Category: stop-motion

Collaborative Projects, participatory animation, stop-motion

Project Steamboat

In February, the lab participated in another Short-term Working Group (SWG). This time, the goal was to collaborate on an experimental animation, revisiting Disney’s Steamboat Willie animation.

The release of Disney Studios’ pioneering animation Steamboat Willie (1928) into the public domain in January 2024 marked a confluence where past innovations intersect with present possibilities of expression. In this context, our work aimed to deconstruct the significance of Mickey Mouse’s iconic character relative to shared historically and personally meaningful moments documented since the original film’s release.

An international group of participants based in North Texas helped to animate this experimental animation. Originally animated by Ub Iwerks, selected frames from a sequence of the original film were printed, and Mickey’s character was manually removed from each frame to create a void that invites exploration, re-evaluation, and reinterpretation of the familiar.

The stack of paper frames was shot from front and back. Embedded textures and historical snapshots are seen from the front within the traditional background of the animation, but only for less than a split second, while the shape taps and dances. From the back, the pile of paper dissolves and reshapes the character. Almost unrecognizable and completely removed from its iconic scene, the work gains new meaning from this side.

The completion of our SWG and screening of the final animation were celebrated during the experimenta.l. lab’s Open House, when guests joined us to see the final result.

The final result of our collaboration was selected, and it will be screened at the AURORA Visual Arts Night (VAN) 2024 in downtown Dallas on April 5, from 6 to 10 pm. For more information: https://dallasaurora.com/Projects-1

Below are a few time lapses of the process, from cutout to capturing:

The credits of this production are as follows:

Original animation by Ub Iwerks and re-animated as paper cutouts by:

Allanah Ahr
Shaghayegh Ashouri
Anisha Chaudhary
Joseph Gutierrez
Mozhdeh Khamsehnezhad
Philip Martin
Eliana Nark
Sarah Romero
Christine Veras
Baotran Vo
Dillon Weaver

Directed and edited by Christine Veras

Special Thanks
Andrew Scott
Salena Brody
Billy Pickrell
Natalie Homsher

A Short-term Working Group (SWG) Project – Spring 2024

stop-motion

Stopmo Mocap

During summer of 2022, Dr. Veras collaborated with Philip Martin to create a stop-motion character for a series of movement exercises using a ball and socket armature for stop-motion as part of her training at the Aardman Academy.

Aramis Le Poupon is a retired mime who, due to the economic crisis, had to return to work and find a job as a motion capture performer. The series of strange sequences he has to perform put him in unusual circumstances. Below are a few pictures of the process and the final animation.

The tests for different materials continue, and the character has been improved for future performances and adventures. The research and study to better understand the transfer of movement and performance from the animator to the puppet are one of the lab’s continuing investigations.

Collaborative Projects, Collaborators, stop-motion

Covid Habit

“Covid Habit” is a short animation produced in the experimental.l. lab in 2021, directed by Elham Doust-Haghighi in collaboration with Sara McClanahan and Benjamin Wu.

Written by Elham Doust-Haghighi

The “Covid Habit” short animation was created in collaboration between students of the course Animation Studio II (taught by Associate Professor of Practice Nelson Lim) and produced at the experimenta.l. lab. The process of this animation can be divided into two parts. The first part was the character design and the making of the puppet. The second part focused on making the stage assets and completing the production and post-production of the animation. I did character design and made the puppet in the Stop Motion workshop held by Hamida Khatri at experimenta.l. In addition, Sara McClanahan created a larger pair of hands for the close-up shot. 

Appearance traits link the character to the “Pandemic” concept. The character is designed to reflect changes in living conditions during the pandemic. He has no mouth and nose, representing the mask-wearing faces identified from the eyes and the forehead only. Also, in pandemics and virtual social interactions, clothing generally lost its meaning as a social requirement. At the same time, people are accustomed to sitting for long portions of time, getting used to the remote working styles that make the character’s buttocks and abdomen appear bigger.

For Professor Lim’s Animation Studio II course, we were required to create an animation related to the “Habit” concept. I took the opportunity to connect the character, designed with the idea of “Covid,” to a short plot with the concept of our new “Habits” as a result of the pandemic. During the Covid-19 pandemic, globally, people were worried about changing old habits, and getting used to the new lifestyle imposed on them as new habits started to be normalized. Among the six different pitched ideas submitted to that class, “Covid Habit” was one of the two projects selected by students’ to be produced. That is when Sarah McClanahan and Benjamin Wu joined the project. 

Sara and Benjamin created the scene props with cardboard. After making the assets and testing them at the lab, we found that the puppet’s hands were unsuitable for the close-up scene. For this reason, Sara took charge to make a large pair of hands with the ability to be animated.

After troubleshooting and corrections, we set the scene in a station at experimenta.l. dedicated to the project and started the animation phase. It was the first time for the three of us to make a 3D puppet for stop-motion animation. For this reason, we made a lot of tests and learned through trials and errors, experimenting along the way. 

When making animation with tactile hands-on techniques, like stop-motion, the process and meditative quality of the making experience is essential regardless of the final result. I have not experienced such quality in CG work, although most of my professional work experience has been focused on CG work.

The short is one minute long and is now running its festival rounds.

Collaborative Projects, Lab activities, stop-motion

Stop-Motion Workshop

Written by Hamida Khatri

The workshop invited students to join in a socially engaged collaborative effort in depicting a happy representation of the future with stories of hope, resilience, and inspiration during the COVID-19 pandemic. The current situation around the world has shattered many dreams and aspirations. By demonstrating a reciprocal relationship between artistic production and social and political mechanisms, the participatory nature of narrative storytelling, empathy, and direct dialog has become essential in bringing those discussions to the forefront. This workshop utilized the stop-motion animation technique to highlight the importance of mental health and well-being and demonstrated how socially engaged art can act as a communal vehicle for advocacy, intervention, and healing. The duration of the workshop was four weeks, with the first week focusing on idea generation, sketching the puppet, constructing the armature of the puppet, and creating the body mass.

The second week concentrated on sculpting the face with Sculpey.

The third week centered around embellishing the puppet by sewing the attire and other accessories, hairstyling, defining facial features, etc.

The fourth week concentrated on creating stop-motion walk-cycles for each of the puppets using DragonFrame.

I had a lot of fun teaching students to design stop-motion animation puppets using everyday materials such as wood, wire, screws, nuts, and bolts, and sparking their creativity in a different way. The studio has been equipped with the latest technological tools for capturing high-resolution frames for the animation using DragonFrame. Dr. Veras has been supportive in designing this workshop and getting the supplies for students to use for that purpose. Phillip Martin Carl (Building Services Coordinator) was super helpful in carving the wood pieces for the students and having them ready to be used. The goal was to introduce the technique of stop-motion animation to the students and have them explore the medium in the experimenta.L animation lab in the Arts, Technology, and Emerging Communication department at the University of Texas at Dallas.

Lab activities, sound experiments, stop-motion

Hope: Technical Challenges

Editor’s note: Elham Doust-Haghighi, is a graduate student at ATEC/UTD and a collaborator of the experimenta.l. animation lab. Here she discusses her work “Hope,” a project she completed for her animation studio II graduate course, produced at experimental.l.

Written by: Elham Doust-Haghighi

I produced the short piece “Hope” as an assignment for a graduate course, animation studio II,  under the guidance of Associate Professor of Practice Nelson Lim. This project aimed to overcome a technical challenge with the theme of hope and consequences. The two challenges explored in this project were adapting the 3D CG character to the real three-dimensional stop motion scene and projecting the mouth, animated with the stop-motion technique, on the CG character’s face. Therefore, I made the animation scene with clay, cardboard, and wires in the experimenta.l. and photographed. Also, the mouth was animated in the experimenta.l. using clay stop motion techniques. Also, the CG character’s animation is done in Autodesk Maya but is compatible with the stop-motion characteristics.

In producing this project, I overcame some of the aimed challenges, but some remained unresolved. What I was able to solve was to match the CG texture, light, and animation style with the clay scene. Also, the stop-motion adaptation of the mouth on the CG face was executed successfully. However, what remained unfinished is the rendering of the character’s shadows over the log and the ground. Due to my unfamiliarity with this specialized part of animation production, the shadows were not rendered with expected success in Maya but reconstructed in After Effects software. Despite my best efforts, I am not satisfied with the visual result of the shadows, but I like the rest of the work and enjoyed the process of doing the work and struggling with solving the problem.

Final animated result