This stop motion animation assignment was, hands down, the most engaged I’ve been with a school project in years. That’s not to say it was the easiest, the most successful, or the one I’m the most proud of, but in terms of how much of my mind it occupied and the creative muscles it exercised, it was the clear winner.
My chosen form of artmaking has always been drawing. I’m not the best at it, I’ll never be as good as I want to be, and it’s not something I think can ever truly be “mastered.” That said, I understand it. I feel like I have a firm grasp on the concepts and techniques involved, and for the most part, my proficiency is a matter of “road miles.” If I’m unable to achieve the results I’m looking for, it’s because I haven’t logged enough hours of practice yet, not because of some fundamental lack of knowledge. With this stop motion animation project, everything was new. Everything was a matter of experimentation, of trial and error, of discovering and then refining new techniques. It was a degree of genuine learning that I hadn’t experienced in quite some time, and as a result, was completely invigorating. Figuring out how to work the software, the lighting, the best angles to shoot from, constructing sets and props, learning how to convey emotion through inanimate objects, and then use all of this to advance a clear narrative…every single step of the process was a rabbit hole of new skills to explore. I had to give myself a crash course in writing, acting, editing, filmmaking and sculpture on an exceedingly compressed time table.
When I wasn’t actively working on my animation, I was thinking about it. Brainstorming ideas and solving problems in my head. I wasn’t much fun to talk to over those 2 weeks, as I was too distracted to carry on a coherent conversation.
The end result was kind of a mess, but it was a hard earned and finely crafted mess. Nothing that appears on screen was a first take, but rather, the best result out of a series of takes. I already have ideas for how I’d do things differently if given the chance, and things I’d like to try on my own in the future. That last bit, in particular, is the best I can hope for with any endeavor: That it inspires in me the desire to continue on out of personal interest.