Must See >> Stop-Motion Animation >> Bottle

"Animated on location at a beach, in snow, and underwater, this stop-motion short details a transoceanic conversation between two characters via objects in a bottle."

Your heart will break.

You know how I love stop-motion animation.  The making-of will give you serious respect for how long this must've taken!!!

Mabona Origami

Amazed by the precision and expressiveness of these origami creatures by Sipho Mabona.

And of course loove the stop-motion animation video made from his creations.  This video was created as an ad for Asics and won multiple international advertising awards.

Also love these installations of the figures suspended in air...

Click through for more, including a couple of examples of the absurdly intricate 2-d patterns these are made from.

When Favorite Things Collide >> Stop-Motion Animation + Street Art >> Blu

A stop-motion animation film of sometimes small-, sometimes very large-scale murals by the Argentine artist Blu on the sidewalks of Buenos Aires.

I don't know how quickly he changes these drawings, but it would be pretty cool if you came across something like this on your daily commute, and you could see it evolve every day, not having any idea where it's headed.

Also pretty amazing that after each drawing was photographed, that became a frame in the film, and there was no way to go back and change previous frames, since he had already changed the drawing and moved on.  I'm curious how much he planned out the whole trajectory ahead of time!

[Lost at E Minor]

Revisiting >> Fantastic Mr. Fox

Finally saw Fantastic Mr. Fox!  And it did not disappoint.  Think of the brilliance and detail of Wes Anderson's directing style mixed with the wit and nostalgia of Roald Dahl's writing, plus the charm of stop-motion animation, and you can imagine what a wonderful film this results in.

So anyway, now that I've seen it, I went back and watched these making-of videos again.  The one at top I've already posted once, but I think it's worth watching again.  I'm just amazed at the detail and intricacy of how all the sets, props, and characters were created, shot, and animated.

There's no way you can watch these and not want to see the film.

Does this convince you Wes Anderson is a genius or what?

Stop-motion animation!  Amazing!  24 stills for every second of film!  Also, they way they recorded the voices is pretty impressive... usually for animation work, actors just sit in a studio and read the lines... not for a Wes Anderson film!

They photographed every piece of furniture in Dahl's house and created a miniature of it!

Ok now I want to watch it all over again.

More Stop-Motion >> Broken Fingaz Street Art

Always love stop-motion animation.  And when it meets street art, well, it's pretty cool.

Still Loving >> A Fine Frenzy

I had to re-post this video because I'm still thinking about it... Love the use of stop-motion animation.

The new album, Bomb in a Birdcage, is really good start to finish!  You can hear the whole thing streaming free here.