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Inspired by Ico, an action-adventure game for PlayStation®, and the work of Lotte Reiniger, who mastered and pioneered the art of silhouette filmmaking, Alley Brahniuk designed, directed and animated The Story of Ico. A stop motion film made using black paper cutouts and a light box, Brahniuk’s animation was created using Boinx Software’s iStopMotion.

Ico, originally a video game, is the story of a boy born with horns banished to an abandoned fortress, where he meets Yorda, daughter of the queen. In Brahniuk’s film, Ico kills the queen in order to save Yorda from her, and then sails away. At 10 frames per second, this film used 2,000 individual photos for a film just about five minutes in length.

For a 19-year-old, Charlie Collier is talented – and wise – beyond his years. “In my opinion, life itself is the most magnificent work of art perceivable by mankind. And to be able to not just experience, but capture even a fraction of this masterpiece is one of the greatest things about being human,” Charlie says on his website, Zapamation – pretty profound for a homeschooled kid who just graduated from high school. After only a few years of experience (and no formal training) in animation and filmmaking, Charlie has already been able to capture that beauty and translate it into something masterful – and something that has been featured on MTV Adria, a European division of the popular music channel.

Part of being an artist is being able to take even the most mundane of objects and “twist” them into something beautiful. So when Charlie began “messing around with twist ties” – something most people use to hold their veggie bags closed – at his local grocery store as a 10-year-old, he saw characters, and began wondering how he could bring his twist-tie figurines to life through animation. And so, Twist Ninja, his first ever stop motion film, was born.

“I was trying to figure out which software to use when I came across Boinx and did a free trial,” Charlie said. “It had everything I wanted in a software package. I’ve been using iStopMotion ever since. Twist Ninja was the first stop motion film I made. I realized how fun it was to animate things; it evolved into a bigger deal than I ever expected.”

So when popular Slovenian band Puppetz reached out to Charlie after seeing Twist Ninja (which was shown on the big screen at Taos Shortz Film Fest, I might add), and asked him to create a music video for their song Generacija Y (or Generation Y), it took him some time to realize just how big of a deal it actually was. Very humble, and maybe a bit green, Charlie was surprised at how much freedom he had in creating the video.

“They gave me almost total creative control over the project. There was a month of storyboarding, and Puppetz wanted the basic concept of the twist ties turning into the band, but whatever animation happened was totally up to me,” he said. “They wanted to let me express myself through the video. I was very surprised – I thought, ‘I’m just some kid from Texas, you guys are really trusting me?’ I was honored that they did.”

Not only was Charlie working with his first big client, but he had to deal with language and cultural barriers as well. “I could put the lyrics into Google translate, but it doesn’t really translate, so I spent a lot of time drilling the guys on not just the lyrics but also the social aspect of it. I didn’t understand their culture, I didn’t understand what’s funny to them or what the song truly meant from their point of view,” he said. “I’m a perfectionist like that – if the video didn’t really go with the message of the song, it would have really bothered me, so it was a challenge.”

What resulted from months of storyboarding, breaking down barriers, and meticulous shooting and editing was an expressive collaboration of handmade and digital art – a feat that was made easier through the use of Boinx’s iStopMotion. “I really like the built in chroma-keying and editing features. Other software just takes frames – with iStopMotion, I could get everything set up and just go right into cutting it all together. The user-friendliness and compatibility features were exactly what I needed.”

Though he’s not entirely sure where he will be in the next few years, he does have a few plans for the near future, including an invite back to the 2012 Taos Shortz Film Fest and another music video request. Charlie draws inspiration from film studies like Laika (creator of Coraline), and says his dream goal is to have that level of quality in animation. “What really inspires me is interesting and innovative concepts, using nonconventional methods of creating. You get out of it what you put into it – and if you put in a lot of passion, it shines through in your work.”

Steve Buckley and his two sons, Alex (13 yrs old) and Will (7 yrs old), are super fans of the Doctor Who program. To show their love of the wildly popular SciFi series, they started making stop motion movies using a still camera and Apple iMovie. However the films were limited to a very slow frame rate and the Buckley clan eventually switched to iStopMotion. “After an Internet search we found iStopMotion and we're all really impressed with it - the frame rate (how smooth the animation is) is superb, and iStopMotion has really improved the workflow for the boy's productions. The onion skinning feature which allows you to see the previous and current frame over each other is particularly good,“ said Steve. Part 1 of this 2-part posting features 'The Secret Within' stop motion movie made by Alex (Dalex7447 on YouTube). The episode was produced in just eight hours on the day the Buckley's purchased iStopMotion.

iStopMotion Helps Dr Who Fans Show Their Love – Part 2 - showcases the brilliant work of young Will Buckley. His father Steven posted the iStopMotion short along with his equally talented brother Alex’s work to showcase not only their talent for movie making, but, the capabilities of the iStopMotion application that let these two budding filmmakers unleash their creativity. Regardelss if you are a Doctor Who fan or not, you will certainly enjoy Will’s stop motion work. All character animation is done in iStopMotion with the files outputted to iMovie for sound, post production and credits.

Attention all teachers! Watch this cute video of students using iStopMotion to make a multiplication video, and see just how much the kids like to get involved when using stop motion animation in the classroom. Working with iStopMotion teaches students a variety of skills, from teamwork, to problem solving, critical thinking, and more. It's a new and innovative way to make learning fun and provide students with immediate satisfaction and a sense of achievement. From the arts, to the sciences, mathematics, and more, iStopMotion in the classroom is helping students tackle school subjects in a highly creative, hands-on and very cool way! Click here to learn about more ways to incorporate iStopMotion into your classroom!

This past July we were fortunate enough to be a sponsor of the eighth annual Animation Block Party, the premier animation festival of the East Coast. This year's festival took place in Brooklyn at Rooftop Films and BAMcinématek, where thousands of filmmakers submitted their animated shorts for screening. Awards were given out for everything from Best in Show, to Original Design, Experimental Film, Minute or Under, Animation for Kids, and more.

As a sponsor, we donated an iStopMotion license to be given away at the festival. Our very own iStopMotion also made a big debut at this year's Animation Block Party as the program used to create the outro bumper for the festival, Person Pinball, by Aaron Hughes. The 2-minute long animation was created entirely with iStopMotion and has become hugely popular on the web with over 200,000 YouTube hits... and it was even featured on CBS News and in Wired Magazine! Watch the video here and see how human pinball takes over New York!

The guys at Boinx Headquarters in Germany had a few VERY hot days this past summer, so to beat the heat they decided to make an iStopMotion movie poking fun at how hot it really was. Bastian took care of the camera and director "stuff" and our summer intern Peter stars as the sole actor in the film. Unfortunately, poor Peter never got to have his ice cream...

Check out this cool iStopMotion animation, Lego Batman vs. The Scarecrow, created for a Lego Super Heroes contest. Batman, the Dark Knight of Gotham City, faces off against Scarecrow, one of the most feared villains ever. Who do you think will win?! Watch it here to find out...