Pixelation Hearts

This is something I had on the back-burner for good while, but I finally got to work on it. It's my first time working with pixelation. I like this style of animation a lot. I'm definitely going work on more videos like this in the future.

-Peace

Psychedelic Ambitions

Same video, but I pulled it from a finished product. Which was a little tricky, because the pixels were "enhanced" when I open it in Movie Maker. So I had to split up certain parts and change the music. That too took a little figuring out. As for the "enhancement", I used a program that was supposed to smooth out the pixels. What I received however made it worse. The pixels looked like some local public television produced video from the early '90s. Phew! So I figured I'd just play around with it.

-Peace

New Video Post

So I went around Bell Island for the day and was searching for pictures to take of graffiti tags. The search lead me to some aging building that used to be a part of the old power station in Richmond. I stepped inside and was surrounded in a flurry of feathery seeds. The seem to have come from the trees, but I'm not really sure what kind though. It was such a beautiful and serene moment, I just had to capture on video. However, like watching a pot boil, it would never start until I put my camera away. But I am patient, and or stubborn. I wasn't leaving until I got enough footage to use.

I haven't made video in probably a few years now, not since the old blog at least. But that was due to a lot of computer issues I was having. Now I'm back in the game! The camera I've been using is a crappy little digital camera, but it does the trick. I'm having trouble with heavy pixelation being shown in the video, and I haven't found the right program to fix it. If anyone has any suggestions, I would very much appreciate it. I thought using the slow motion technique would help make it more dramatic, and also extend the film a bit, after I cut unnecessary parts from each scene. If you have suggestions for that, I'm all ears. Anyways, enjoy.

-Peace

Push!

It's obvious that I'm trying, but I seem to get held up by a lot of inconveniences, or distracted by things that have a great pull on my being that keep me from getting any of my projects done. However, I have overcome those byproducts that were manifested from those ill feelings. They have diverted my attention to what I need to do for myself. Two words: Build Yrself. This was the personal campaign that I started with once I moved to this city, and I will continue on with it until the foundation is strong enough. It might seem like I'm scolding myself every time I lose insight, but I feel it helps motivate me. I'm not trying to be self-deprecating, I get a little angry at myself about what I could be doing right now. Anger is a tool for my motivation, and creativity. Though it is not my only tool, for the other one is love. The two emotions are extremes, but not necessarily of each other, are engines to my ambition. If I behave neutral, or become comfortable with being complacent. The fire inside my heart becomes quelled, and my drive becomes lost in limbo. So I encourage those creative types out there. Beware of becoming too comfortable, because you will lose sight of what drives you.

-Peace

Practical Solemn Moments

Returning back from the land of digital purgatory, I have once again achieved at obtaining internet in my homestead. I'm going to finish up on my International Stop-motion animation series in the near future. However in the mean-time, I have some photos to share that were taken in the urban landscape of this fair city of Richmond.

Stop-Motion International 2

Okay, so I'm back from a long hiatus, but I made it through the semester and now and taking advantage of all the free time that I have now(that is until I have to get a second job for the summer). I want to follow up on the stop motion that I have been digging on for a while. Ivo Caprino the next fellow on my list of fascinating creators. Born in Oslo, Norway to a very creative family. He was the son of furniture builder Mario Caprino, and artist Ingeborg Gude. His mother would design puppets for a puppet theater which Ivo would assist her in making. This ended up becoming a great influence on his work in the future. He and his mother would collaborate on making puppet films from around the late 40s' up until her death in the mid sixties. Caprino received much praise and accolades for his films. He originally used an animatronic mechanism to give the puppets movements in real-time as it is shown here in the film, Karius og Baktus.



This film is based off of a story by Thorbjørn Egner about two little trolls who the title is named after. They represent Caries and Bacterium, and live the mouth of a little boy named Jens hammering away at his teeth. They just look too damn happy tearing up that poor kids mouth.

He would then later on use traditional stop-motion techniques in his later films, like in this short about lute fish.



Mmm... piping hot lute fish. I also like the bit of live-action added into the film when the food is being presented. I almost feel it was some sort of advertisement or public announcement that Caprino did. The stop motion puppets remind a bit of those that were featured by Rankin-Bass, who produced The Year Without A Santa Claus and Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer Christmas specials(Which were animated in Japan, though they are an American production company).

The movie that first grabbed my fascination with Caprino was a preview for a film called: Flåklypa Grand Prix or Pinchcliffe Grand Prix, which was based of a series of books by Kjell Aukrust. The reason why the trailer is in Japanese is because I originally was looking at the puppet animations of Kihachiro Kawamoto, and there was a link sitting right next to it. Also this is the only trailer that I've been able to find of the movie.



When I was researching the story in the film, I was interested in the main character Reodor Felgen's hobby of making Rube Goldberg type inventions. Plus he has two anthropomorphic assistants, A peppy duck named Solan, and a pessimistic hedgehog named Ludvig. I haven't looked into it heavily yet, but I noticed these two things remind me of Wallace and Grommit. One wonders if this movie had any influence on Nick Park at all. I save that thought for another post.

-Seph

Stop-motion international

I found some of these videos by accident when I was on youtube and it turned out to be one of the most amazing revelations that I came upon. These are stop motion animation clips from Japan by the director Kihachiro Kawamoto. I didn't know anything about him before, but after reading up on his history I find his work to be even more defining to the world of stop-motion animation.

His works are tight! Not only was a pioneer in Japan's stop-motion animation movement, but he also learned under the great Czech puppet master Jiri Trnka. Trnka convinced Kawamoto to return to Japan and incorperate influences from his traditional culture in with his work. Which is why you can see the use of Noh, Kabuki, and Bunraku puppetry in his craft. I totally dig on his work. This here is a trailer for "Book of the Dead" or "Shisha no Sho".




This one here is "The Demon"