Tiny Circus Joins U.A.Y. in Iowa City

What does a circus produce after spending a couple of days in Iowa City? If you've guessed a workshop with United Action for Youth, The History of Soap, and a marvelous outdoor show, then you would be on the right track.


During the 9th and 10th of July, Tiny Circus joined forces with United Action for Youth. Our very talented workshop participants collaborated in brainstorming, creating, and shooting a brand new animation.

The first day began with an introduction to our entire process. Jason shares the History of Popcorn with Max and Grace. Was this perhaps a source for some musical inspiration?

U.A.Y. participants could also experiment with stop motion in other venues. At our portable Animation Station, Alex shows how nearly everything has the potential to be made into an animated short.

After brainstorming and storyboarding, Carlos lays out the proper scale for this new world. Within those blocks rests the yet to be created Gertrude, super sniffer dog, and a few pink flowers.
Time to break out the card stock. Wherever the circus travels, we bring along a smorgasbord of supplies.


Just as before, it's with attention to detail and patience that every element of the animation is made.


From snail slime to flower smells, The History of Soap came into being with the help of many hands.

Thank you to everyone that helped out in creating this new animation!

Happy Birthday Marengo!

150 Years is a pretty long time. In order to celebrate, Tiny Circus will post 150 pictures from the festival! Or perhaps, we will limit this post to 150 words and let the images speak for themselves.

July 3rd was a stunning day for a sesquicentennial celebration. Poised from our hilltop location, the Circus enjoyed a perfect view of a veritable inflatable wonderland.



Both the studio and the projection airstream made it to the celebration.


The silvery trailers acted as bookends for our Animation Station and Making Tables, inviting in festival go'ers to tell their own stories and to

Where better to begin?



After 'Stuff' was made, many Marengo'ians took their creations over to the




A few participants created their own story involving an apple tree, some worms, and a tornado. Look it up on Youtube!

Tiny Circus wanted to wish Marengo a very special Happy Birthday by offering a birthday cake, or in this case, watermelon.

150 Candles are not easily made. Nothing says collaboration like an assembly line!



Thanks Marengo, we had a great time celebrating with you.

Tiny Circus Plays Music in the Park!

On July 2nd, Tiny Circus rolled into Central Park on Broad Street.

As the sun set, the animations glowed.

The crowd was ready for a new type of entertainment after their evening salsa dancing. As the moon rose over the train tracks, Grinnellians resting on lawn chairs and blankets were able to enjoy our show complete with four new histories created by the Animation Camp goers.

Terrance helps out at the donation box. With bow tie on, he can be quite the charmer.

Pogo knows what's up.
She watches intently as Circus members finalize setting up the event.

Three fans go in to investigate.
Perhaps soon they'll be watching their own animations on the big screen.

The crowd starts to grow.
Many of whom are sporting rather snazzy Tiny Circus t-shirts.

The History of Staring Contests kicks off the show.
Who will blink first and lose their castle built of cards?

Over all it was a beautiful night of warm weather, friendly faces, and fanciful tales.

If you missed Music in the Park, mark your calendar for the next Tiny Circus Event!

July 10th we will be projecting at the Ped. Mall in Iowa City at dusk.
July 11th will find us at the Linn County Fair.

Come join us as we wrap up our summer tour.

Storyboards, Sessions, and Shooting!

Our first three day Animation Camp has come to an end. Thank you to all of our campers for their hard work and wonderful creativity! After Day 1, we progressed through the next two sessions incorporating more prop making, adding sounds, and shooting in the airstream studio.

From storyboards to filming, having clear details make all the difference. The History of Blinking transforms quickly from sketched characters to...

a quite intricate set.
Down to the window panes, we see the patience and time which goes into every story.

Before jumping into the airstream, Jason demonstrates a few principles of stop motion animation. Everyone had a chance to create and move their own object before putting their knowledge to use with the histories.

Cranes easily come to life under the camera lens.

With polished animation skills, the group moves into the airstream to shoot The History of Blinking. Remember to be ever mindful of the camera...

Jonah inches the sore eyed costumers into Sav-Ur-I's as Lucas moves them out.

After three days of intense animating, the afternoon session takes a moment to watch all of their hard work. Jason also gives a crash course in editing.

Patience and detail are key throughout the animation process, but always work best when combined with collaboration and unity.

Good job campers.

Circus Life and New Animations!!!!

Great day to all of you... The last couple weeks has been a wild ride for the circus, Art Festival, Kids Animation Camp and celebration of 150 years of Marengo. While we could share stories all day long from these events it would not be near as exciting as having you check out the new great animations created during our Grinnell Kids Animation camp. The picture below is from the show on July 2 in Grinnell, great night, great energy, great animations.



We all learned a lot during the camp and hope to take that energy and youthful creativity as we move forward. Below is the link to our youtube site, check out the following animations and check back in the days to come as we update with a number of movies we have created over the last months.

www.youtube.com/tinycircus

The New Animations are...
The History of Hiccups
The History of Clocks
The History of Blinking
The History of Ballons

Tiny Circus in Print!

Tiny Circus showed up in the Des Moines Register this Past Sunday with a great article from the Des Moines Arts Festival written by Michael Morain. Our own Amy Santoferraro is quoted in regards to our engagement with all age groups, "The tough part is the adults. 'It's OK,' we tell them, 'You can play too.' "

Click on the above image to enlarge.

Welcome to Animation Camp!

On June 29th 2009 at Stewart Library, Tiny Circus held it's very first Animation Camp. On Day 1 we learned what animations were, broke into groups, and brainstormed the Histories of Clocks, Hiccups, Blinking, and Balloons.

It was a very busy day, spanning from tearing out your own animal name tag to constructing chomping, floating, and blinking props.

The first group of the day views an introductory screening of Kissing, Claps, and Locks in order to get a clear understanding of the art of stop motion animation.

With the help of Terrance (our star of Locks) and Flappy the bird, Carlos illustrates how movement impacts the speed of the animation. By taking big jumps little Terrance quickly passes slow moving Flappy.

The History of Hiccups gets it's start in the corner of Stewart Library. Beware of coconuts...

The afternoon session begins their storming....

Essential story boarding for The History of Blinking. Remember to stop at Sav Ur I's.

What could this possibly be?
Come by Music in the Park on Broad St. at 9:00 p.m. to find out.

A busy 'historian' hard at work. Animations aren't going to draw themselves.

What did you learn today?