make a "pikapika" style animation

this was inspired by: http://www.instructables.com/id/EA0BRX3F0B5PTFM/
and the people who make the pikapika light doodles: http://tochka.jp/pikapika/

Step 1 Learn how to make a long exposure light doodle

learn here: http://www.instructables.com/id/EA0BRX3F0B5PTFM/

for this test i used a Panasonic DMC-LZ5 in the "STARRY SKY" setting with a 10 second delay and a 30 second exposure time. this is a one man show so i must allow enough time to hit the button and get the doodle complete before the shutter closes. the light source is a simple L.E.D. keychain thing.

Comments

[hiuwo]

its good that you said pika pika but not light doodling in your title. i think i would have got pissed if you did haha

[mdrobbins]

how do you do the animation without your hand showing up?

[tubbychick3n]

try doing it in the dark, and try not to have the light shine on your hand

[mdrobbins]

would wearing black gloves help at all?

[tubbychick3n]

hm, well i haven't thought of that. that could help, but also try not to stay in the same place for too long

[Buster Friendly]

I'm a little confused about how your coat hanger model works. Does it stand in between you and the camera as you're drawing? It seems like that would block some light.

It's probably very simple and I've just overdosed my brain tonight on hours of Russian homework. =D

[wombat7]

i "traced" with the LED light near the coat hanger but never behind it. hope that helps.

[Buster Friendly]

Haha. I knew it. I feel dumb now.

Thanks for the reply. =)

[unklstuart]

Very cool. We made a light doodle animation with a GIF file. I think this was about 18 frames and I built it with Image Ready.

[wombat7]

sweet! here is my question: how do you make sure you draw the dog in a similar way time after time? i had to make the stick man so i could "trace" him in the different positions. it seems to me almost impossible to draw the same image over and over without distorting the form. that dog looks pretty complex; any tips?

[unklstuart]

Good question. All I can say is that my wife (the artist) inherited the doodle gene and can "see" the completed drawing in her head before starting. I just take the pictures.

See more of her drawings at our web site LightDoodles.com

[T3h_Muffinator]

Nice! Very nice work!! I really need to try animation some time, but I'm just too lazy to take that many pictures. It took me 30 tries to get my muffin right.... =X

[darkmotion]

You'd hate to be me then. I am an animation student, and I animate like 200 frames a night as well as shooting :(

[darkmotion]

I have a couple of them on my blog (just basic things I had to throw together for university)
http://darkmotion.com/blog

But I have a showreel in the works. :)

[wombat7]

can you give me a suggestion of a good stop motion program? adobe premier pro 2.0 was not the friendliest thing to work with for this. any suggestions you have would be great! this was my first stop motion

[darkmotion]

I'd suggest monkeyjam.
It's free: http://www.giantscreamingrobotmonkeys.com/monkeyjam/

I use it to shoot all of my paper animation

Cheers

[wombat7]

thanks!

[T3h_Muffinator]

Ouch! Got any links to your animations? I'd like to see what you can do! =)

[wombat7]

thanks! if you had not posted the original instructable i would have had no idea. i didn't even know about pikapika. i know sometimes it takes awhile to get the right still image, but do not be discouraged. when i did the "hanger man" animation it was 24 pics in a row, that's it. i think using a L.E.D. helps. thanks again!

[T3h_Muffinator]

I used LEDs initially too, but was just too lazy to put a switch in, so flashlights worked pretty well for me.

I just thought of what I should make an animation of: A muffin eating pac man! That should be pretty funny XD

Glad to help =D, even gladder to see that you went on to make an animation instructable, and used mine in order to do so. =)