Awesome Stop Motion

Stop-motion animation dates back to the earliest days of movie making. To celebrate the recent release of Kubo and the Two Strings, Vugar Evendi assembled this brief history of the wonderful technique, with snippets of films from 1900 through 2016.

Frank Howarth is back with another awesome build – this time, he’s created a wonderful turned bowl using walnut and maple, with CNC cloud-shaped forms set into the sides. The stop-motion and orbiting time-lapse of the build is just the icing on the cake. (Thanks Victor!)

Counter656’s latest stop-motion romp features not only the creatures in the title, but a Sandtrooper and Boba Fett cruising in the Batmobile, and Darth Vader being devoured, among other crazy sights. The least plausible part? The Sandtrooper’s precise aim.

Laika and the cast of Kubo and the Two Strings talk about the painstaking work that was done to make the stop motion world come alive, from piecing together a boat of out tiny pieces to making custom rigs to simulate an ocean.

Director Peter Sluszka’s upcoming stop-motion comedy takes on cop drama tropes, replacing the typical human cast with puppets that look like food. The film recently raised some production funds on Indiegogo, so hopefully we’ll see the whole 20 minute movie soon.

Corridor’s latest short sees a dramatic fight sequence played out in a way that makes it look like the subjects can defy gravity. The trick – the sequence was acted out on the floor with the camera above. We can’t imagine how complex this was to choreograph. BTS video here.

Artist Karim Rejeb loves to make stop-motion animation using Playmobil figures, such as this crazy highlight reel of tiny mountain bikers and BMX riders doing tricks both indoors and outdoors captured from a variety of angles.

In 2008, stop-motion master PES scored one of his biggest YouTube hits with Game Over, which recreated the death scenes of five video games: Centipede, Frogger, Asteroid, Space Invaders and Pac-Man. This 1080p version makes it easier to marvel at PES’ genius.

Dario Imbrogno’s fantastic animated short film embraces, rather than hides the mechanisms that underlie the creation of stop-motion films, exposing the armatures and skeletal joints of its protagonist – and even the almighty puppetmaster behind the scenes.

The universe is under attack by The Red Empire, a race of robots intent on wiping out all organic life. It’s up to the crew of the NX-01 Enterprise to stop them. Jürgen Kaiser’s stop-motion fan film is an incredible achievement and a true labor of love. (In German w/subtitles)

Humans and vehicles pack and overlap on streets, roads and skies, but everything remains sharply focused. RISD film student Conner Griffith captures the hustle and bustle of urban life in this incredibly creative and mind-boggling twist on time-lapse videos.

Vuk Spasojević aka oOtoke’s video starts out slow for the first 30 seconds, but quickly turns into something amazing. We won’t spoil the fun for you, but it took him over 3 years of effort to get it right. The track is Halo, Džozefina (Hello Josephine) by Đorđe Marjanović.

(PG-13) A neurotic attending primal therapy literally coughs up every emotion he’s repressed. Simon Cartwright’s amazing and intense stop-motion short film is like Fight Club if Tyler Durden was a real being. Aaaahhhhh!!!

While it seems that most of the universe has already made up their minds about the new Ghostbusters movie, this LEGO stop-motion short from Digital Wizards is nothing but spectacular, paying tribute to the 1984 classic, and packed with lots of fun minifig cameos.

Meet Steve and his army of helper robots, ready to help him get ready for the day even if he’s barely awake. A funny stop -motion short film by Meghann Artes (Speed Dating). We’ll take 10,000 of that rug robot please, thanks.

Deborah Cook (Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Boxtrolls, Coraline) is a costume designer who specializes in making clothes for stop-motion puppets. She spoke with the Oscars about what her job entails, the challenges of designing small scale clothing and more.

(Gore, Flashing lights) Claymation master Lee Hardcastle sends his ass-kicking cat up against the forces of hell in this amazing promotional short film for the new DOOM game. Mew mew Mister Falcon.

After wiping out their entire internet presence, Radiohead is back with a bang. Here’s the debut music video from their forthcoming album; a sinister stop-motion short by Chris Hopewell in which a peaceful village is home to some rather nasty rituals.

To promote their new of Game of Thrones signature notebooks, Moleskine commissioned Dadomani to recreate the HBO series’ opening credits using intricate papercraft models. The end result is decidedly shorter than the full credits, but no less impressive. Making of here.

Georgina Hayns is a Creative Supervisor at Laika, the animation studio behind Boxtrolls, Coraline and more. She recently spoke with The Oscars about how they bring a stop-motion puppet to life, a process that takes up to 6 months per puppet.

Hornet worked with Leo Burnett London to create this stop-motion commercial for Mc Donald’s UK. The studio spent 3 months building six sets and hundreds of 3D-printed and hand-painted figurines for the 60-second spot. Be sure to watch how they made it here.

(Flashing lights) Link fights Darth Vader, Son Goku brawls with Juggernaut, Samus Aran blasts a Dalek and more in animator Johnny McHone’s expansive stop motion short. It took him over a year to complete the film, which combines action figures, clay and 2D animation.

An aging Batman infiltrates Skynet’s headquarters to upload a virus that will destroy the evil A.I. once and for all. But Skynet’s not going down without a fight and sends a T-800 after the Dark Knight. A fun stop motion short by Captain McKay Random.

Hampton Rutland made this lighthearted time-lapse video about how he built the walls of his new workshop using reclaimed wood. The build starts at 2:10, then something even better starts to happen at 3:30.

Things escalate when a man catches a pair of thieves red-handed. Winner of Tropfest Australia 24, Spencer Susser and Daniel Campos’ comedy short film has a ho-hum story, but it makes up for it with a fun implementation of stop-motion.

Writer/director/animator Justin Nixon and team’s dystopian stop-motion short tells the story of a family of robots whose tragedy and desire for resolution leads them to the discovery of the dark secret behind the blind devotion of their fellow citizens.