Faux Sand Painting Animation

This original animation technique was created for Wolf Dog Tales by an animator, designer, and artist named Igor, using a variety of innovative concepts. A brief description is included below.

Stop Motion Sand Animation

Animated wolves were created by stamping silhouetted wolf impressions onto a sand surface. The silhouettes were first animated traditionally in 20. From this, stills were exported to a file and used to produce acrylic laser cutouts. The wolf cutouts were stamped in the sand and shot using a stop motion program. To address the issue of undesired movement in the background sand surrounding the silhouettes, the stop motion recordings were imported into a 20 program and mats were cut around them, compositing the stop motion into a 20 environment.

Sand Painting Animation

An animated sand painting illusion was created by compositing video recordings of several layers of multi-colored sand. Video recordings were used instead of still photographs to give an enhanced life-like impression to the animation not readily attained using still photographs. The animation was drawn traditionally in a 20 program on a Cintiq tablet. Once the animation was completed, the colors were split into separate layers. Each layer was then converted into a mat and inversed, creating a "window" into a designated layer of pre-recorded sand. A slight blur effect was applied to each layer prior to merging them together to create the final touch of faux animated sand paintings.

Wind Erosion Animation

An animated wind erosion effect was created by rotoscoping a video recording of an actual sand painting that was blown away by a blast of compressed gas. This video recording was analyzed frame-by-frame and used as a reference to create drawn erosion elements. These elements were composited onto a background layer of a second video recording of sand blowing away to reveal the films title card.