Stop Frame Animation

When I was in grade school Randy and I used to draw dinosaurs during class. He was better then me. But from Randy I learned to draw a brontosaurus (now known as a diplodocus) chewing seaweed in front of a volcano.

Later on, while attending Castro Valley High School, I used an 8mm movie camera and created my first stop frame animation film. Inspired by the old black and white film King Kong I sculpted a clay King Kong myself. I set up the movie camera in the back room of the art class, blackened the windows and went to work creating my own very brief stop frame animation film of King Kong being assembled from a lump of clay and walking off the frame. It takes patience and a steady hand. Randy was with me squeezing off the frames while I molded King Kong's each and every move. I was pretty good at sculpting. (I once sculpted a bust of Abe Lincoln in the dark while the teacher played a history movie about him played during class. After the movie she turned on the lights only to discover a bust of Abe on my desk.)

So it was with great appreciation for the art form that I stumbled across this stop frame animation film with a twist. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. It's simply amazing.



...dave
Every artist dips a brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his work.