Clay!
Some millions of years ago (like… 8 years maybe?), I went searching the far corners of youtube for some claymation. It was the one thing I thought I could do on my own at the time in terms of making something fun. I had a cheap webcam and some software to string together images and decided to give it a go. I only needed something to look at for reference. Over the next few weeks, I went digging. After hours of sifting through weird stop-motion lego videos (there were a LOT of lego videos) I found this tidbit:
Just in case the embed code doesn't work, here's the link: Green vs. Red vs. Blue
It made the whole thing look so simple for some reason. The clay figures seemed minimal, and I didn’t even consider the sheer amount of hours that went into making the fight look so fluid. Not to mention, I watched the freeze-frame bit at about 00:30 something like 600 times. I made my decision. I would try and recreate it, FOR SCIENCE! It was at this moment that middle school me discovered that he had no patience.
I spent way too many hours trying to recreate the same fluidity, and of course my silly middle school self was so disappointed when he couldn’t make something on par with that on the first try. The clay was messy stuff from a craft store that was meant for play. It wouldn’t mold, then when it was finally in position, it wouldn’t stay. I kept taking pictures when my hands were in the frame by accident. It was frustrating. So after a lot of starting over, and one very short and silly animation that made no sense, I took a long break (I gave up).
Every now and then I think about trying again, maybe having grown up a little bit… and whenever that happens, I look back on the same channel to see if it’s still active. Lo and behold, a few months ago, I find this:
Once again, here's the link: Blobby
Just in case the embed code doesn't work, here's the link: Green vs. Red vs. Blue
It made the whole thing look so simple for some reason. The clay figures seemed minimal, and I didn’t even consider the sheer amount of hours that went into making the fight look so fluid. Not to mention, I watched the freeze-frame bit at about 00:30 something like 600 times. I made my decision. I would try and recreate it, FOR SCIENCE! It was at this moment that middle school me discovered that he had no patience.
I spent way too many hours trying to recreate the same fluidity, and of course my silly middle school self was so disappointed when he couldn’t make something on par with that on the first try. The clay was messy stuff from a craft store that was meant for play. It wouldn’t mold, then when it was finally in position, it wouldn’t stay. I kept taking pictures when my hands were in the frame by accident. It was frustrating. So after a lot of starting over, and one very short and silly animation that made no sense, I took a long break (I gave up).
Every now and then I think about trying again, maybe having grown up a little bit… and whenever that happens, I look back on the same channel to see if it’s still active. Lo and behold, a few months ago, I find this:
Enjoy!
Once again, here's the link: Blobby
That's so funny! I also remember watching these animations as a kid! I also tried the same thing when I was in middle school and also gave up almost immediately. I think one of the incredible things about animation is how when it's really good it can look so easy! But after a few hours of trying it out you begin to realize 30 seconds = 720 separate frames. Even doodling a stick figure flip book in your notebook takes a whole class period for 5 seconds of flipping. When Youtube changed their monetary algorithm to pay for amount of time watched instead of how many views I remember the uproar from the animation community. And rightfully so. Blobby probably took much more time to make then a makeup tutorial.
ReplyDeleteAmazing! I remember looking up animation videos like these growing up. I was particularly found the the epic stick figure ones. Animator vs. Animation. To think that was 11 years ago and it has a ton of sequels now. Something I admired particularly about that series was it's use of environment as the whole epic stick figure fight took place on a desktop. It's worth a watch if you haven't seen it yet.
ReplyDeletei show this in my production class:
ReplyDeletehttps://vimeo.com/44633289