Inspiration: New Gotye Music Video Clip - Somebody That I Used to Know

Most of you have probably already heard or seen this new music video clip for Gotye 'Somebody That I Used to Know featuring Kimbra but I had to share it again anyway! Animated using Stop-motion, it is directed, produced and edited by Natasha Pincus with body art by Emma Hack - beautiful idea.

Interview: Isobel Knowles

Isobel Knowles Showreel June 2011 from Isobel Knowles on Vimeo.

I first discovered Isobel Knowles when I went to a Craft Victoria talk called Make It, Design It, Fund It a couple of years ago. An Experimenta catalogue was circulated and flicking through stumbled upon Isobel's amazing artwork with Van Sowerwine called You Were In My Dream. I was really interested in stop-motion at the time and had experimented with using it in my own artworks but couldn't believe the amazing conceptual use of the medium in their work. This was also long before I dreamed of starting this blog so I can't believe I am here right now interviewing Isobel about her work and in particular the work that inspired me so much!

I think I had inspiration overload reading about Isobel's inspirations - so many great new people to find out about. If you would like to see more of Isobel's work you can go to her website here or her Vimeo channel here.

Tell us a little about your arts/design background

I was one of those kids who would draw and draw. I chose art in school wherever I could and started animating in my final year of high school. I went on to study Media Arts at RMIT where I got into making animations for installation in galleries and made a few short films as well. I started collaborating with Van Sowerwine at university and we have had a productive working relationship ever since.

(Image of Clara from the short film Clara (c) Film Camp, Directed by Van Sowerine .)

I made a music video for Architecture in Helsinki just after I graduated and during the production of it they asked me to join in and play trumpet with them. It was such a great experience but at the same time it was tricky leading a double creative life. I was shooting a short film, Clara, with Van and recording with Architecture in Helsinki at the same time and it was a difficult balance. The band took over and became a full time occupation for a couple of years. I had a great time and fell into making music videos because of all these music connections I was making. It was a lot of fun!

After I left the band I spent time overseas trading music videos for accommodation. When I came back to Melbourne I decided I wanted to do animation full time. I have managed to strike a good balance between artistic projects and commissioned work and I'm enjoying it immensely!

When did you first discover stop-motion animation?

Sesame Street! I loved that show to death. All those different vignettes made by incredibly talented animation artists!

I discovered stop-motion for myself when I started making animations in high school. The first few were pretty silly but for my graduating project I made an 8 minute alphabet with 26 different styles of animation to teach myself a broad range of techniques. There was a lot of stop-motion in there. Clay, cut-paper, objects, wire sculpture. I had a lot of fun with it.

ABC from Isobel Knowles on Vimeo.

Do you have any particular favourite stop-motion works or other artists that inspire you?

(Image still from Lotte Reiniger's Papageno 1935)

So many! Lotte Reiniger is my all time favourite paper cut animator. Suzy Templeton's Dog and her version of Peter and the Wolf are really beautiful puppet films. I loved Sinna Mann by Anita Killi. David Daniels stratacut animations are mind-melting. Yuri Norstein's Hedgehog in the Fog has the most beautifully made 2d puppets. Jan Svankmejer wins for amazing concepts. I love kids shows like Towser, Magic Roundabout, Gumby and Spanish cartoon Capelito. Fantastic Mr Fox was a very exciting addition to the animated feature film world.

(Image still from the children's series The Magic Roundabout)

(Image still from Yuri Norstein's Hedgehog in the Fog)

What mediums do you like to work with to create your sets and characters?

Anything really! You Were In My Dream had a lot of real tree branches which I loved the look of. Feathers, dried flowers, dried leaves. We tried to use as much natural material as possible and interspersed that with model making and craft supplies. I also love using cardboard. I recently made a factory set out of shoeboxes and felt. It was pretty free-form - just hacking away at cardboard with minimal precision, doing all measurements by eye. Van and I continued that lo-fi cardboard aesthetic with our new work that's in production now.

(Image of Isobel animating her factory in her collaboration with Cat Rabbit. Image source via Cat Rabbit's Website)

(Image still of a beautiful paper cut bird from You Were in My Dreams)

What has been your favourite stop-motion piece that you have worked on?

You Were In My Dream installation documentation from Isobel Knowles on Vimeo.

It's hard - like choosing a favourite child! I really enjoyed shooting You Were In My Dream. It was a collaboration with Van and I love working together with her on something big. I really loved animating the character transforming into various animals and the set was so pretty to look at all day long. But Clara was such a great project to work on too. We had decent funding so we got to use a lot of high-end equipment. We also shot it on 16mm and it was always such a rush at the end of each week when we'd take our roll of film off to be developed and watch the rushes from the week before.

Can you talk a little on the processes used and experience of making this stop-motion animation? 

I'll talk about You Were In My Dream since it's the most recent.

We originally wanted to make a 3d puppet animation like the ones we'd done together before but because of the animation needing to incorporate a live video feed of a face onto the animated character's face we decided that a 2d puppet would work better. We still wanted the sense of depth though so we made these giant sets full of the things I mentioned above and added a sheet of perspex with the cut paper 2d characters and sets to the top of that. I was really happy with how it looked in the end.

(Image still from the artwork You Were In My Dreams in use by Isobel and Van. You can see how their faces are projected into the stop-motion animation!)

(Image of a character in the process of being animated with the blank face which allowed for the projection of the viewers face to be placed there later when in use)

Our setup consisted of a custom animation bench which held the camera perpendicular to the set and had a tracking system for the set to travel left and right. The sets were 120mm long which gave us roughly three screens in length. It was important for the forest to feel quite big and like the character could run around and explore a large area. We had one set for the forest floor and one for the tree tops. We used a digital SLR connected to the computer and used Dragon Stop-Motion to capture and play back the animation. We had to use Flash for the interactive element.

(Image of Isobel on the right and Van on the left hard at work on the project)

The animation took a really long time. A lot longer than we'd expected. Van had just had a baby so I think we may have spent too much time tickling little toes! We animated about fifteen minutes worth of footage and because it's interactive and non-linear, people generally see two or three minutes at the most. It was important to the work, though to create a seemingly endless world of possibility. In addition to the fifteen minutes of stop-motion we had to animate a digital mask for the video to sit on top of the character's face. For every frame in the stop-motion we had to do a frame in Flash! So looking back it was an awful lot of work. Of course you never realise this before you begin!

(Image of a frog being animated bit by bit with a pair of tweezers!)

(Image of some of the many characters they would have cut out)

We were working to vague storyboards but most of it was on the fly editing decisions. Because we were shooting on a flat plane, though, we really only had the choice between long shot or closeup. I think this made it more manageable to shoot without a proper storyboard.

(Image of the final artwork being exhibited)

Do you think there is a resurgence in stop-motion animation in the recent years?

I think with digital cameras becoming cheaper and better, stop-motion has become more viable again. Consumer digital cameras are perfect stop motion tools so it's easy for anyone to try which is always a good breeding ground for new and exciting work.

After years of animation becoming predominantly digital and the 3d motion graphics developing into the default animated style, I think people are excited to see stop-motion again. There's still something very magical about an inanimate object moving around like it's alive that you just can't achieve in any other medium.

Do you prefer working on collaborations with other artists/clients or do you prefer creating from ideas of your own?

I like both worlds equally. I prefer spending the bulk of my time realising my own creative ideas but I love being able to make something that serves a purpose. It's like fitting a jigsaw together. Having constraints makes it exciting to find a solution for the challenge. It's also nice to be part of a creative community in this way. I've been very lucky with clients though, and pretty much find myself working for and with friends most of the time.

(Image Still from Isobels collaboration with Cat Rabbit. Source via Cat Rabbit's Website)

What are your future plans in animation? Do you have any exciting collaborations, artworks or music videos in the pipeline that you would like to talk about?

(Image still from a test animation on My Good Half . Isobel's collaboration with Anna Jeffries)

I'm working on a new artwork with my friend and collaborator Van Sowerwine. It's an interactive animation that is semi-stop-motion. The backgrounds are shot to camera and the characters are being done digitally. It's looking pretty good so far! We built a train interior and set up two enormous lazy susans with sets on them. The sets are cardboard renditions of garages, back fences and houses. Corrugated cardboard really does look like corrugated iron, especially when you do some texta tagging! We're exhibiting it in the Melbourne International Arts Festival at Screen Space in October so look out for it!

I'm also planning to do some more work with the wonderful Cat Rabbit which will be a delight I'm sure.

And a new collaboration is on the horizon with director, Anna Jeffries, who has written a script about some siamese twins from 16th Century Scotland. Hopefully that will get off the ground early next year.

I like how things have been developing so far and I'm sure finding it easy to keep busy animating! I'd love to do more short film work and maybe go work somewhere overseas for a while. Maybe Poland or Estonia. Seems like a girl like me could learn a thing or two from Eastern Europe!

Inspiration PES Films (USA)

(Image Source)

Some of you (or probably even all of you) may already know about the Director PES (aka Adam Pesapane) but I have only recently discovered him through our interview with MaricorMaricar who listed him as an inspiration and I can see why!

PES is a director of stop motion animation commercials and short films and his work uses everyday objects in such an imaginative and funny way.

There are so many examples that I would like to show you but have selected only a few for this article. If you are interested in seeing more of his work it can be found here.

Thanks to Sarah from PES Films for giving us permission to use these.

Game Over

The first short film is Game Over - I have no idea how he finished this without eating half of the set (the food bits obviously). There is a good interview here with PES talking to the Animation Show where he discusses his inspirations and processes of making this stop motion animation.

Western Spaghetti

The next short film is Western Spaghetti and I think this might be my favourite. I can't believe how imaginative this is with objects around the house - no need to worry about building intricate characters or sets!

The Deep

The last short film I would like to feature is PES's most recent work which is The Deep. Created for Showtime’s online series “Short Stories". There is an interview with Motionographer here where PES talks about the creation of The Deep.

Interview: MaricorMaricar

Some of the many characters made by Maricor and Maricar for 'Big Green Idea' stop motion
(image source: provided by MaricorMaricar)

I was so excited when Maricor and Maricar were interested in answering some questions for The Creative Haven blog as we are huge fans of their work. They are 2 super talented sisters from Sydney currently living in the UK  who have created animations for clients such as Architecture in Helsinki, Murder by Death, ABC's Playschool, SBS and the British Council Australia.



I really didn't know how to cut down this interview and incorporate all that I wanted - so I didn't cut anything and now it's all here for your reading pleasure!  Maricor and Maricar have kindly provided us an insight into their work, inspirations, background and some awesome process images from their stop motion animation work for 'Big Green Idea'.

Before we begin though here is a link to their full animation catalogue from their website as I couldn't post up everything!

Tell us a little about yourselves, your arts/design background and how you came to the decision to work together. 



I've always felt a little shy when explaining our art and design background. We were never those kids that grew up drawing from a precocious age instead Maricor and I grew up reading a lot. We'd stay up all hours (it's probably why we need glasses) and go through piles of books. The stories we read fed our imagination and were ultimately how we came to discover a profession called 'design'. Our high school art teacher introduced us to Neil Gaiman's The Sandman graphic novels. We were instantly drawn to the mythological and at times terrifying stories but also equally drawn to the rich and textured covers that Dave McKean created for the series. I think this was when we first decided that we wanted to be one of those people that interpreted stories and that's how we came to pursue design.



Artwork by Dave McKean for the Sandman Graphic Novel 'Worlds End'
(image source: Fantasy Fiction Website)

We've always expected to one day work together. I think having studied together and lived together our whole lives it seemed inevitable! We started out working for different companies but finally teamed up again while at Mathematics (studio in Sydney). It was a great opportunity for us to test how we'd work together professionally. At the beginning of last year we found ourselves wanting to focus more on hand crafted design and animation so we branched out on our own and established MaricorMaricar.

When did you first discover stop motion animation?

Our university lecturers screened some work by the Brothers Quay which blew us away. We'd grown up watching shows like Pingu and The Easter Bunny is Comin' to Town but this was the first time we'd seen a stop motion animation that was dark and for adults.



Image still from Brothers Quay film Street of Crocodiles 1986
(Image source: Optimistic Underground blog) 



Do you have any particular favourite stop motion works or other artists that inspire you?

We're constantly amazed by Sean Pecknold, Pes Films and Jamie Caliri's stop motion masterpieces and would love to be able to work with them.

Image still from Dragon commercial for United Airlines animated by Jamie Caliri
(Image source:Bryan Beus)



What mediums do you like to work with the most to create your sets etc?

We've experimented with paper, clay and miniature landscaping materials used commonly for train sets. I think the most fun was working with the fake grass, afterwards I wanted to cover everything in it. 



Image still from MaricorMaricar's stop motion animation Blerg for  IDN Magazine's 100th Issue
(image source: MaricorMaricar)

Image still from MaricorMaricar's stop motion animation 'If all the World were Paper' for ABC's Playschool
(image source: MaricorMaricar)

How do you share the work load when working on an animation together? Do you each have particular skills areas that you focus on or can you both multitask?! (e.g crafting/set building, editing, shooting)

During the building and shooting stage we share the tasks equally which means we can easily swap duties when one of us needs a break (usually the person animating the props). When we're setting up a shot though we do tend to divide the tasks. Maricor understands the animation program we use more than I so she'll set up the program and the edit and also plan out the frame numbers, and since I have more experience using cameras I'll set up the framing, lighting and camera.

What has been your favourite stop motion piece that you have worked on?

 

My favourite so far would have to be our latest animation “Big Green Idea” for the British Council, Australia. With each animation we create we try to expand on our skills so for this one we added more rigging and camera operating techniques. It was perhaps a bit ambitious for us to add shots involving camera tracking and focus pulling with just the two of us on set and with a two week turnaround but we're really pleased with how the animation turned out. Next animation though we'd love to work with a DOP.

Can you talk a little on the processes used and experience of making this stop motion animation? (How long did it take? did you use storyboards or sketches to plan it out, camera type)

The following images including the above are process images from 'Big Green Idea' stop motion animation
(Image Source: provided by Maricor and Maricar)

With Big Green Idea British Council Australia worked with their communications agency Republic of Everyone to write up an initial script which we then interpreted, fleshing out character designs and scenes. When we start an animation we go through as much pre-production as we can, Maricor usually takes care of sketching out the storyboards and creating test animatics while I start on designing the characters and the style frames.

We've had mixed experiences with animatics with our clients – with some expecting more refined animations and character movements. These animatics can vary from moving storyboards (very basic) to more detailed animatics with camera movements and animated characters for timings. Ideally we would want to spend more time refining the animatic to get specific frame numbers for everything that will be in shot before we start shooting. This is because changes are very to difficult to execute when you start shooting, it's not like a digital animation where you can go back into a scene and change/add/delete an element and then re-render.

Style frames are also usually created digitally, so before we cut it all out of paper or sew them up we'll sketch them out, colourise and texture them in photoshop to simulate what the final props will look like. Once we receive sign off on the style frames and animatic we then go full tilt both building the props and characters.

When the British Council first approached us asking if we would like to create a paper animation we initially planned to use a multi-plane set-up but the more we worked on the script a 3 dimensional technique using upright props that could be animated like puppets seemed more appropriate. It was still touch and go however whether we could achieve this technique in the time we had but I'm very glad we stuck to it. It definitely helped that we had just worked on a project creating paper props for a series of stop motion TVCs produced by the Jungle Boys and had seen how their crew set up rigging for the props and planned out camera moves, it inspired us to try out an improvised dolly and be more adventurous with the props. Our set up was a little DIY, we used a Canon 7D mounted variously onto a 'magic arm' mount or on a box (to slide on a table as an improvised dolly), one dedo light and an ikea floor lap made up our lighting kit and we used a hinged desk lamp as a miniature crane to suspend props from. The software we used were Photoshop, Dragon Stop Motion and AfterEffects.

From preproduction to post production we had 2 weeks but we ended up cramming about 4 weeks work by working around the clock. We realise now that was an insane deadline especially since it was just the two of us involved so we wouldn't recommend doing that again.

Do you think there is a resurgence in stop motion animation in the recent years?

I think digital photography has made stop motion a lot more accessible. Also the current trend in hand crafted design works well with stop motion animation.

Do you prefer working on collaborations with other artists/clients or do you prefer creating from ideas of your own?

I thought my answer would be a definite yes, we love working on collaborations but looking back a lot of our projects we've created with just the two of us. We don't work the usual 9-5 and tend to hole ourselves up when we're working on a project. Also we're so used to working together that we don't often fully verbalise what we're thinking about a certain direction or idea (maybe it's ESP!) so I think the combination of all those things make it tricky to collaborate. I'd like to come out of my creative shell more though and have found when we work with other people it has always resulted in exciting projects so we're definitely open and keen to collaborate.

Last year you guys were one of the 5 winners of the Realise your Dream British Council Awards which must have been very exciting! What are the dreams and future plans for Maricor/Maricar?

Winning Realise Your Dream has been amazing for us. We're currently in the UK on the trip made possible by the award and are looking forward to meeting with directors and studios while here. We also recently signed on with an illustration agency here called Handsome Frank so this year is already off to a great start. We're looking forward to building up MaricorMaricar's portfolio of work and developing our embroidered artworks and animation craft.

Inspiration: The White Stripes - Fell in Love with a Girl Video Clip

This weeks inspiration is dedicated to a band I love who has finally called it a day. Of course it is also dedicated to LEGO stop motion animation.  I didn't realise there was such a huge movement for this but have just discovered this webpage Brick Films which is entirely about LEGO stop motion animation and has it's own forum, tutorials and shop! 

Anyway back to The White Stripes and their video clip 'Fell in Love with a Girl' it's an oldie but a goodie - I hadn't watched this in ages and it is amazing! Directed by Michel Gondry who also did the film The Science of Sleep which also features alot of stop motion animation.

Inspiration: Hélène Ducrocq (FRA) - Elle Demeure

(image source: KaAM)

Hélène Ducrocq is an animation director from France and part of a multimedia collective called KaAM. She is also an illustrator and artist in her own right has a gorgeous portfolio over here!

I was lucky enough to be given permission by Hélène to show their latest creation Elle Demeure which is a stop motion animation made from paper using a technique called Stratastencil.  They have a great website which shows some stills from the film, some process images, serveral films showing the making of the stop motion animation and of course the actual animation!

I have included a few images and one of the making of video's just to give you an idea of the techniques used and what was involved but please do go watch the actual animation here.

Also here is a link to an interview Hélène did with thenewfilmmaker.com where she explains her inspiration, techniques and education.

Thanks Hélène for sharing!

p.s: I have to mention I saw Hélène's work over at a beautiful blog called Upon a Fold about paper artists.

(image source: KaAM)



(image source: KaAM)

(image source: KaAM)

MAKING OF - clip ANA DESS - "Elle Demeure" : 3j... by collectif_KaAM

Inspiration - The Science of Sleep

It has been ages since I have watched this film but I love it.  I found this clip on youtube which puts together some of my favourite animated/arty moments of the film!

Animation Inspiration - United States of Tara Opening Sequence

I know this show has obviously been around for a while but was just watching the show last night and thought I should post about the animation in the opening sequence. How amazing is it - I love the popup book concept and illustration style.

I am hoping to be posting here more regularly with more stop motion inspiration, info and hopefully something i have made (if i ever get my act together!). If you have seen any great stop motion animations lately please send me an email or leave a comment as I would love to add them to the blog.

Mary and Max: The Exhibition

Very excited to just find out that ACMI is having an exhibition of Adam Elliot's latest stop motion Mary and Max opening Tuesday 2 March and it's free!

They are showing character models, costumes, sketches, sets, storyboards, props and footage of the animators at work.

More Info here.

What's New?

It has been a long while since I have posted over here as we haven't been working on any animation work lately. But we have grand plans for this year to start something new. Especially after seeing Fantastic Mr Fox - I loved this movie!

I have been working on alot of solo work over here -however we have collaborated on something new - our wedding invites. Here is a little sneak preview of the work in progress.

Inspiration: Mick Turner

Since the puzzles are in hiatus at the moment until I get a bit of extra time what with baby care, wedding planning, and a million other plans going on in my head I have decided to post daily/weekly inspiration to stay in touch till things get moving.

Today I have chosen Mick Turner who is an artist/muscian from Melbourne - otherwise known as a member of the Dirty Three - an amazing 3 piece instrumental band (one band which helped me get through labour!) The image below is called "Rescue" and I just love it! Which is part of the Kilkenny Arts Festival 2009 in Ireland (unfortunately).

Image credit: http://www.hiveart.com/MJT/index.htm

Ponyo - New Hayao Mayazaki Film

We are very excited to see that the new Mayazaki Ponyo will be out on 27th August in cinema's in Melbourne. He also directed Spirited Away and My Neighbour Totoro (to only name a few) - amazing, amazingly beautiful animations! Can't wait to see it.