Making History

Tiny Circus is very excited to report that we have been named finalists in the Aniboom/History Channel competition called "The People Speak". The History Channel and Tiny Circus seems like a good match to us!

Scroll down a couple posts to see some "making of" photographs of this animation.

Read about it here.

Artstop Des Moines

As part of the Artstop Des Moines event, Tiny Circus cranked up the Do It Yourself Animation Station for a few hours, then put on a show.


Karolyn and Elizabeth pull the screen supports from under the airstream and begin assembly. It takes about 20 minutes to get the screen together (and only about 4 to take it apart...)


Here, Karolyn and Mother/Daughter team Kim and Emma work with the animation station to get ready for the afternoon.


Emma, our newest member.


Some animators at work.


It was a great night, lots of folks were walking around in Valley Junction in front of Olson Larsen Gallery and stopped by to check out our show. Thanks Olson Larsen, thanks Valley Junction!

Tiny Circus Gets Academic

TC had an impromptu showing at Grinnell College with 6 of our summer members. It was a quiet and lovely evening on the hillside by the college library.

Results

The finished competition animation! Click twice on the video to go to Aniboom to rate it (you will have to create an account, but it's a quick process...)

Paper People

The current animation uses cut-paper photographs to show motion - this involves a lot of careful work with an xacto. The cut-outs are stuck with magnets to a wooden table. For each second, there are 15 frames (and so 15 paper people). There are 13 people at the table - this makes for 195 moves per second of film.
Fortunately, the magnets allow everything to snap into place accurately so that the main job is finding the right paper person for the spot.
Lee examines the order. It took about 25 minutes per second of film when we were up to speed.

Fall animating

TC is working on a new project to illustrate a historical speech. We're trying out brainstorming with multiple people in multiple places. Lee, John, Susan, Jason, Carlos and Alex were at the farm.
First, we made some new tools - a camera-boom that allows our animating camera to pan across a scene. It's huge! 16 feet long! We might need to make a baby version for smaller scenes. Here, Alex works on the sliding part of the boom.
John puts the parts together - the sliding part fits into the channels on the sides. Here the camera is mounted on the boom above the work-surface. It can slide left to right.
Back to animating, and Susan designs some money. A conveyor belt for money-makers.
John arrives for his acting/animating debut. The shoot begins...

Minnesota: Circussed

Tuesday was a lovely day in St. Paul, Minnesota. We finished editing The History of Pillows (perhaps our best animation yet!) and rolled over to the History Center for our show. Here, our peanut is in place on the lawn in front of the building.
The screen-frame and the St. Paul Cathedral.
Sun sets and the screen rises.
The crowd moved from a musical show up the hill to sit on the lawn and watch.

A perfect night! Many participants from the animation workshop (and thus our newest Tiny Circus members...) came to see their creation on the screen! You can see the animation on our youtube page: www.youtube.com/tinycircus