Happy Thanksgiving Leftovers from Foilman!

I made this short stop motion Vine a year ago, and it was a bit glitchy. I cleaned it up and added some Kanye, because Foilman is that serious about this sandwich.

*High fiber homemade chocolates (in stop motion)* I believe in healthy/decadent combos. For example, if I'm going to melt delicious cheese over something (and I will), let it be broccoli. --The nice thing about putting crushed high fiber cereal in your homemade chocolate is: it tastes/feels like a chocolate crunch bar. --Foilman is using a particular Fiber One cereal in this case, which gave the chocolates a slight tropical flavor. All-Bran is also good, if you want the crunch texture without the flavor. Using one of these high fiber cereals, you can get a good half gram of fiber in a medium-sized chocolate. --Foilman is using chocolate Guittard wafers, and Lékué flexible bakeware (the bowl and the mold). I think the bowl works really well for melting chocolate in the microwave, if it's not a precision/double boiler kind of day. --Though Foilman does not do it this way, I think it works better for texture to quickly stir the crushed cereal into the melted chocolate, and then pour into the molds --This short stop motion video was quickly edited for Vine, in honor of National Chocolate Day. A longer and better version is still in the works. --Music: Count Basie and His Orchestra, One O'Clock Jump (1937 version).

Happy Halloween, Everybody!

I made this stop motion in-app Vine for a Mashable challenge. Now with Peer Gynt.

What software do you use? I use istopmotion3, and I HATE IT!

I use Osnap, or the Vine in-app editing tools. I definitely prefer osnap to istopmotion, using an iPhone or iPad. :)

If you're using a DSLR or web cam & software, just about everybody loves Dragonframe.

Social Media Man celebrates #SMDAY on the roof of Mashable Headquarters. #MashMeet

I made a birthday Vine for Renata Protopeople (with the Osnap app for iPad) using a snip of “Dame Arte” from her new album. I listened to her music the whole time I made the Vine and I enjoyed it every minute. And my taste is mostly a bimodal range between hip hop and Gershwin. Her music is more in the industrial genre, and very fierce. I’m keeping it in rotation. It’s great.

I like using osnap for creating iPhone/iPad stop motion best, unless I’m using Vine’s native editing tools–which have the unique feature of capturing sound with each frame. That’s a picture of Renata’s face on the mannequin. I hope she doesn’t mind that I had to give her bangs.

I made this stop motion Vine for Vine artist Junglemess’s project #junglemessjumbledmess. The idea was that on May 11th, the membrane separating all the worlds would thin for 24 hours, and we were invited to make Vines about our journey into weird (Junglemess-ish) worlds. It was a great way to inspire creative Vines and to find new Viners. Vine can be a fun and collaborative place--come visit if you’re not already there.

Stop motion problems (Lighting): I made this birthday Vine for the adorable daughter of 2 Vine artists, and I had to do it quick. The light I was using at home, usually great, was flickering. And I think I may have used Osnap (a stopmo app for iPhone/iPad I like) in a way that made it worse. What’s everybody’s favorite (kinda cheap) light for stopmo that always works on the run?

This was my second stop motion Vine with Mannequina. It was made for mashable‘s #creaturecrawl Vine contest, and was made in-app. This one focused more on the monstress’’s (?) desire to be real & magazine-pretty. It was called Self-made monter/self image. I love Mannequina, but she scares me a little and makes me sad. Also, her arms constantly fall off. I will make more short video with her soon.

I made this stop motion Vine for the #Disneysidecontest for Disney Parks. The idea was to depict your Disney side, the one that inspires you to go to the park. Subliminal O’s may have been a stretch. 

The two problems I had with this Vine: Egg people are very difficult & delicate to work with. I had to make doubles, and they all cracked up. Also, the foil, as always, makes lighting tricky. Does anyone have any suggestions to help with that, if you’ve got a pretty homemade lighting set up?

This was an #allnaturalvine, meaning it was shot and edited all in-app. At this point, Vine’s editing tools included viewing and moving frames, so things were easier for stop motion.

I made this stop motion Vine at a gazebo in Central Park for Mashable's #TheWoodies film festival challenge. It was my first foilman. When I was halfway through, I turned around and was embarrassed to find I had an audience. I love making short stop motion films, but unless you make them, too, I'd think it would be super boring to watch one being made, no?

Please enjoy this seasonal Valentine's troll log.

Today is my 2nd Vine birthday! This was my first Vine post, on 2/13/2013. This was back when Vine had no editing tools, and doing stop motion was almost like live theater. Love you, Vine!

Experiencing operating difficulties. Please enjoy this seasonal Valentine’s Troll log.

This was the first of the Some Pygmalion series that got nominated for the 2013 TriBeCa Film Festival's #6secfilms contest. I wasn't the winner, but it was exciting for me, and for Vine to be featured in the festival, as Vine was only a few months old. This was back when Vine had no editing tools, and you could not even view the frames you'd taken until it was finished. You could only post it or delete the whole thing and start over. It was the closest to "live" that stop motion gets. It was pretty cool, actually. Most limitations end up having a juicing effect on creative stuff in a way, don't they?

I made this stop motion beach monster for Vine this summer. I guess I have a thing for creatures lurking just under the sand, because I keep making short films about it. I’d love to hear from other people about their tricks for beach and ocean stop motion.

Hey look, would-be-assassins of free expression: Some of the Charlie Hebdo cartoons you'd suppress through murder. #WeWillNeverLetYou #JE SUIS CHARLIE