Stop-Motion Animation

I enjoyed watching DOT because of how creative it was. After watching how it was made I realized stop-motion is much more tedious and complicated than I imagined. The process of creating DOT was especially challenging for the creators because it was the world's smallest stop-motion film.
         They used a simple camera phone with an attachable microscope to film the 9mm protagonist because a regular camera would not be able to zoom enough to capture the film. Instead of using a camera specifically designed for microscopic filming the creators used a camera phone because of its ease of use, ability to share media, and cheapness.
         They also set the camera in place on a stand facing down facing the set which moved for the animation. This made the camerawork accurate so the placement of the set or character wouldn't be jumping around in every frame, and also easy to pick up from where they left off the next day.
         To create the main character they made many gel moulds of her in different poses, painted them, and attached a rod to her so they could move her. They created several models because they were so small that they were impossible to manipulate into different poses. You can see all of the different models being used in the animation as she runs. For example, each time she took a step forward a different model was used in each frame that was slightly different from the other to make her running more fluid. In the original pictures you could see the rod that was attached to her head for manoeuvring purposes, but was easily edited out with computer software.
         DOT was an interesting stop-motion film with an even more intriguing creative process. I enjoyed  watching both how it was made and the actual production itself.