Below is an interview with Marike Verbiest a very talented Stop Motion Animator about her graduation project Ruis:
KSB // How Long did you spend making this video? How many stills did you take?
MV // I worked at this animation at the Art academy in Ghent, Belgium, for about 2 years, but not fulltime though (I did some commissioned stuff as well in those 2 years, and helped classmates with finishing their films). I shot about 5 minutes of raw material, of which 3 ended up in the animation. There are double and single frame shots, so how many stills… I think about 6000.
KSB // What type of equipment and software did you use to create this?
MV // I used a nikon D70s and several lenses to capture the images and an old DV camera as a video assist.
The software I used is Take 5, developed by one of my teachers at school: cellsoft.be/
KSB // What inspired the idea for this project, How did you come up with the horse and what does it represent to you?
MV // The idea: For the design of this film I was inspired by ink drawings. Usually I have an idea about how things should look, a certain image, then I just start making things, taking pictures, and then the idea about the story I want to tell follows. What I like about horses is that they can be very majestic and sort of powerful looking, but also very fragile with their long skinny legs. The setting with the storm gave me the opportunity to see what I could do with this opposition and I put the horse in all this weird positions, without being to realistic in the movements, and having fun animating the character, but still get the idea of a struggle across (i hope).
KSB // Where do you go for daily inspiration?
MV // As for daily inspiration: I think the usual: I watch lots of films, both live action and animation, visit exhibitions, reading books, try to keep track what friends are doing, reading blogs, and sometimes it’s just stuff you see on the street that creates an idea in your mind.
But I always try to come up with something that also is going to be fun to animate, as it takes so much time. Sometimes you have this great story, and then you have to animate all this boring stuff for the sake of continuity. So for my own work I try to avoid this.
KSB // How did you get started in stop motion?
MV // I started with stop motion at the art academy in Breda, The Netherlands. I went there when I was 18, with the idea to study Graphic Design, but found out I liked animation much better. There I got the chance to try out different techniques and choose my favorite.
‘Noise’ in English.
Graduation film (master degree) KASK, Ghent, Belgium, 2009.
A horse struggles against a violent storm.
