‘Flight’ Stop Motion Film

Music- Ibuki by Madoka Ogitani

A short stop motion film made for my History of Animation class, made with Dragonframe.

The film was inspired by Japanese origami and washi-paper patterns- one of the most appealing aspects of stop motion animation to me is the texture of the materials- something clearly clay or cotton etc. becomes something new. The ornate but subtle patterns of origami paper work well to add visual texture. The background layered scalloped shape is based on the traditional seigaiha (‘blue ocean waves’) pattern used on items like stationery and textiles.

The origami cranes were made with red and yellow paper for a split-complimentary color scheme, in order to have then contrast well the the environment and still be visually distinct from each other. Their wings were lined with poseable wire, and were hung from an overhead board with wiring that allowed frame by frame nudging. The clouds were made with hollow cores and openings in the top and bottom, which let me freely move the cranes in and out.