Just a quick little stop motion. Couldn’t help myself with this awesome cosmonaut figure Rav. Love the spiral eyes. 🌀👃🌀

Tags:   toyphotography joecowtoy toy nurserymagic broughttolife animation stopmotion damtoys coaldog astronaut cosmonaut

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At the beginning of 2023 I made a goal for myself to focus more on stop motion and to finally delve deep into it.

I read many books on stop motion, made a homemade rig utilizing helping hands kits for soldering (budget friendly), made a few test shots and finally put together my thoughts into a short story.

I created a storyboard detailing most of the shots and camera angles that would be needed and tried to describe each with description of sets and colors and lighting as well.

Starting is the most important step.

At the beginning of May I was laid off my job and I looked at this as an opportunity to focus entirely on creating this short between job applications and interviews. Once I got a job offer that kicked my stop motion into high gear to get it done before I started. I learned a ton over the past month about all the intricacies of stop motion. I designed sets out of random stuff I found in my garage; and made all sorts of makeshift stuff to figure out lighting and rigging to do complex shots. It all looks fairly seamless here, but the amount of days spent sweating over tiny changes and minutiae details in my garage was painstaking. But I wouldn’t have it any other way—I had a blast!

I utilized lots of wire and duck tape, Litra torches, flashlights, cardboard, paper tubes, tripods and several different cameras and lenses. The background music was found on Archive.org in the open domain for personal use. I created most of the sound effects except for the excerpt of ET speaking (which I changed around to match what I needed with inflection and such).

Anyhow, I hope you enjoy the finished project and results as much as I do—I know it will be consumed in less than two minutes; but just know it was months in the making. ENJOY LoNg DiStAnCe!

Equipment utilized:
Cameras: Fujifilm X-E4, Sony a7r, and the bulk on Olympus OMD E-M5 Mark II

Figure:
100,000 miles project cosmonaut and starship ufo by Damtoys & CoalDog studios.
www.sideshow.com/collectibles/coal-dog-one-hundred-thousa...
NECA - E.T. - 40th Anniversary Deluxe E.T. Ultimate 7'' Action Figure with LED Chest
amzn.to/3qfERb0


Phone booth:
by the talented GrimeCity on Etsy
www.etsy.com/shop/GrimeCity

Lighting:
Litra Torches & Litra pro with lightbox and filters.

Set design: me, myself, and I
Russian accent voiceover: me, myself, and I

Background Audio:
Victor Theremin Recordings Collection 1925-1935; “You’re driving me crazy” (1930), *public domain
archive.org/details/VictorThereminRecordingsCollection192...

Intro Audio:
ECTV, CAPS Media,
Dr. Ollie Powers performs on the Theremin,
archive.org/details/capscav-ECTV_-_UFOs_and_Theremin
*Creative Commons attribution license

Tags:   stopmotionanywhere Joecowtoy toyphotography stopmotion animation

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We will make the whole universe a noise in the end… ~Screwtape, the Screwtape Letters

This was a quick test stop motion outside and boy did it get hot quick. The temps hit 90, my camera was hot to the touch and my phone gave a temperature warning. So I stopped at 136 frames. I’ve been wanting to return to images I’ve created and make them stop-motion so this is the first one. Stop motion takes so much more time than toy photography; the heat never bothered me here in the desert with toy photos because I plop some characters down, make a few adjustments, and then take a shot or two and done.
Stop motion is a whole new animal. This was my first attempt at making a figure walk. There’s so much subtle movements with a step, and switching feet is a whole other matter… well, more study and practice needed for sure.

#stopmotion #animation #joecowtoy #toyphotography #gansboy #damtoys #coaldog #stopmotionanimation #toy_photographers #stopmotionanimation #sonya7r #twist60 #lensbaby

Tags:   animation stopmotion stopmotionanimation toy_photographers twist60 joecowtoy sonya7r lensbaby toyphotography gansboy damtoys coaldog

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Just a short stop motion I shot this afternoon. It’s about 100 shots tied together. Been wanting to create a stop motion of a figure solving this bitty functional cube since I got it last October. It’s fully functional and built with a metal interior - which I assume is about the thickness of a staple… anyhow, I think it’s worth a watch.

Tags:   speed cube trucker hat toy robot solved Rubik joecowstopmotion joecowtoy toyphotography deathgasstation Coaldog animation stop motion stopmotionanywhere

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Just trying my hand at stop motion. This short clip is 150 shots. Took about an hour, but it felt like a split second because I was in the zone!

Tags:   stopmotionanimation toyart coaldog deathgasstation oldbone joecow toyphotography animation stopmotion stopmotionanywhere

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