Make a "pikapika" Style Animation

by wombat7

18K2218

Intro: Make a "pikapika" Style Animation


this was inspired by: https://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: https://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.

STEP 2: Make a Coat Hanger Model

first off, in order to make any stop frame animation, it is necessary to take pictures of something over and over while moving the object a little bit each time. the pikapika crew use multiple people, so one person can operate the camera and the other person can draw the image. i am by myself, so a "coat hanger person" was my solution. This allowed me to return to the same location each time to make the light doodle, then move it and repeat... it was made from 3 metal coat hangers and some tape.

STEP 3: Make the Light Doodle With the Model

ok, now if you know how to make the doodle, and you have some type of model. you can take pictures of it in different poses and make an animation. again i used the DMC-LZ5 in "STARRY SKY" mode, this time with 15 second exposure, no timer delay. for the editing i used adobe premier pro 2.0 and set the duration of each image to an extremely short period of time. i sequenced 24 images and looped the clip 4 times, then added a pinch of the flaming lips.

STEP 4: Improvments That Can Be Made

let me reiterate, pikapika uses multiple people to make their stop motion films. if you are doing this on your own, then a model seems necessary. in order to make it better i would paint the coat hanger model "flat black" so it would not reflect the light, thus leaving a cleaner image without showing the coat hanger model.

18 Comments

hiuwo 13 years ago

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

tubbychick3n 15 years ago

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

tubbychick3n 15 years ago

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

Buster Friendly 16 years ago

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 16 years ago

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

Buster Friendly 16 years ago

Haha. I knew it. I feel dumb now.

Thanks for the reply. =)

unklstuart 16 years ago

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 16 years ago

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 16 years ago

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 17 years ago

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 17 years ago

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

wombat7 17 years ago

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 17 years ago

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. :)

T3h_Muffinator 17 years ago

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

wombat7 17 years ago

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 17 years ago


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. =)