what it is and how it's done in large motion pictures today. Those pushing the envelope in 2016 are the geniuses behind Laika Studios where they blended hand crafted puppets, CGI, and 3D printing to build a world filled with imagination and story.
The Canon EF 200-400mm f/4L IS USM lens is nothing short of remarkable. With an internal 1.4x teleconverter matched specifically to the lens' optics, it's a unique piece of gear known for its stellar quality. Now, Canon has released a video showing just what goes into making one of their top lenses.
French Filmmaker Maxime Baudin recently made this delightful short film in Paris that depicts a flirtatious couple. Baudin utilized stop-motion to make the film and describes it like this: "In a splendid and romantic Paris, while everything is going too fast, a young man rides a ‘bicycle.’ But his simple ride is going to take on a whole new dimension."
With a concept of traveling back through your childhood and experiencing that care-free, fantasy world of "pure imagination," Permagrin Films has put together an incredible time-lapse music video. In the article below, there's a full behind-the-scenes video and the producers of the film answer a few of my questions in a brief interview.
How are you getting people to look at and engage with your work? This is something we all have to think about constantly in today’s visually saturated market place. It’s why it’s all the more important to look at – and learn from – those producing stunning and engaging work. Let me introduce you to Leonardo Dalessandri, and his latest project “Watchtower Of Turkey”, a video that he worked on over the course of a year and quite possibly some of the best visual media you’ll see in 2015.
The calendar is about to turn over to 2015, and in my feeble mind I just assumed we were so advanced, that all of those new high-budget animation films were created by using elaborate CGI. I envisioned a team of computer animators sitting in a dark basement with endless empty cans of Red Bull strewn about, working around the clock to animate the scenes on screen in their elaborate and complex computer programs. Little did I know, old school manual, and tireless physical techniques are still used to this day.
Whether or not you knew it, you have most likely viewed a short film by Adam Pesapane, better known as PES. The director and animator has released several immensely popular stop-motion shorts, directed numerous commercials for major companies such as PlayStation, Scrabble, and Bacardi, and has even been nominated for an Academy Award. Along with the release of his newest short, "Submarine Sandwich," PES and Nikon Cinema have teamed up to bring you a rather comprehensive behind-the-scenes look into the process that goes into the making of PES’ films.
Have you ever wondered what fashion trends will be in style, let’s say 20 years from now? Well some say the best way to predict the future is to look at the past, and this video does exactly that. "100 Years of Beauty in 1 Minute" illustrates hair and makeup styles from each decade, starting at 1910 straight through to 2010.
I have to say, it's been a blast seeing where Carli Davidson's passion for dogs has taken her, starting way back in 2012 when I first featured her on Fstoppers, and again last year with the release of her book Shake. Today marks the official release of her new book, Shake Puppies, and she somehow managed to create a book of cute that surpasses that of her original printed piece.
If you follow any of my work, you know I am a sucker for anything Back To The Future. I even recreated my own BTTF image using a real DeLorean awhile back, so I HAD to share this video. The guys over at Shanks FX have created another inventive tutorial on how you can create your own time travel scene on a budget using a DSLR, simple time lapse software, a toy DeLorean, and some LED lights. Think you may want to try something like this at home?
Today I stumbled upon the incredible body painting work of Emma Hack and I started surfing the web for body painting projects. I ended up finding 13 totally unique body painting projects that I believe are worth sharing.
Tinybop, a Brooklyn-based studio building educational apps, asked Kelli Anderson to make a trailer for their app. Inspired by the app’s original illustrations by Marie Caudry, Kelli and her partner, Daniel Dunnam, cut a forest entirely out of paper. 400 tiny leaves, 500 blades of grass, and 25 squirrels were just some of the elements required to produce this time consuming, 6000 photo project. See how Kelli and Daniel turned out this trailer and know that if you exhibit a fraction of their dedication and patience in your own craft, you'll do just fine. Inspiring work .
Stop motion is one of the oldest and historically most popular tricks in the industry. It was used in many great films, music videos, advertisements and children's TV shows for many years. Recently Lexus decided to take the stop motion idea and combine it with some cool practical effects to create their new TV advertising spot. In order to execute their idea, they hired 40 engineers and many stuntpeople to help them with that complex task.
Gillette, founded in 1901, has been around for just over 100 years now. To celebrate, they recently put together a genius stop-motion video showing the evolution of men's hair during that time. This video takes us behind the scenes of the four-day production and shows the painstaking level of attention-to-detail involved in creating an animation of this magnitude.
