Creating Stop Motion Movie – Lego Mario

This stop motion video was made using Lego blocks

Stop motion is an animation technique where we take photos to create a video which appears to be quite unlike any video you may shoot directly. It is like taking a bunch of photos of an object (clay models, toys, people, and nature) which you move or change bit by bit as you continue to click pictures. Finally when the pictures are arranged in a sequence at a desired speed, it looks as though the object is moving on its own like in the flip book. It’s a fun animation technique which anyone with a camera (and a tripod would be good) and a lot of patience can do. You can also use toys with moveable hands and legs or clay to create a great stop motion movie clip of your own.

For this video my friend Gautam and I together created 5 different Mario characters.

 Even though I have quite a huge collection of my Lego which I have been collecting for past 18 years or so, there was shortage of blocks for creating the characters perfectly. Hence, we created a general Mario head which could be shifted to all 4 characters. This was convenient because all the 5 characters would never be in the same picture frame. We replaced the toy Mario characters and made him move a little forward for each picture. The result was as a sequence which made him look as though he was walking, jumping and entering pipes, in pursuit of his princess.

 We moved the camera along with his strides which was not an easy task. Shaky camera gives your video unpleasant jerks and we had to struggle to avoid this.

You may wonder how did we get the toy to jump or stop in the air without any support.

 This is the trick of Photoshop, which helps in removing the supports for the toys, in this case our hand or strings which was holding up the Mario in elevated position. Though it takes some effort to bring about the desired result, the final result makes you feel it was worth it.

We enjoyed making this movie and had quite some funny moments of our own.

After we rendered the movie to check out the final output, we were quite pleased with our own work. Check out our movie and give us your honest feedback so that we can improve our work. Suggestions are always welcome.

Asus - From Expensive Devices to Budget Friendly Sleek Gadgets

Age no barrier for bloggers!

Indiblogger had organized a great meet as always and we had great fun with Asus IndiBlogger Meet 2015 - Bangalore Edition on 30^th Jan 2015 which was the first Indiblogger meet of this year and the first Indi blogger meet without their T-shirts. Fortunately, there was shortage no fun!

It’s been a long time since I last blogged. The invite only meet that I got invited for by Indibloggers , really convinced me to start blogging again. Great incentive!

I wished to make something different for this blog with a lot of images and videos; but the 48 hrs deadline doesn’t allow me the freedom of doing that. :(

  The meet started with few great songs ( the sweet dreams is one of my fav ) which shows the effect live music can have on you. Even in comfortable ambiance of ITC Gardenia you just come out of the sleep and be active for the upcoming event. 

The music worked as a energizer for me kicking me out of my slumber into which I was sliding in.

The meet was all about two great products from ASUS, a brand name I have known through their high end gaming systems like the ROG and the great Lamborghini edition laptop.  Now for a change through the sleek gadgets I saw other side of Asus where their PC and Laptops came with great features but were extremely budget friendly as well.
I am neck down in gaming and being in animation field, I have some knowledge of laptops and PC, especially regarding their game performance. I often go window shopping gadgets to test new products. People around me ask for my opinion or suggestions when they plan on buying new gadgets. So far, I would suggest Asus only for those who were looking for high-end gaming devices, especially their ROG series. For low budget, we always opted for other brands. Now I realize the game is changing in the favor of Asus. Their products EeeBook X205 and all in one PCc ET2040 I realized they offer best value for your money.  

At the meet we had opportunity to use and test both the devices. I found the EeeBook X205 quite slim and with a big screen for touchpad. The slim size and low weight makes it not only easy to use but also to carry around anywhere. After getting to know all it features I was surprised to hear the prize was just 14,999. Wow!

The other attractive gadget we got a glimpse of was the PC ET2040, which was great looking and handy device. The title of all in one suited it well as it had everything from in built battery backup to gesture control which becomes quite easy to use once you get used to it. Only way to improve this amazing PC was by adding a feature of touchscreen to it, but then everything comes with a prize. A 19 inch touchscreen would be fairly expensive and could never fit in a price tag of just 24,999.

Further the meet also included fun games which the young and old loved alike. This time around Indibloggers asked everyone to collect personal stuff from other Indibloggers which initially sounded like begging. When the game started off, it turned out to be quit fun way to get to know each other. Apart from this game we played a small skit forming 4 different groups to promote blogging with fun themes (not sure if I can say what our theme was, because it was supposed to be a secret ) but I guess the others were 300 war, Bollywood and Gangnam style dance.

The amazing, fun filled event finally had one of the best ending with the delicious dinner from ITC gardenia

It was a great meet and help us enjoy and change our usual daily routing life and to meet new bloggers!!   HUR HUR! HUR HUR!