My wife, Lisa, and I have been working long hours on a secret project which we started a year ago; now it's ready for your eyeballs, just in time for Halloween!
Today we bring you "Halloween Candy," a stop-motion animated film featuring the instrumental song "Skeleton Dance" from my Halloween Madness EP. We've always wanted to see this piece of music animated with dancing skeletons, and finally decided to just do it ourselves. Lisa and I worked out the story together. She took charge of art direction and dance moves; I took charge of technical details and pushing little bits of cardstock around beneath the camera.
We achieved the eye-popping colors using florescent ink under an ultraviolet light mounted inside a cardboard box. We laid out the figures at the bottom of the box and mounted the camera on top. My shooting sessions achieved a certain rhythm: move the figures, step onto the stool, click the camera, step down, move the figures, step up, click the camera, step down... Time slowed for me as five seconds of motion became four hours of shooting, and all the while I'm wondering - what will this look like when I play it back? I was always amazed when the individual shots came to life. Just like they say in those Disney "how animation works" documentaries - it's magic!
We put lots of fun details and references into the story, so we think it bears repeated viewing. In fact we can't stop watching it ourselves, though we may be a bit biased. See if you can recognize some of the dance moves Lisa choreographed!
Many thanks to my Patreon patrons, whose contributions help keep us going!
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