My Earth Animation Experience

After finishing the Earth Animation for class, I think I've grown an appreciation for stop motion animation. When me and Thomas started, we decided that the park would be a great place to film our animation. We didn't have a specific way we wanted to create the animation but rather, just find whatever was there and create a more abstract animation. When we got to the park, we had to find a place where the where the ground could be seen easily and there was no man made objects. We found a good area where there was more dirt and objects could be seen easily. Once we found a spot, I set up my DSLR camera on a tripod, and used the sticks, leaves and branches around. Thomas placed each object as I shot each picture. When we had taken enough pictures, we took out the H6 recorder and recorded the sounds in the area. We caught some birds, insects and sounds of the wind. At after that, I went home and edited it all together. Moving each picture on the editing Timeline took some time, putting 1 picture for each half second. Then I separated parts of the audio and mixed other parts of it together. I think the film came out very well, and I'm glad Thomas was there to help set up each shot. Stop motion animation is a cool was to make films and I'm glad we were able to make a film that shows off nature moving around. Seeing the time lapse in the finished film with the shadows moving across the frame and the foot steps outside our small area, was a cool effect we were able to capture. I think that animators have to put a lot of work into their animations just to get a minute out of their films is impressive and I wish I had more patience for it.