On March 8, 1967, Rankin-Bass invited us to their “Mad Monster Party!” This stop-motion creature feature features creatures from ho-rror’s creepiest cl-ass-sicks! Dracula, Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame are just a few of the distinguished delinquents at this sinister soirée! Groovy tunes, ghoul gags, and awesome monster designs make this one an all-timer. Eat, drink, and be scary at the “Mad Monster Party!”
Kim Pimmel is an artist working in a painstakingly beautiful way. All of the images you see above are created in analog with various tools. Kim utilizes stop motion photography, light, magnets, fluid dynamics and even builds custom electronics to achieve his art. After we were introduced to Kim via a mutual colleague (thanks Phil!), I decided to do a short interview.
7E: Your “compressed” series is very unique. What was the inspiration for doing analog style stop motion effects for visuals that would usually be created digitally?
As a software designer, I spend a lot of time in front of a screen, pushing pixels. While this satisfies the systemic, logical designer in me, it leaves me looking for ways to express my creativity in more playful, freeform ways. I love analog mediums - there’s something I find really special about the the look, feel, and imperfect nature of vinyl records, photographic film, analog synths. But I’m also heavily influenced by the abstract work of generative code artists such as Robert Hodgin and Erik Natzke. So, inspired by the analog visual effects in films such as 2001, Solaris and Flash Gordon, I started playing around with creating rich abstract visuals using everything from hand soap to ferrofluid. That was really the genesis of the Compressed series.
7E: I see you’re also an electronic musician. How does music influence your work? Also, what are some of your favorite synths and effects?
I usually start with the visuals, but very quickly the music and visuals become two parts of the same creative expression. Pacing and rhythm influence editing. Color and texture affect tone. I have to admit my lovely Juno 106 and other analog kit are gathering dust as Ableton Live fits into my busy life better.
7E: Could you describe the technical aspects involved in creating the Light Drive series?
Light Drive was a great fusion of the playful expression of analog and the powerful control of digital. Every frame of the video is a long exposure light painting. The lights used for the exposures were placed on a Technics 1200 turntable and controlled remotely using Arduinos, bluetooth modules and Processing. The lights were attached to motors and wire armatures, which I could manually tweak to adjust the shape of the light’s rotated form. The pitch controller on the turntable let me directly control timing, while the digital pipeline was great for sequencing and motion control. I also built a custom camera timer for my DSLR from a cannibalized Nikon wired remote, an Arduino. This gave me lots of flexibility for adjusting the timing and length of long exposure sequences.
Kim creates stop motion analog vfx with things like ferrofluid, toner particles and magnets. He’s also into synths … our type of guy. Full interview coming next week!
Screenshot from The 7th Voyage of Sinbad accessed at Where the Long Tail Ends here
[Commissioned by @glarnboudin. The dragon from 7th Voyage is referred to in Ray Harryhausen’s notes as Taro, even though the name is never spoken in the film. The name came from the tuatara, which inspired his design. This in turn inspired me to take it in the direction of an insular giant and a flightless drake, as there are plenty of giant reptiles and flightless birds on real world islands. It also inspired the adaptive defense ability. Tuataras, despite their morphological simplicity, have one of the fastest evolving genomes in the animal kingdom. Appearances can be deceptive.]
Drake, Island CR 13 LE Dragon This immense dragon has four legs and no wings, and a crest of low spines connected by skin running down the length of its back. Its tail ends in a triangular barb and its teeth include two prominent fangs. Ridged horns grow from its head.
Island drakes are massive drakes that have adapted to life on islands by becoming large and flightless. Whereas other drakes have to compete with true dragons and stay relatively small and mobile, island drakes have expanded to the role of apex predator, and rarely have to worry about true dragons. They have taken the adaptive nature of drakes to an extreme—they can become temporarily immune to energy damage, giving them an upper hand in fights if a dragon does come to attack them.
Although island drakes are just as malicious as most other drakes, they have more patient and orderly minds. This is taken advantage of by powerful sorcerers or monsters, and island drakes make better allies than a typical drake. The one exception to this are with cyclopes; island drakes hate all cyclopes with a passion and attempt to kill them on sight.
Few islands can support more than a single island drake, but the creatures can go without food for extended periods of time and survive on fruit, shellfish or other miscellaneous food items if large prey is unavailable. Island drakes may swim from island to island in search of food, treasure or mates. Island drakes lay a small clutch of large buoyant eggs into the ocean—these float like coconuts for potentially thousands of miles before coming ashore on a new island and hatching.
An island drake is about sixty feet long, standing around twenty feet high at the shoulder.
Sally Face is OUT NOW on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch and PC
A DARK MYSTERY IS UNFOLDING… Delve into an unsettling adventure about a boy with a prosthetic face. After a string of mysterious murders, Sal and friends discover something truly sinister haunting their small town.
Please share the news with your friends, so I can keep making weird games for you
“Practical in-camera effects for Missing Link required 3D-printing 106,000 unique facial replacements, creating a 36-pound elephant puppet, and building 110 sets for 65 unique locations. Find out how the filmmakers helped surpass the achievements of our previous films!”
“Missing Link is LAIKA’s first film to create custom 3D-printed faces for every character in every shot. This guaranteed a wider range of expressions. Over 106,000 faces were printed for the film.”
