The Seventh Skol

A little animation exercise for www.StopMotionMagic.com - that got out of hand and turned into a mini-film. I had a simple idea using my existing skeleton puppet, but it took me 2 minutes (or 5 weeks of work) to get to that shot.

It's the 14th Century, and Antonius Block returns from the crusades to find Europe in the grip of the Black Death.... Ok, so far Ingmar Bergman had that covered. But this time, he challenges Death to a drinking contest instead of a chess game, figuring the odds might be a bit better. So here's the full version of my fanboy tribute film / blatant rip-off / affectionate parody .

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Stop motion
• puppet
• animation
• Seventh Seal
• drink
• Ingmar Bergman
• Max von Sydow
• Death

[volpe3fuego]

Hehe Awesome! Was the skeleton here the same model from the Sinbad mini-movie you made?

[StopmoNick]

@volpe3fuego

Yes, the sinbad-skeleton swordfight was the skeleton's next gig after this one.

[KarlTX1000]

What did you use or how did you make the chainmail and glass and bottles? Thanks for sharing this, it's great. : ) Skol!

[StopmoNick]

@KarlTX1000

The chainmail was purchased from a site called Build-a-Warrior, which has now disappeared. It is rubber, cast in a mould. Champagne bottles are bought - they held bubble liquid. Some glasses and bottles are cast in polyester resin, in a silicone rubber mould, made from shapes I turned on a lathe. And some straight-sided glasses are the clear caps of aerosol bottles of hair spray. I made the jug and beer steins from epoxy putty.

[StopmoNick]

gto1138 -

It's shot on ones at 25 fps, and edited at PAL widescreen resolution.

I did find limitations to my compositing technique, where the first glasses came up much too transparent.

Marnikloysen - not much to show behind the scenes - a very small set with some rocks and gravel, and a big white screen behind.

Castlegardener - I raise a glass of Chateau Jardinier (which roughly translates as Castle Gardener) to you sir, for helping to keep the stopmo community alive!

And thanks again all!

[StopmoNick]

Thank all! It was a lot of fun to do.

The knight's head is cast from foam latex, and put on a generic body (a bit small for him, it was first used for a samurai) which also happens to be foam latex.

The skeleton has epoxy putty and Sculpey on the head,

over armature wire. The body is built up with epoxy putty and liquid latex.

[plastilinacreativa]

amazing work , i love this movie, and i love stop motion too, congratulations

[rikomortis]

Bravo!

[FrozenSpector]

Very clever

[MrDrawingguy]

This is one of the most impressive works I have ever seen. Well done!... :)

[ToddSolley67]

Dude...you're a genius :)



[KarlTX1000]

@StopmoNick

Thanks man for the info. I really appreciate it. It will come in handy later on.