Little Hoot Opener

Little Hoot needed an opening sequence. I made a much larger Hoot for this, and first experimented with animation other than Hoot sliding across the floor. The resulting wing flap is slight, but a good start.


Sadly, much of this is quite blurry as I was only taking one shot of each frame I was going to use. I now have learned to take 2-3 shots of each frame to allow for accidental blurryness or lighting issues.

I hope to reshoot this opener sometime soon.

Little Hoot Gets a Book

Little Hoot is born!

My first claymation film.  I owned no clay, but had an idea, so I rummaged around the basement and found a couple small containers of old play-doh.  Most of it was very dried out and it took me several hours to make it usable.

This was first shot on top of a box, but it was not level and poor Little Hoot's head kept falling off and rolling away.  So, I took my materials to an unused desk, which is where I do all my work now.  I do not have a tripod, but I simply rest my camera on my desk and take shots from there.  Luckily, the size of the characters I work with allows for this to film fairly well.

To edit, I use the Windows Live Movie Maker that is on my laptop.  It's proven relatively easy to use, but I find that the options for transitions and credits aren't that great.

I have no idea what I'm doing

In 2006, thanks to iTunes and my new video iPod, I stumbled across a video podcast.  It featured varying types of homemade Lego stop-motion films.  Some were a few seconds in duration, some were several minutes.  Some purely comical, some intensely dramatic.  My wonder and curiosity were captured by all.

As Lego created video games based on popular movies, my interest in stop-motion grew.  The cut-scenes and levels within the games provided the perfect combination of heroic epicness with comic relief.

At 2am on some random night in 2012, I decided to find some play-doh and make my own (very) short film.    With the encouragement and support of my closest friend, I explored the world of stop-motion a bit further and made longer and more involved films.

In primary school, I had art classes at best once a week.  For nearly every one of those years, we had no specified art teacher and our general homeroom teacher had to provide instruction.  In high school, I took one mandatory art course, for which I was absent about half the year.  I've always been terrible at drawing and making art in general.  My family laughed at my attempts, even at a young age.  On the whole, I've always considered art a waste of time and a cheap shortcut for people with lesser mental abilities.

So yes, I know I am not good at art and no, I do not care.  I do stop-motion because it is a challenge   I do it because it's the first time in my life I sit down at projects and 12 hours quickly pass before my eyes.  I do it because I have stories and this is how they've decided to let themselves out.  I do it because it is entirely my creation from start to finish.  I do it because it makes me smile and I do it because I hope that somewhere in the world I can make someone else smile, too.