March 8th, 2010
LovoFilm and Oliver Babinet created this enchanting spot for Natural Gas in Belgium. Using knit wool to envelop and transform a home, Oliver and his team of stop motion animators have created the perfect visual metaphor for coziness.
We got the inside story from one of the three animators, Eric Parizeau. Eric informed us that the spot used a mix of Canon 5D MkII stills and 35mm footage shot with an Arriflex. It’s great to see how well the footage cut together.
With only two days to test before the shoot, the animators used Dragon Stop Motion to run through the shots and help plan the timing and logistics. On the shoot, they used the Canon 5D with Dragon for shots that did not require live action elements. Film was used for shots with live interaction. The film camera would be switched from single frame mode for animation and then to running speed for live. The live and stop motion were composited in post.
Eric is a big fan of the Canon 5D Mkll / Dragon Stop Motion combo.
“Dragon on a Mac with the Canon 5D, makes the greatest team!”
-Eric Parizeau
Check out the Making Of.
Posted in Broadcast, Commercials | No Comments »
March 7th, 2010
La Moustache just posted a music video they worked on for recording artist Krista Muir and director Kara Blake, Concrete Lovesong. With beautiful lighting and delicate animation, Concrete Lovesong invites you into a handcrafted miniature world.
Dale Hayward had this to say about using DSM 2.0:
“We exclusively use Dragon for our stop-mo projects. it’s such a fantastic program, you’ve helped give stop-mo filmmakers the perfect setup, merci.”
music & lyrics by Krista Muir
director: Kara Blake
DOP: Dean Holmes
animators: Dale Hayward & Sylvie Trouvé
art director: Corinne Merrell
producers: Philippe Gariépy, Pierre-Aleandre Bouchard La Guerilla
2009
Posted in Music Videos | No Comments »
February 26th, 2010
Carlos Lopez Estrada directed the latest music video for Latin American Grammy winners Jesse & Joy. The video combines many stop motion techniques to bring the very charming story to life.
Make sure to check out the behind-the-scenes video to see how they did it all.
The animation director, Cameron Clark, contacted us to let us know how well Dragon Stop Motion software worked for the project:
Dragon was absolutely essential to the success of the video. We were able to take my After Effects pre-visualizations and lay them down as a “line-up video” for real-time references to make sure all of our movements came out smooth and to the beat. This way, I could hand off a reference video to a team of animators to do the physical movements while I was free to work on the next shot’s pre-animation, knowing that they could use Dragon to basically trace my work. This way we got the smoothness of digital animation combined with the charm of physical stop-motion.
Sure beats having to plan it all by hand and sit behind the physical animators to make sure their tweening is consistant. With Dragon, we were able to do a 4 minute music video with almost 3,000 still photos in less than a month, counting pre-production. The workflow really was a dream.
Click here to watch the music video.
Click here to watch the behind-the-scenes video.
Tags: dragon stop motion software, Jesse & Joy, stop motion video
Posted in Music Videos | No Comments »
February 18th, 2010
Nexus Productions and director Johnny Kelly combine classic stop motion animation with quick and affordable 3D printing technology to create title sequences for the popular Dutch science show “Het Klokhuis” (Apple Core).
The titles are currently featured at The Art of the Title Sequence, where Johnny Kelly provides a lot of behind-the-scenes details on the production process.
The sequences were shot at Clapham Road Studios, a studio in London that specializes in stop motion animation. Director of photography Matthew Day shot with Dragon Stop Motion software and has used it on numerous projects there.
Click here to watch the opening titles.
Click here to watch the end titles.
Tags: 3D printing, clapham road studios, johnny kelly, nexus productions, stop motion software
Posted in Title Sequences | No Comments »
February 7th, 2010
Alan Poon and Adam Makarenko directed the latest music video for the rock group Zeus. This beautiful video is mostly stop motion that was captured with a Canon 5D MkII using Dragon Stop Motion software.
The video is currently featured on Motionographer.com. Read the article.
You can watch the video here.
Here is what Adam had to say about the process:
I built all of the sets, DP’d, and directed with Alan Poon. What was really interesting was that Alan was actually in New York for most of the animation, while I was in Toronto, so we would go over things through/on Skype. I was able to share my [Dragon Stop Motion] screen with him, and get feedback on moves, ideas, concepts.
Also make sure to watch the making-of video.
Tags: Adam Makarenko, Alan Poon, stop motion software
Posted in Music Videos | No Comments »
February 2nd, 2010
Director to watch; Sean Pecknold has once again created an inventive stop motion film with elegance and charm. This time for The BBC Knowledge Channel. Make sure to check out the behind the scenes photos from his site.
Watch the film here.
Sean Pecknold
Animator, Britta Johnson
Posted in Title Sequences | No Comments »
January 28th, 2010
Cove entertainment created this ambitious fan clip for Deerhunter’s “Famous Last Words”. Using a process of photo cut-outs shot stop-motion in practical sets, Justin Martinez and Gilberto Vega shot over 1400 frames. The process yielded about 5 seconds per shoot day.
They shot with a Canon Rebel XS connected to Dragon Stop Motion.
Tags: deerhunter, stop motion animation
Posted in Music Videos | No Comments »
January 24th, 2010
Burning through the animation festival circuit, Max Winston’s “I Live In The Woods!” picks up awards and kudos. Cal Arts grad Max Winston’s thesis film is a high energy stop motion feast of colors and colorful characters. Max bravely and seamlessly weaves together on-set stop motion with live actors and exterior shots, creating a short film with an unexpected and fresh esthetic.
Check out “I Live In The Woods” site
Check out a time-lapse making of.
Tags: Max Winston, stop motion
Posted in Artists, Award Winners, Short Films, Student Work | No Comments »
December 19th, 2009
Artist and Filmmaker Allison Schulnik created this mesmerizing stop motion film for the song “Ready, Able” by Grizzly Bear. Aliison’s painting and sculpture styles translate amazingly into the clay characters and dimensional abstractions that inhabit the clip.
Allison had this to say about working with Dragon Stop Motion:
“Dragon rules the world woooooo wooooooo !!”
Make sure to check out Allison’s work, including her short film “Hobo Clown”
Posted in Artists, Commercials | No Comments »
December 17th, 2009
The ambitious stop motion short “Zero” picked up a NSW Gold Award from the Australian Cinematographers Society in the Experimental and Specialized Category. Zero director Christopher Kezelos gives credit to the exceptional work of the film’s director of photography Mathew Horrex. The film was shot using Dragon Stop Motion software.
Christopher had this to say about using Dragon Stop Motion:
“We shot Zero using a Canon EOS 450D and Nikon prime lenses. Due to the manual nature of this setup, we spent a lot of time using Dragon’s Cinematography tools to set up each shot. I found these tools to be an essential part of our shoot as we spent a lot of time tweaking the camera settings and picture framing before capturing valuable stills. Having the flexibility to shoot hi-res images and quickly flip between them to decide on our final settings was invaluable”.
Writer/Director: Christopher Kezelos
About Dragon Stop Motion and post production:
“The most obvious conundrum one can face when shooting a stop motion animation is how to effectively manage the thousands of image files and hundreds of directories required. Dragon made this a breeze. It automatically created a directory structure based on our scene and shot numbers. This sped up our work flow dramatically as it allowed us to cross reference our story board numbers with our directory structure to quickly find the shots we were after. Handy during production, a godsend during post”.
Make sure to check the Zero site to see it at a film festival near you.
Tags: ACS award, stop motion animation, Zero short film
Posted in Award Winners, News, Short Films | No Comments »
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