Weekend Diversion: Stop-Motion Post-Its!

"There is an energy with stop-motion that you can’t even describe.  It’s got to do with giving things life...  to give life to something that doesn’t have it is cool, and even more so in three dimensions, because, at least for me, it feels even more real." -Tim Burton

Of course we always like to think of the world as being constantly in motion, with time flowing smoothly and continuously from one moment to the next. Living in our bodies, it feels -- as Ozomatli would say -- like no matter what, you

Can't Stop.

But our perceptions fool us. It's why you can take a series of stationary images, flash them before our eyes in sequence, and lo-and-behold, it appears to be in motion!

Image credit: Walt Disney Studios, via http://favim.com/image/235333/. Image credit: Walt Disney Studios, via http://favim.com/image/235333/.

But this is a much trickier illusion to pull off with something that's very coarse-grained and static.

A much more difficult medium for animation, for example, would be that of Post-It notes.

Image credit: Stacey Costabile of http://www.teenlibrariantoolbox.com/. Image credit: Stacey Costabile of http://www.teenlibrariantoolbox.com/.

Now, don't get me wrong: there have been some amazing examples of Post-It artwork that I've seen around.

Someone who wanted to wake up to Kirsten Dunst every morning made this on their bedroom wall:

Someone made an underwater nature mosaic, again for display in their own home:

Image credit: Russell Elbert. Image credit: Russell Elbert.

Which meant, of course, it's only a matter of time until someone applied this artform to classic gaming characters. After all, they're already highly pixelated, so the potential for use with Post-Its is just incredible.

Image credit: http://www.postitwar.com/, via WZ-Newsline. Image credit: http://www.postitwar.com/, via WZ-Newsline.

And yes, exactly as you'd expect, your princess is in another castle.

Image credit: http://www.postitwar.com/, via WZ-Newsline. Image credit: http://www.postitwar.com/, via WZ-Newsline.

But to turn a static picture -- like the ones made from Post-Its -- into a moving artform, well, that requires an incredible amount of time, effort, and work.

Luckily for you, Michael Birken is up to that challenge.

Image credit: Michael Birken of http://meatfighter.com/. Image credit: Michael Birken of http://meatfighter.com/.

To create a tribute to Ms. Pac-Man and Donkey Kong, he took:

  • 5,722 individual still images,
  • using 4,800 Post-It notes,
  • spending 96 days over the span of 11 months building it,
  • to create one video that's barely 2 minutes long.

And you get to watch it, right now!

What an amazing find, and for all of Michael Birken's work, check out his website!

Have a great weekend, and I'll see you back here on Monday!

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Something just occured to me.

Ms Pac-Man you have there. It was rather silly since the only gender was the use Man in the name Pac-Man. Except she still has it.

And to ensure everyone knows it's a Ms, it has lippy Mascara and a ribbon.

Which always seemed really very silly and unwarranted.

But that's a thought I've had since Ms Pac-Man came out: silly pandering to a marketing segment (not actually progressing women's rights or relinquishing male superiorities). The new thought is "Were there any Ms Ghosts" or were they all males?

:-)

ALL the ghosts were female. . obviously.