awesomeness

Knowing the lovely stop-motion videos of Andersen M Studio weren’t made by ‘animators’, but by a charming sibling graphic design team, one can’t help but feel a twinge of jealousy. Yet it’s hard to bear a grudge against people who create such simple and charming pieces. A blank sheet of paper fascinates with its near-infinite possibilities, and seeing it not just cleverly utilized but focusing on the utilization of a page is wonderful.

The paper man above has a terribly awkward walk cycle, pointed out not from hateration but to reinforce that traditional, realism-based animation is not Andersen M’s specialty. They’ve come to animation through graphic design and brought a tactile, dramatic quality to their stop-motion work.

What amazes in their animation isn’t flow and movement (though the scurrying letters above are just pwecious), it’s their use of light and shadow, the physical details of their cutouts, and most important, the process of creating those cutouts, featured in scuttling paper bits and peel-aways. What was just a flat piece of paper jumps to dimensional life as it’s maniuplated in front of you.

You can see more animations on their website, including two sets of station IDs for television channels that really highlight their great use of camera movement and lighting.