Love Spin

We watched a video today in class titled 'Love Spin' which was another great example of the possibilities and scale that can result from stop-motion animation.




The animation features a slowly rotating circular platform with a central plant and pot. There is a main blue plasticine figurine that sits in-front of the pot who later stands up and walks at the same rate as the rotation keeping it in the centre of the frame for the second half of the video. As the platform rotates the set slowly evolves and transitions from empty countryside to village to city with all of the props and buildings centred around the plant pot. With each full revolution of the platform there is a noticeable difference of the sets and props; these slowly come to being from behind the plant pot where the viewer cannot see them being placed. The video finishes with the figure walking 'out' of the city (or this could be seen as the sets 'de-evolving') towards the countryside to sit down in his original position but with a female figure.


I really enjoyed watching this video as it shows some imaginative ways to spice of the tried and tested stop-motion animation technique. The technique of placing objects behind the plant for them to rotated into view is a stroke of genius; the rotation effect creates a consistent pace and evolution throughout the entire video, makes it easy for the animator to add or remove objects in 3D space all whilst creating an interesting video. All of this keeps the viewer engaged which can be difficult with stop-motion animations.

I've enjoyed watching the animation but I feel as if it is too long. The strongest point was the evolution of the world around this character but this process stops about half way and stays flat whilst in the 'city' scenes. The video builds up to the city environment however nothing really happens once the character starts walking; I feel as if something more could have happened other than the traffic becoming busier, it seems like filler to sync up to the song. Whilst the animation in this scene is admirable it drags on for too long unlike the buildup from the countryside to the village and then onto the city which has a lot of change. At the end of the video the camera zooms out of the platform to reveal it is sitting on-top of a vinyl; whilst impressive at first to consider the animation was done at this scale but can be analysed as a visual effects editing technique to transition from a larger model to a smaller model. I see this transition a fabrication; it was created smaller scale to make the animation seem more impressive. Whilst I am not doubting this is a well made animation it seems unfair pass it up for more than for what it is worth when other animations such as 'Dot' go to great lengths to animate at a miniature scale.

It would be interesting to try and apply some of these principles (evolution, consistency, seamlessness, forced perspectives) to our own animations but with any stop-motion work it is extremely time consuming, however the end result can be impressive just as 'Love Spin' has shown.