brilliant animated film

[daffy4u]

Creepy but interesting and fun! Thanks for sharing ZP.

[Sparrow]

Seems they've made a film of his South American trip:

http://www.megunica.org/trailer.php

[mjh215]

From what I could tell of vehicles or people in front of the camera they were only there for a single frame. (Which would be correct if he was filming individual frames of his animation.) The eye and brain just plays a trick on you. If anyone wants to check closer go back to his site and download the AVI and step thru it... Personally, I don't care enough

The movie makes me think if Bill Plympton was born a graffiti artist... Also reminded me of this guys floor art... http://users.skynet.be/J.Beever/pave.htm

-MJ

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by mjh215

From what I could tell of vehicles or people in front of the camera they were only there for a single frame. (Which would be correct if he was filming individual frames of his animation.) The eye and brain just plays a trick on you.

right, it's a giant stop motion animation. that's what i think.

[ShortNCuddlyAm]

Wow. Just wow.

(I'm in the stop motion camp, too )

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

right, it's a giant stop motion animation. that's what i think.

Not from what I was able to see of the automobiles. They are there for more than a single frame. At times, the people were as well. I may take the film and break it into a frame by frame analysis just for giggles, but it still looks largely like CGI to me.

And, since this person is apparently first and foremost an animator (and a very good one), I think he could easily pull this sort of thing off.

[daffy4u]

Watch for shadows. If the shadows move quickly, that supports stop motion (it would take a lot of time to make those drawings, erase and re-draw them). If they are pretty much stationary, that supports CG. It might even be some kind of combo since the camera keeps moving (up and down that is).

[zelda_pinwheel]

yes, the shadows move very fast, so do the clouds, and the light changes enough to suggest it was done over several days (and partially at night). on his site he calls it a "wall-painted animation", and he seems to be primarily a graffiti artist. there are quite a lot of really interesting wall-paintings to be seen there.

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by daffy4u

Watch for shadows. If the shadows move quickly, that supports stop motion (it would take a lot of time to make those drawings, erase and re-draw them). If they are pretty much stationary, that supports CG. It might even be some kind of combo since the camera keeps moving (up and down that is).

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

yes, the shadows move very fast, so do the clouds, and the light changes enough to suggest it was done over several days (and partially at night). on his site he calls it a "wall-painted animation", and he seems to be primarily a graffiti artist. there are quite a lot of really interesting wall-paintings to be seen there.

I'm not saying there isn't some stop motion in it .... but there are other points in the film where the light doesn't suggest stop motion.

Looking at his site, I wouldn't call him a graffiti artist. He is an artist, but to call his work graffiti (I think) is to trivialize it. He does do some work in large scale, but he also does a lot of sketch work, and as noted, some of his early animation is just that .... animation.

I suppose if someone were to go out and make a film showing that he did those pieces purely with stop motion and no CGI, I would have to believe it. However, from looking at it very closely, it simply doesn't look that way to me. Further, the films that do show him working only show the creation of a single large scale work of art .... scaffolding and all. That makes me even more convinced that the animations, even of the wall art, are not completely done in stop motion.

It is great art, however.

[zelda_pinwheel]

ah, see, to me, graffiti really is an art form. i love graffiti. some of my favorite graffiti artists :
Miss'Tic
Nemo
Shepard Fairey
Blek le Rat
Banksy

and while it's not technically graffiti, i love the space invaders crew.

oh, and now i have to add blu to the list as well.

i suspect if you asked any of these artists, they would not say that calling it graffiti is trivialising it.

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

ah, see, to me, graffiti really is an art form. i love graffiti. some of my favorite graffiti artists :
Miss'Tic
Nemo
Shepard Fairey
Blek le Rat
Banksy

and while it's not technically graffiti, i love the space invaders crew.

oh, and now i have to add blu to the list as well.

i suspect if you asked any of these artists, they would not say that calling it graffiti is trivialising it.

Well, I would call him more of a muralist. A painting on that scale, and not of subjects that are more typical of graffiti artists, seems to me to be more of a mural than "graffiti."

The idea, as I understand it anyway, behind graffiti is that it is generally written in form and has its foremost expression in that way. Some of the artists you have listed (I'll confess, I didn't get to see all the sites, but I will try to) seem to have aspects of graffiti in their work, but again, I would not call them graffiti artists.

Then again, maybe there's a difference between the US and France in terminology .... or between the US and Europe. In San Diego, we've got both types of artists working, as well as just graffiti in general. The muralists typically do some fairly monumental work, the graffiti artists seem to work on a much smaller scale (partly because so many of them are working without the permission of the owner of the wall ....).

However, while I will go on thinking that the artist in question is not a graffiti artist and that the bulk of the film in question was done by CGI rather than all stop motion, I won't try to belabor the point. Generally because Nate the Merely Average states that I'm a "bully" when I discuss a point .... and there is certainly no point in bullying people I like ... and I like you.

So, we'll just agree to disagree.

Although, we'll agree to agree that it's great art.

[zelda_pinwheel]

actually graffiti can be text or images. i think you may be thinking of tags which can be elaborate or very rapid (some tags are art too). the defining concept behind graffiti is that it's made on walls or property, rather than on a canvas. there is no "typical" subject matter, and in fact there is not necessarily a typical style or tool (some artists work freehand with spraypaint etc., some use stencils, some make their work on paper which they then glue, some make mosaics...). not all graffiti is art. but then not all art is graffiti. you should take a look at those links : those people are all artists and worth looking at. and they are quite proud to say they make graffiti.

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

I rather think the movie was shot first, and then the animation done in layers over the digital film. I doubt that there was any large scale artwork done in order to create the animation.

It's still a brilliant film ....

I'm pretty sure it was drawn on the wall one frame at a time. On the second time through, I mainly watched the sky and the shadows on the wall. They changed too much too fast for it to be one continuous shot.

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

actually graffiti can be text or images. i think you may be thinking of tags which can be elaborate or very rapid (some tags are art too). the defining concept behind graffiti is that it's made on walls or property, rather than on a canvas. there is no "typical" subject matter, and in fact there is not necessarily a typical style or tool (some artists work freehand with spraypaint etc., some use stencils, some make their work on paper which they then glue, some make mosaics...). not all graffiti is art. but then not all art is graffiti. you should take a look at those links : those people are all artists and worth looking at. and they are quite proud to say they make graffiti.

Well, I guess if the artist says it's graffiti, then it's graffiti. I guess I just don't think of it that way ... probably never will.

And sorry, Nate ... I see you posted something, but all I see is a big old blank space. The "Merely Average" was, of course, meant as a joke, and you of all people will understand a joke.

[Sparrow]

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

And .... judging by this piece of work of his from 2005, I'd say he was an animator to start with .... this one is also outstanding ...

Sorry, that I can't embed it .... but it's worth visiting the link to see it.

http://vimeo.com/426534

Nice link, thanks.

One of the other videos there - Walking - looks like a prototype for the Muto one.