Stick Figure Animation

Here is a clever little animation called How We Met. It was built with simple stick figures. The creator used over 1600 still shots for 100 seconds of film. The hook on this particular project is the use of a human body as the canvas. When I first saw this I thought maybe he had overlayed the drawings somehow over the body, but if you go to his site it shows that he drew and erased each of the drawings on his own skin.

Clever example of how you don't need lots of expensive equipment to create an entertaining animation. A pen, a canvas, a camera, and a program to stitch it all together. When you watch the video notice the use of light in several places for effect. The disco scene is a great.

I have discovered that most kids are excited to animate until they find out the number of still shots it takes to create movement. They can quickly lose their enthusiasm after setting up the 50th shot and only have a few seconds worth of footage. My advice. Start them off with small projects first. Some students end up loving it and go on to create longer pieces.



[Image: Still taken from How We Met, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBvDm_JLEcI&eurl=http://www.google.com/reader/view/]