Doll Theater's Past and Future
Written by Teresita Blanco (The Artsy Sister)
This video starts with a short history of my ball jointed dolls. I first got Elvira in order to play bloodborne. It seemed like something fun to have while playing the game.
A year or so passed and then I got two new ball jointed dolls, Bebe and Mein. Then 2020 came, and then I got Ashley.
By the time I got my Doll Chateau doll, I was already brainstorming how to go about doing stop motion. I did not bother reading books, I am more of a figure out as I go type of person. I had the basic idea.
First, I tried to see what sort of poses I could manage with my ball jointed dolls. Once I figured out their limitations, I went from there. I first made a very simple stop motion video, and then I started to make more complicated scenes.
With stop motion, the time it takes to make a video is multiplied based on how many items you plan to stop motion at once. One doll can provide a long video in a very short amount of time.
Two, and then things get complicated. I animate things going from left to right. It is important to keep a mental note of the continuity. As far as props, I had a couple of items to work with, and then I made some more.
I never focused on what could not be done with stop motion. I was always solution oriented. As far as the photos, I do about 2500 by 1700 photos. My camera can take bigger photos, but it messes with the Photoshop.
Fish turns the images into videos in Photoshop, and then the voice and music is put in Adobe Premiere. An average 2 minute Stop Motion video takes about 10 hours to make. 5 to take the photos, and 5 to put it all together.
Still, it is faster than animating a flip book, or learning how to do CGI, which also requires expensive equipment to render the final product. I hope this video inspires you to give stop motion a chance.
I am bringing it back. I am sick and tired of everything looking like a PS1 cutscene. Stop motion may look choppy at times, but at least we all know that it is something real, and solid. I hope the next terminator goes back to its Stop Motion roots.
