stopmotion
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Belkin preps LiveAction camera remote for your iPhone
Look past the typical FCC dowdiness and you'll notice a Belkin-made remote shutter release for the iPhone. We have no notion of price or availability, but the regulatory paperwork does at least reveal how it works: the controller triggers still or video recording via Bluetooth and the accompanying LiveAction app, and it also houses a detachable stand for propping your phone up on a "variety of surfaces." Stop-motion shenanigans spring to mind, but the more obvious use is for group photos -- and you might consider pairing it with one of these to avoid cropping heads.
Hulu Plus coming to 3DS and Wii, handheld getting 3D video capture
Rejoice Nintendo fans, Hulu Plus is coming to your console of choice... provided you're up on the latest in Nintendo hardware. Both the Wii and 3DS will be getting access to the streaming service's vast archives of TV shows and movies some time before the year is out. Though, you shouldn't expect to see the Galactica popping out of your portable -- this is a strictly 2D affair. A software update coming at the end of November will also deliver the ability to record 3D video with the Nintendo handheld (up to ten minutes) or even stitch together stereoscopic images for stop motion animation that jumps out of the tiny screen at you. With both Hulu and Netflix in tow, as well as the ability to create your own content, the 3DS is actually turning into quite a powerful little portable. For more details, including some game release dates, check out the PR after the break.
Nokia N8 used to shoot world's largest stop-motion film, 'Gulps' up the competition (video)
In today's rapidly evolving smartphone market, the Nokia N8 seems almost... ancient. But if there's any doubts that its camera is still the gold-medal champion of the bunch, "Gulp" will shut up the critics. The video you see below is the world's largest stop-motion movie, filmed on a beach in South Wales using none other than the phone's famed 12 megapixel sensor. Okay, that's not entirely true; it was actually done on three of them, not just one, with the aid of a massively tall crane to lift them up. Everything you see in the flick -- including the fisherman and his boat -- is life-size; the largest scene spans over 11,000 square feet. The Sumo Science production, in all of its 90-second glory, is ready for your viewing pleasure below, as is a short documentary explaining how it all went down. For sure, you're either going to lust after a N8 once again, or vow never to go fishing again.
LG Optimus Black vs. iPhone 4, others in stop-motion video
I've never been a big fan of the company's phones, but LG sure makes some great videos. Its latest is the Smartphone Championship Race, a stop-motion NASCAR-inspired film that pits the LG Optimus Black against the iPhone, Sony Ericsson's Xperia Arc and Samsung's Galaxy S. The competitors' phones are called other names so that LG doesn't get sued (the iPhone 4 is called "Waffle's Ivan"). As the phones race around the track, the competitors are eliminated one-by-one because of the phones' flaws. One is eliminated when it crashes because it can't clear a 9.3 mm entrance. The iPhone 4 is the last one to be eliminated; it doesn't finish the race because its weight keeps it from making it to the other side when it jumps from a ramp. The video is pretty clever, and hey, if you can't make the best phone in the world, at least you can make some cool stop-motion action. [via MacNN]
Stop-motion iPad also magical, revolutionary
The magical, revolutionary iPad is not just in and of itself magical and revolutionary, of course; it also inspires people to be magical and revolutionary, as in this marvellous stop-motion video of a plasticine iPad produced by 26-year-old Ukrainian Svetlana Shokhanova. It was made for the "Post Digital Brief at the British Higher School of Art and Design (Moscow), Interactive and New Media course." We really love this. Of course, as commenters say on YouTube, a plasticine iPad does have its advantages-while it has a pretty lousy FPS, it can be jailbroken with Play-Doh. Read on for the video (as commenters note, it looks even better in YouTube 1911 mode). [Via Mashable]
High-speed camera in motion can stop a commuter's heart
By now, you're certainly familiar with the magic that a consumer-branded Casio super-slow-mo camera can do with motion, right? But what happens when you use a two-year old Casio Exilim FH20 to shoot 210fps footage (played back at 30fps) from a moving train? Nothing, at least until the train slows down.
700,000 Lite-Brite pegs make stop-motion masterpiece in new music video
It's tough to say if David Crowder Band's newest handmade music video measures up to Dancing Pigeon's own vid from August, but one thing's for sure: you've got to give props for the work involved here. An astounding 700,000 Lite-Brite pegs were used in the creation of their SMS (Shine) video, along with 80 Earthlings putting in 2,000 man-hours of work. It's a rather impressive 3.5 minutes, so head south and mash play if you're looking for a good time. [Thanks, Nick]
Light painting in stop motion with the iPad
This is about the coolest thing done with an iPad since, well, the iPad itself was created. A firm named Dentsu London has used an iPad to create a series of stop motion shots assembled from sequential long exposure light paintings. They created a set of 3D graphics and then programmed the iPad to show a set of cross sections, frame-by-frame, of those graphics. The cross sections were "painted" into the air with long exposure photographs, and then the photographs were all put together into a stop motion animation. The end effect is just amazing -- don't just watch the beginning on how they did it, make sure you stick around for the film itself. It's a beautiful piece, as well as an ingenious way of using the iPad to create something exceptional. If you're really interested in these images, the creators have also put together a book featuring some of the best stills from the video. It's quite an impressive piece of work. [via TDW]
Pac-Man reenacted by humans in stop motion masterpiece
What's it with Pac-Man and awesomeness these days? First Google, now this? As the story goes, PAC-MAN is the fifth video performance of the GAME OVER Project, put on by the French-Swiss artist Guillaume Reymond. The video -- which is embedded after the break -- shows a great many human bodies (111 to be exact) working together for over four hours in one of the most smile-inducing stop motion clips we've ever seen. Oh, and make sure your volume's up -- the experience just isn't complete without man made blips and bloops. [Thanks, Matt]
Found Footage: self-unboxing iPad
This is -- for me, personally -- one of the greatest unboxing videos I've ever seen. Not to oversell it, but the sheer simplicity of a self-unboxing iPad is beautiful. The complete lack of commentary (or even a human) makes it short enough that even my attention span, frazzled by years of short songs and too much sugar, can consider it a pleasure to sit all the way through. In case you're wondering (and don't feel like watching, for whatever reason), it's a stop-motion animation, complete with a hovering X-ACTO blade, created by Brian Stark. Playtime with his new iPad was delayed for over an hour as he created this piece; he's suffered for his art, and for that, we commend him. Read on and watch the video to see for yourself! [Direct Vimeo link for iPhone/iPad users]
Halo LED spraycan lets you make grafitti the cheap, legal way
If you're down with the latest freshness, like we know you are, you'll already be aware of light writing and the radical imagery that can be created through the use of long camera exposures and stop motion animation. Well, get ready to do your thing with even more style, thanks to the Halo LED spraycan -- a DIY project by Aissa Logerot -- which not only looks like the primary tool of al fresco art, it even recharges itself when shaken. While not quite as sophisticated as the Light Lane, this definitely makes our list of light-based paraphernalia we'd like to see more of. You'll find a few more shots after the break, plus a video of a well-known ad campaign featuring the light writing technique.[Via Cool Hunting]
Animation brings PSP to life
PSP "Come To Life" Animation - video powered by Metacafe See everything the PSP can do in this new stop-motion animated short film, called "Come to Life." It's a visually fascinating piece that really makes the PSP seem as cool as it is.
Today's hottest game video: Tea-light Tetris
Today's video pick comes from the bowels of YouTube, thanks to a Boing Boing tipster. This stop-motion animation of dozens of tea lights proves that anything can be made into a gaming homage. After detailed arrangement and the addition of fire -- fire good! -- the flames dance into Pac-Man, Tetris, and other classic game scenes.Enjoy the video after the break.[Via Boing Boing]
Chotto Shot pictures, videos & impressions [m]
The PSP camera, with Chotto Shot, is now available in Japan, and for import buyers. PSP GadgetZ has some really great pictures of the camera, packaging, and more importantly, pictures taken with the peripheral. According to a translation by PSP-Vault, "He says that the diagonal lines are pretty bad, and that at low light levels, there is a lot of noise in the images. He's also a bit annoyed that you need to remove the camera to transfer data to your PC." The image quality is apparently not too great, but I guess that's expected from a device that costs $50, and not hundreds.Read on to read more about the PSP's new camera accessory.
iStopMotion 1.10.1
iStopMotion 1.10.1 from Boinx software is out, and it has a cool new feature for Apple Remote enabled Macs. That's right, you can use the remote to interact with the program. The menu button takes a picture (this is a stop motion program, in case you didn't know) and the play button plays the movie you are working on. That's pretty nifty.If you are interested in stop motion photography then iStopMotion is the way to go. There is a free demo and the full version costs $40.
