3D printing technology has been used in award-winning stop-motion films like Kubo and the Two Strings and The Boxtrolls, in various commercials, music videos, and lots of really cool short films, like “SHeLvEd” and “Caveman and Robots.” London-based independent director Raphael Vangelis specializes in multi-disciplinary animation projects, like short films and music videos, that are driven by design. He works with several different mediums, from live action to 3D animation and stop-motion, and often combines them to best fit whatever story he’s currently working on. According to his website, he would call his style “Stop Motion graphics and Graphic Design infused 3D animation”.
His latest work is a two-minute video brought to life thanks to 3D printing. It’s a stop-motion animated autobiography and homage to time lost in digital limbo on program loading screens, called “Analogue Loaders,” and was recently chosen as one of Vimeo’s staff picks.
https://vimeo.com/raphaelvangelis/httpsvimeocomloaders
It took Vangelis about one and a half years to make the film, which he calls “the pinnacle of narcissism, essentially my animated autobiography, my new and definitely best short film so far, featuring … myself.”
“I tend to use quite slow computers because I am too lazy to upgrade them,” said Vangelis in his “Behind the Scenes” video. “So I noticed that I look at loading screens quite a lot in my daily life. At some point I just thought, why not actually use these loading screens and make an animation out of it, make something fun out of it, because looking at loading screens isn’t very fun, but everybody does it.”
According to a Gizmodo article about “Analogue Loaders”, Vangelis purchased a 3D printer and taught himself to use it. He designed all of the separate pieces in 3D on the computer first, and then printed the pieces, painted all of them, built the different sets, and animated everything in stop-motion, except, of course, his brief, naked cameo near the end.
“I wanted to make something tangible, so I used a lot of different materials,” said Vangelis. “In the beginning, I didn’t think I would actually put myself into it, though. But then I thought, this is essentially about me looking at loading screens, so let’s put myself in.”
Vangelis takes a completely hands-on approach for all of his projects, completely immersing himself in the work, from concept all the way to post-production. It’s pretty obvious to determine the deeper reasoning behind using the extremely slow process of stop-motion as a tribute to familiar loading icons, and he definitely sees the humor in it.
“I wanted to start making something fun out of something boring,” he said. “But now it feels like I looked at loading screens even more, so it’s quite ironic.”
To learn more about the process behind “Analogue Loaders,” check out the “Behind the Scenes” video for it, made by phaded:
Discuss in the Stop Motion forum at 3DPB.com.
[Sources: Raphael Vangelis, Gizmodo / Images: Raphael Vangelis]