archived-videos Procrastination - Short stop-motion film

I thought the origami coming to life was cool, I just worry that you might have wasted a lot of time with the guys movements. The cuts are so rapid that it just looks like he's moving jerkily, rather than being obvious stop motion. Perhaps less frequent frames would have saved time and also made it more stylised?

But good job anyhow, that's commitment.
 
Thanks for watching. Yes it took a lot of time using myself as a stop-motion puppet. I didn't want it to be too stylised - some people are put off by "arty" videos. I also just wanted lots of detail in the movement.
 
I agree with your mum, the piece is 'really charming'. You have a wonderful sense of visual storytelling and duration.

I cried at the end just like Old Yeller.:D
 
Thank you for the comments. Though as a Brit i have never seen Old Yellow. I've obviously missed out - will try and see it soon.
 
Okay, it's clearly not stop-motion, but the fake stop-motion effect is actually one of the things I like about it. Cute piece. You're not seriously claiming this is stop-motion, though, are you? I mean, that's just all part of the fun, right?
 
Okay, it's clearly not stop-motion, but the fake stop-motion effect is actually one of the things I like about it. Cute piece. You're not seriously claiming this is stop-motion, though, are you? I mean, that's just all part of the fun, right?

I am glad someone else said something. Go back and look at the trucks in the back ground. There's no way you

were repositioning yourself and taking a photo that fast, that the motion of the trucks, and trees no less is that

continuous. I knew there was something that hit me as weird the first time I watched it. Maybe I'm wrong??

As for the vid itself. That "smacking mouth" sound got to be a bit much, and you could drop the first minute or two and

get right to the bird.

Sorry if im wrong about the stop motion.
 
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Sorry if im wrong about the stop motion.

You're not. The cars are but one of many smoking guns. Personally, I think it's a spoof, and it's pretty cool for that. I have to assume the filmmaker isn't really trying to claim that this is stop-motion. To his credit, he did choose to post this in the narrative section, instead of animation.
 
Guys, the origami bird is, indeed, frame by frame and looks to be blue/green screened into the 'simulated' human pixilation ("pixilation", I'm assuming, that was done {faked} by dropping every other frame, or two). You can see towards the end where the bird *cut out* wavers a little bit against the background. (5:20, 7:04)

I think it is an effective work, and the enfolding of the story was very well sequenced. Believe me, having done stop mo, Richard has done a superb job with his little birdie. :)
 
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With all due respect, bird, here's the problem with your logic:

Yes it took a lot of time using myself as a stop-motion puppet.

If the little birdie truly is stop-motion, then it is the filmmakers' fault in misleading us about the rest of the video, if we are to doubt his claims. Plus, the little birdie has shadows, so that eliminates green screen. And yes, I saw the weird effects you mentioned at 5:20, etc. -- my first assumption was that these were artifacts of altering the image in AE, perhaps removing the wires that could control a little puppet like that? I don't know that that's the case, but that was my first guess.

Honestly, this video looks to me like a spoof of stop-motion, what with the way that the dude moves his body, and of course he just had to tap his fingers in sequence, because every single stop-motion video does that. I thought it was funny, and I thought that the filmmaker was intentionally tryiing to get a laugh. I dunno. Could be wrong. But I do know that it ain't what he claims it is.
 
With all due respect, bird, here's the problem with your logic:



If the little birdie truly is stop-motion, then it is the filmmakers' fault in misleading us about the rest of the video, if we are to doubt his claims. Plus, the little birdie has shadows, so that eliminates green screen. And yes, I saw the weird effects you mentioned at 5:20, etc. -- my first assumption was that these were artifacts of altering the image in AE, perhaps removing the wires that could control a little puppet like that? I don't know that that's the case, but that was my first guess.

Honestly, this video looks to me like a spoof of stop-motion, what with the way that the dude moves his body, and of course he just had to tap his fingers in sequence, because every single stop-motion video does that. I thought it was funny, and I thought that the filmmaker was intentionally tryiing to get a laugh. I dunno. Could be wrong. But I do know that it ain't what he claims it is.

I agree that Richard probably *acted* the way a pixilated image would read. As I mentioned, I honestly think he filmed realtime and used some app which dropped every other frame...almost like a sequence of jump cuts. I still say he frame by frame animated the bird. :) Perhaps Richard will enlighten us? I understand why it's probably not totally kosher to call the work, as whole, a stop motion. Still, like you, I enjoyed it, which is a success for Richard.
 
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Yeah, there is no way he set the timer on his camera and then ran around in front to position himself. I noticed the cars in the background, too. I thought it was kind of weird that they were moving so smoothly. I was expecting just a few frames where a car would flash across the road, but not actually be able to see them move across the screen.
 
Wow, i didn't realise there would be so much controversy about the way i made it. I wasn't trying to con anyone!
I hadn't heard of pixilation until after i did this (i have never studied film - im a maths student). So i was making it up as a went along.
If you would like to know how i did:

I obviously animated the the bird separately then used a split screen in AE to put them together.
The bird is partly stop motion and partly controlled by wires (depending on what was best for the scene).
I don't have a timer on my camera - instead i recorded normally, then moved myself frame by frame and speed it up between 500% - 800%, depending on the scene (that really did take ages). I felt like there was enough to justify calling it a stop-motion.

I wanted my character to have the same eerie yet comical movement as an animated puppet (lots of detail and exaggerations). Also i wanted him and the bird feel like they are in the same world. I didn't do anything to try and cut corners - I just did whatever i thought would get this effect best. Its mostly about the narrative though.

I don't think its a cheat or a fake - my Mum would not be happy with you if you called it that.
PS: sorry for the long post.
 
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Hey Richard,

As fellow filmmakers we just like to know the man behind the curtains' hand-play, that's all. Your project is no less wonderful just because you didn't invest x-amount of hours, or labor, into it. You should be proud of the piece, regardless of how you got there.
 
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Thanks Bird. I was joking though - im sure my Mum would like you all.
I just wanted to emphasise i wasn't being lazy or cutting corners. Only coz i spent insane amounts of time on it in the end. For scenes like when it was flying i had to go through in AE, manually taking out the wires frame by frame.
Thank you for your comments - all feedback is appreciated.
 
Wow, i didn't realise there would be so much controversy about the way i made it. I wasn't trying to con anyone!

Hey, man, I don't think anyone who's contributed to this thread has felt conned, or that this was controversial. Like bird said, we like to know the details of how things are made. If someone shot a video that was particularly beautiful, as far as cinematography is concerned, people would want to know which camera, which lenses, what kind of lighting, etc. In your case, we wanted to know how you made that little birdie move.

Stop-motion refers to a pretty specific method of filmmaking -- it's not really a definition that can just be tossed around as we please. In regard to how you recorded yourself, in this video, you can't call it stop-motion.

As for the birdie, I'll be honest, I'm not entirely convinced that you used a combination of stop-motion and wire-fu (for lack of a better word). But that's not because I think you're lying; I'm just not sure you really know what stop-motion is (based on your previous use of the word). When I watch this video, the bird's movement's just seem WAY too perfect to be stop-motion.

ANYWAY, regardless of what we call your methodology, as I've said before, I enjoyed the film. Nice work. It's fun, and it has some heart. I like it!
 
Don't mean to sound defensive or like i am arguing - yes its not a stop-motion. It was just easier to say that than its a; spoof pixilation, green-screen, stop-motion, wire controlled puppet film. It also summed up the look i was going for.

Thank you for the comments and all peoples encouragement as well. Its nice to have people take interest in my work - whatever aspect it is.
 
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