Unstoppable

Last Leaf

OK Go | Myspace Music Videos

I love buttered toast. I also love OK Go videos. Watch their latest creation, Last Leaf. Delicious.

Woah.

charley bowers, wild oysters (1941) via kirsten lepore. ambitious old-school stop-mo... now if only i dug the story.

Neato

Helpless from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

i'm really into the works of photographer massimo vitali, so you can only imagine how freakin' excited i was when i discovered the photography and even cooler, the videography, of keith loutit!

keith loutit's film making style is totally rad. (apologies for the lack of fancy vocabulary to more properly convey my feelings.) he creates an illusion of miniaturization through photographic techniques and a play on playback speed. the end results are awesome scenes of the ordinary that take the form of scaled down stop-mo animation. neato is right.

Til Death Do Us Part

Til Death Do Us Part from Debra Chow on Vimeo.

ALL DONE. (Well, no... tweaks still need to be made, but this is what I screened at last week's Festival of Animation at UCLA.)

Tip: To avoid having to watch the video lag (BOOOOOO), let the entire short run through once (buffer, buffer, buffer - on mute?!?) before your official viewing. Enjoy!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY LITTLE BROTHER!!!
You're officially old.

Secret Admirer

Urpo & Turpo inspire me.

Funky Bunch

Minus Marky Mark.

Meet Ernest. Ernest needs a body, some longer arms... and while you're at it, some clothes. It's cold out there.

* On second look, the man also sports an unintentional lazy-eye. Need to fix that...

Suddenly I See

Ethel's glasses. Check out her beady gaze...

Mom Jeans

Meet Muriel. She's an extra in my film. She rocks mom jeans. I think she needs a belt. Some fingers and shoes would be nice as well...

Edward

I've been sewing and gluing fabric scraps all morning in order to make an age-appropriate, yet snazzy outfit for "Ed," one of the senior citizen extras in my second-year film, "Til Death Do Us Part"... His shoes, socks, elbow patches (every grandpa needs elbow patches), neck and hands aren't on yet, but I thought I'd give y'all a look before Ed's fully finished. Work-in-progress shots are fun, no? Am also posting a photo of him before the extreme make-over. I carved foam (from Norm's Foam Shop in Culver City... thanks, Kevin, for the recommendation!) and glued two halves over the armature to give Ed some mass. (Not too much though, as Ed is meant to be a tall and skinny fella.) I don't own a carving knife, so I had to make do with a steak knife. Hehe. It worked!

Left My Heart in San Francisco...

Back from the Bay Area. While happy to be back because of Beans, I'd much rather be back in SF with le cub. T'was a lovely weekend spent with some of my most beloved friends...

Highlights:
- Pinkberry has arrived at LAX!
- Strange turkey cravings due to a glossy issue of Martha Stewart Thanksgiving. Thank you, le cub, for rushing me to Safeway.
- Quality doggie time with Emily and Seal.
- Shopping with the BFF and Jen for one last bridesmaid's dress. Jenny, we hope you like it!
- Romantic dinner with le cub at Top Chef participant, Jamie Lauren's restaurant, Absinthe. The scallops were perfection!
- My first UFC fight.
- Brunch with old friends in my old hood.

I Knead You

Running some tests. In order to do so, I've got to complete at least one character - armature and all... Fun, fun, fun.

Satisfaction

I can't get no... satisfaction.

Stop-motion is much more difficult than it looks.

After trying, and failing to get into a free screening of Fantastic Mr. Fox with my classmate, Alexis, I sadly wandered on back to Burbank to work on my models. I tried to build a wire armature for "Henry," one of the supporting-actors in my film, but was unsatisfied with the final outcome. *scream into pillow* I also began to form Henry's head by wrapping FIMO clay around a ball of foil, but was unsatisfied with that final outcome as well. *more screaming into pillow* Instead of leaving Henry be, I ripped his "skin" off of the foil ball, and well, the above-photo speaks for itself.

I'm a creep.

Gobble, Gobble

My classmate, Kevin, is my stop-motion mentor. I have no idea what I'm doing and am lucky to have someone to harass a mere phone call away. Kevin's currently working on a short titled "You're My Ghoul", and above is my contribution to his film... a turkey lawn ornament :) Made out of white Sculpey and then painted with acrylic paint...

Trial and Error

... will eventually result in trial and success. I'm hoping.

Turning in a paper and taking a midterm for my Disney Imagineering class in a few hours. Ahh...

Pictured: A test head for one of my senior citizens in "Til Death do Us Part" - my second-year film. Made with Sculpey.

Like a Virgin

Stop-motion set building is hard-work, but boy, is it fun. Tah-dah! My very first prop. A miniature tree. He stands about 13 inches tall... Will post more photos of him once I cover the tree trunk and branches in paint and clothe him with leaves.

Would love to know if floral tape is receptive to acrylic paint... I'm going to find out soon :)

Peepshow

Presented storyboards for my second-year film today. The star of the film will be a lil' suicidal granny named Ethel. Can't wait to build the stop-motion version of her!

Go-Go Gadget

My new (actually old, as it's used) SLR: Nikon D70.
It came highly-recommended by photo-fiends and stop-motion animators alike.
While there clearly are fancier cameras on the market that offer more bells-and-whistles, frankly speaking, I wouldn't know what to do with more features...

So yeah... camera? Check! Storyboards for the stop-motion film to be photographed by this new camera? Er... I'm working on it!

Magic

My classmate, Kevin, introduced me to PES. As Christopher Walkens would put it, "Wowee, Wow, Wow!"