Paper Man on a Thread Court

A peronal project to with the intent of expirimenting various ways to animate a stop motion. Used in a more formal project afterwards - “Waste of Space”

I started this process by filming various videos of my brother playing basketball and selecting the best take. I cut the video up frame by frame and kept 10 frames for every second.

The Audio used in the animation is the same audio from the reference video

After selecting the frames I wanted to use, I made a document with every individual figure from each frame. I then printed out this document, cut the figures out and used these as templates to start the final paper cutouts used. After tracing each figure, I numbered them frame by frame so as to not lose track of where they are in the animation.

I tested out a few different methods of adding detail including watercolor, and pen but ultimately settled for a simple and sketchy look that consisted of a light orange highlighter touched up with more graphite pencil.

I wanted the court to still feel like an implied space without any sense of logic. The lines on the court as well as the hoop are made out of thread. I traced out where everything should be placed in accordance with the original video and used a needle to create punctures along each line. I then used that same needle to sew colored thread directly onto the paper.

For animation I used the original video as reference so as to place the figures in the correct locations within the court. To keep the animation consistent I had each piece secured down with a small piece of tape and replaced each one in between photos.