Stop Motion

Over the years we have worked on quite a few stop motion projects – theatrical features such as 'Sandman and the Lost Sand of Dreams' or our current own production 'Kara' as well as commercials like 'Volvo - Build', 'Rolex - Oyster', 'VW - Think Blue', 'Raumplus - mobile' or 'Huelsta - Mega Design'.

Stop motion is a technique we've come to specialize in and love.

You first sketch and storyboard your idea, pre-viz it, build every little prop and plan every little screw, make all the puppets (the clothes, the hair, the eyebrows, the fingers...), build all your sets from miniature trees to whole cities – all by hand.

Then you put them all together, set up the lights and the camera and make them move – you photograph them frame by frame, in tiny increments. You wrap the shoot but can't yet celebrate – there is all the wire removal, painting and compositing ahead of you.

Things don't look out of place in stop motion. Characters and objects INTEGRATE into their world seamlessly since they are photographed with them or in the same light.

TEXTUREs are real and tangible. The tactile qualities of stop motion bring a REALISM and believability to the characters and the world they live in.

The shoot, while at a much slower pace, is very similar to live action. You get LIVE FEEDBACK when you set up your lights and camera. This allows for collaboration, continued creativity, flow of ideas on the set, and for perfecting your plan on the spot.

 

When all is said and done, and you've been through all the painstaking work, that's when it happens: You realize it was all worth it, because nothing looks more MAGICal than real objects moving with a life of their own.