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Underground > Creation >

Bedroom film-making, animated films and the like

09:12 / 26.10.06

Just came across this short trailer for an animated film called "We are the Strange", which looks quite creepy and amazing.

I don't really know anything about this area but I'm fascinated by the idea that someone can make something like this (more or less) in their bedroom. There also seems to be a blog where the guy who made it discusses his methods and so on.

I'm curious to know if this is the kind of thing that's becoming more feasible to do without much of a budget. Are many other people are working on this kind of thing?...(hmm, there's probably a thriving subculture of DIY animated films out there that I don't know about, and everyone reading this is shaking their head sadly

).

16:44 / 26.10.06

There seem to be a few cut-out animated things on YouTube -- I think they're done with Adobe AfterEffects or similar. Not exactly designed for animation, but it works.

15:32 / 27.10.06

Right - I don't know much about that Adobe program. But I'd like to check out some of these Youtube films. I guess much of this knife video uses pretty simple techniques, but is really good all the same (?).

The creator of that We are the Strange film I linked above (who carries the moniker 'M dot Strange', it seems) makes some interesting comments in one of his interviews that good technology is very much secondary to creativity in this field. I've been reading his interviews the last couple of days and he has some quite inspiring stuff to say about the nature of creative work and all the rest of it.
He also offers tips for people looking to get into this field. He seems like a real autodidact with no formal training in animation (and an interest in Crowley I noticed...)

Sounds like it's still a real 'only for the truly dedicated' type of field.

20:27 / 28.10.06

I quite like the very simple animation in this video. Great sense of design.