In my previous post (about a decade ago) I mentioned that I'm loving Robot Chicken these days. The jokes are hit-and-miss, but what really fascinates me are the mechanics of the whole thing; how the tedious process of stop-motion animation can produce subtle and meaningful body language that adds so much to character and storyline. Robot Chicken has it figured out.
Natch, my fascination with stop-motion is nothing new. As a kid I was drawn to the likes of Gumby and Pokey. Back then, it was pretty amazing stuff. I even grokked Davey and Goliath, although I admit that I secretly longed to see Goliath go all medieval on Davey's ass once in awhile. And don't even get me started on all those wonderful Rankin/Bass El Cheapo Christmas masterpieces involving Rudolph, Kris Kringle, Snow Miser, Herbie the Elf, and all the rest of 'em. Burl Ives was meant to play a snowman, okay? MadTV has even done some pretty good stuff in this genre.
So..... it was Monday afternoon, and I had nothing but time on my hands. Somehow, I ended up on a website that talked about do-it-yourself stop-motion photography. I swear I did not intend to go there. Have you ever sat in your car, in your driveway, and wondered how the hell you just got home from work? It was kinda like that.
Anyways, I was on this site and - quite by accident - found some open source ware for doing stop-motion photography. Long-story short - I experimented, and it worked. I'm hoping to interest the kiddos in having some fun with this. In the meantime, I offer 14 seconds of diversion. Oh, and the answer is "yes, it's my hand in there". I'm so proud.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
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2 comments:
Bergman would be proud. You etch out a dark world of uncertainty, where there is no moral centre, no comfort to be found in plasticene faith. Who knows when the Hand will come and take us away? None of us do. None of us can. We can only stand against Fate with our orange pony. And hope. Yes,hope.
Bravo, CL. Bravo!
Ah, but are we not all, ourselves, The Hand? And, of course, the symbolism of the orange pony as an avatar for our slothful destruction of Ontario's Carolinian forest lands is a wee bit over-the-top in retrospect; but it was fun nonetheless.
Ok.... it's kinda lameass, but it was sort of a rush to make something work - just like the moment when a kid discovers s/he can make cartoons by doodling in the corner of each page in their math book.
And thanks!
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