David Daniels produces animation by the process of stratacut animation. Once you know how it's done, the difficulties of this art will blow your mind. From vimeo:
Strata-cut animation is most commonly a form of clay animation in which a long bread-like "loaf" of clay, internally packed with varying imagery, is sliced into thin sheets, with the animation camera taking a frame of the end of the loaf for each cut, eventually revealing the movement of the internal images within. Wax may be used instead of clay for the loaf, but this can be more difficult to use because it is less malleable.
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Stratacut is created only through an in depth understanding of space-time, because in stratacut, you build your imagery not just in X, Y, and Z space, but also considering time as a dimension, and the most important one. Students who have undertaken the challenge of creating stratacut animation will tell you, it is not for those unwilling to bend their perception of animation, and time in the process.
Next, consider what is involved in designing and building that "internal imagery" in the clay loaf, both in the artistry and timing. Now that you have the process in mind, enjoy some clips of Daniels' work. You will probably recognize some of these, but you'll appreciate them more knowing how they are done.
Blinking Eyeball Demo
(YouTube link) First, a little demonstration of just one element of a video -an eye that blinks, from Daniels' tutorials.
Journey Through A Melting Brain
(vimeo link) And a reel of professional work samples from David Daniels.
"This is sometimes harder than it looks." —David Daniels
Oh, it looks hard enough! Daniels has a website in which he shows you how to begin doing your own strata cut videos. Link
Read an interview with Daniels and see more examples at Art of the Title. Link -via Metafilter
Comments (3)
1 - Is this supposed to be Manhattan? I didn't know it was one big, green hill with three office buildings and a single-family home. Of course, I've only been there once.
2 - The single family home: what the hell is going on? I think its supposed to be a tornado ripping off the roof. But why is the roof intact and flipped over? Why is the tornado so tiny? And are there tornados in Manhattan?
3 - Who buys a house that is incredibly small, and seems to comprise of two windows, one door, and a single, yellow room with a rug. Of course, if this is the only house in Manhattan then I guess beggers can't be choosers.
4 - A major city without roads. Okay. Unless one craggy, weed-choked dirt path going up the hill is the "road". No wonder New Yorkers are so grouchy.
5 - That car is colossal relative to the other objects in the picture. Must be one of those SUVs that liberals get so upset about. I guess the roll-over safety rating of this particular vehicle isn't very impressive. And the action lines emulating from the car is indicating to us that something is still happening, but what? Is the car angry?
6 - The vegetation in front of the beige office building - trees, bushes, or is it just green fire? I don't know.
7 - The twin towers are a lot smaller than I remember. Of course, they could be simply very far away from us. But then the airplane would be absolutely gigantic. I don't know.
And, seriously, an adult drew this picture.
Are you serious? Please tell me you are joking. Perhaps they should have used some architectural blueprints and a topographical map, would that make you happier? Perhaps you should log off the computer and go for a walk.
Also, I think this the colouring book is a good idea; I have no problem with this being used as a tool to help children come to terms with tragedy.
I don't hear of planes flying into office buildings very often, so I wouldn't think there is much of a need for the cover and whole page be devoted to it.
Yes, I'm joking. Perhaps my sarcasm and snarkiness flew under your radar.
Oddnumber:
Actually, the coloring books in my youth had some degree of artistic competence. You know, by people who can actually draw in realistic scale and perspective (for example, Batman and Robin were drawn to be smaller than the Batmobile). Just because you offer a product to children doesn't mean you ignore very, very basic artistic conventions.
Seriously, would you give this kind of crap to your child? If so, I mourn their Happy Meal existence.
I'm pretty I've read somewhere that an adult drew this coloring book. I think if they went with Koko the chimp, they would've ended up with a better product.