Animated Gifs are fun!
First of all, I’d like to thank Andy Mason and Joshua Belter. They trusted me, when what I imagined must have seemed like incoherent ramblings, as I tried to explain what I wanted to do. Furthermore, they were both unbelievably patient with me and this long process. Also, thanks to my wife who not only supported me through this process (and all of my crazy ideas) but helped out with building the props as well. She is amazing! And to my kids for being my focus group, you guys are my biggest fans and I couldn’t be more proud to have you! And last, but not least, my creative partner in crime (sometimes literally), Tyler Green.
The process all started when I discovered multiplane animation and wanted to build a stand of my own. I had an old rack I was given from a TV station I used to work at that I decided to repurpose. Here is what it looks like now:
I did a ton of tests to make this thing work and, most impressively, I wired the back light to include 4 light posts and a switch. It somehow worked and I didn’t electrocute myself. Thanks internet!
Next, was a series of tests I did to see how the shooting process would work:
I then created an animatic based on the book (storyofabox.com). This served to time the animation. Here is a clip:
Then the picture taking began. This project was created in camera, meaning I’d take a picture, move the objects in the frame, take another picture, move the objects, and so on. The final video is made of 4346 individual photos. I made the props as I went to break up the workflow of animating, which helped. I averaged one scene a week between building and animating. Here are some images to get an idea of the scale of the objects I was working with:
Dang, I should totally consider a career in hand modeling, right?
Once shooting had completed I sent some RAW images to Tyler Green who did the color adjustments. Then, I sequenced the images and did a few minor adjustments. And that’s it. Easy as π.
To get your copy of Empty go to:
(also available on iTunes)
To get your copy of The Story Of A Box go to:
(also available on Amazon)
To hear more music by Andy and Josh go to:
For more videos check out:
PEACE.