Fantastic Flipbook-Style Stop Motion Animation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iIOmubk5sA&feature=player_embedded

I think Sesame Street Was An Early Influence On My Love of Stop Motion

Teeny Little Super Guy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rjvt6xqKwV8&feature=player_embedded

The King of Eight

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4munc-VzFU&feature=player_embedded

New Stop Motion Armature and Animation

The story of my first professional grade "helping hands" puppet and latest animation.

Decided to start my own ball and socket armature rig around the end of last school year. Bought about 8 "helping hands" kits usually used for soldering, but have great ball-jointed parts that work perfectly for a stop motion armature. I was able to find a place online where they were only 3 bucks a kit. Had to replace the wing nuts with bolts and regular nuts, so the armature would be less bulky. Used a very thick wire for the arms and legs to connect between the joints. Completed the bottom half of the rig before realizing that I needed more of one specific piece to make the top half. Finally finished constructing the "helping hands" rig around the end of summer vacation. With a suggestion from a friend, I used seat cushion foam to make up his bulk and shape.
He's still super flexible even with all the foam padding on him.School starts up again and my new Digital Storytelling teacher has us all do a stop motion for our first assignment. Excitement! I quickly finish the robot puppet and construct a miniature shooting stage underneath my bed. The enclosure allows me to hang lights from above with no sweat and not worry about bumping my set as I stumble around in the dark at night. Went to Home Depot and found the perfect parts to construct the factory setting I wanted for the set. Still frame from the stop motion shoot. Realized that my heavy duty light box made the perfect fill light for the scene. Hung the light box upside down from the underside of my bed. Used a desk lamp on the left side for a simple key light. The assignment for my class was to focus on ritual and repetition, so I had the robot assembling other robots in an assembly line. There is no story to speak of yet, but I intend to give him human characteristics later on (checking his watch, clocking in for work, etc) I used Dragon Stop Motion to shoot the scene with a Canon Rebel XS connected to my computer. It allowed me to see what I was shooting on my monitor instead of having to check the camera's viewfinder every shot. Here's the final animation I submitted for class today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lemFr97WvOk
My teacher gave us another two weeks to add sound to the video and add additional scenes if we want. I will post an update soon.

The Bonnaroo Awards! 2009 edition

PS: Sorry it took so long :P

Best Theatrical Performance and Ziggy Stardust Impersonation
Of Montreal with the strange/amazing post-appocolyptic piggy play

Youngest Average Age of Crowd (estimated)
MGMT. (Average age had to be 16 or 17)

Worst Execution of a Great Idea.
Fuse's cell phone charging station. With only 30 slots for 30 different phones, somebody dropped the ball here.

Most Creative Corporate Sponsorship
Three way tie- State Farm's DJ Scratch Academy, Garnia Fructis's Hair Salon and Karaoke, and Butterfinger's Comedy Tent.

Biggest Let Down for Sound Quality
Tie- Yeah Yeah Yeah's at Which Stage and Animal Collective at Which Stage. (Coincidence?)

Worst Scheduling Conflict
Tie Yeah Yeah Yeahs vs Santigold, Animal Collective vs St. Vincent, Of Montreal vs Jenny Lewis vs Wilco vs Mars Volta vs Decemberists vs Elvis Costelo :*(

Most Awkward Crowd Moment
Tie- getting wedged against the guy in the Borat swimsuit costume at Girl Talk or getting stuck next to the drunk couple making bad sex jokes and talking about getting it on when MGMT starts.

Most Humbled Band
Phoenix, they played what had to be their biggest crowd yet. Granted, many of the people there were trying to get good spots for Crystal Castles and/or Girl Talk, but the band were in awe of the crowd nonetheless.

Best Planning Idea Ever
Getting in line before the gates open on Thursday. (ended up with a camping spot 10 minutes away from Centeroo)

Worst Planning Idea Ever
Tie- bringing a 20 year old leaky tent and packing dry food items in a cooler
(both were soaked for the rest of the trip after it rained for 30 minutes right after we got there and the cooler was invaded by ants)

Best Shows Overall

Janelle Monae, White Rabbits, Murs, The Knux, Santigold,

TV on the Radio, Pho enix, Girl Talk, Of Montreal, Wilco, Yeasayer, Andrew Bird, Band of Horses

See you next year Bonnarooo! :D

Bonnaroo 2009!

WE"RE GOIN BACK!

OH man oh man oh man.

I'm loving this life-sized stop motion

Sorry I'm late by Tomas Mankovsky
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgpRz3RHJMw

End of Year Update

You might have already seen some of these before:

For Painting 2-


For Conceptual Practices-

"Dust Bunny Priest Warns the Congregation of the Coming of Hoover."
Mixed Media
"Environmental Monster"
Collaboration with/photographed by Athena Torri
Mixed Media
"Self Portrait in Tape"
Packing tape and seran wrap

Personal Projects-"Yarn Monster"
Still from a stop motion in production"Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer bust"
Clay, wire, and aluminum foil
Christmas gift for Lindsey Gilbert

Steel ball and socket armature for new stop motion character

New Demo reel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQGF-EI7rAM

That should be everything