Visuals

These are the thumbnail sketches of our stop motion.

This is what my very creative and very functional stop motion set-up looked like.

This is the first frame of my stop motion animation. Click here to watch the entire video.

Project Statement

This project collaboratively explored the idea of movement through the creation of a stop motion animation that was set to a ten-second instrumental song clip. For our stop motion, my partner and I chose the song Joy Ride by DCS Lefty and Roadetrix. Wanting to take our viewers on a “mental vacation”, I began my five-second section with a set of windows. These windows opened and revealed a variety of different-sized yellow, green, and pink circles popping up on a blue background. The popping movement was meant to depict the drum beats that were playing simultaneously. When the final drumbeat hit, the last circle melted so to speak into a wave-like shape. This wave-like shape then spread across the whole page, finishing my section at the same time it started my partners. We constructed our sections with cardstock that displayed a harmonious and cohesive color scheme; blue, pink, yellow, and green. We chose these colors to further depict the peaceful, easy-going, and summery feeling the song itself employs.

Process

View detailed project process at Dynamic Pages: Process

Reflection

Put simply, this project was not my favorite. Starting off with the collaborative aspect, my partner didn’t communicate her ideas very well. She spent a lot of time in class looking at stop motion videos for inspiration but less time actually ideating them herself. This led me to create our concept, thumbnail sketches, and files pretty much all by myself. We used the Cricut to cut out the pieces together and she did record her section of the animation but I was still frustrated by her lack of contribution to the actual idea behind everything. Beyond this, I didn’t love creating my section of the stop motion. I was extremely proud of myself for the animation I produced since it was my first but I wish it could’ve been longer and more complex. With all this in mind, if I could do this project over again I would better communicate with my partner about the things we need or want from each other and I would budget more time to make the end result more dynamic.