The idea was that kids could design their own characters and see them come to life in a cartoon.

This was sold as an art kit in several small New England stores. The package consisted of markers, paper, and a pre-posted envelope in a DVD case. Kids sent in their drawings, and I scanned them and inserted them into the video, sending back a personalized DVD.

The backgrounds and props were kept deliberately simple – approximating the look of construction paper cutouts – so they wouldn’t distract from whatever designs the kids dreamed up for their characters. The characters themselves are actually invisible, almost-two-dimensional squares with decals applied.

I made this video last year in a workshop with a small group of kids. When we decided to adapt this scene from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (or Philosopher’s Stone, for you Brits), we started down that same familiar path… We thought blue or green screen, CG feather…

Then, convinced there had to be a simpler way to achieve the floating feather effect, we started thinking about strings.  Invisible strings.  Fishing line, whatever.  This didn’t work.  Feathers make lousy marionettes.

And then – in a flash – it hit us…

All we needed to do was videotape the falling feather and play it backwards.

Oh, sure it seems obvious now.  You look at the video and you think, of course that’s how they did it.  How else?

There were a few things to consider, though.  Our actors had to act in reverse as well!  They had to look surprised (or smug, in Hermione’s case) before we dropped the feather.  And we can tell you, acting in reverse is not so easy!

Also, we had to do many takes, because the free-falling feather had to land precisely where it was supposed to have been resting before Hermione cast her spell.  Feathers do not take direction well.

In addition to reversing the feather’s descent, we slowed it down – just slightly.  Just enough to make the feather’s ascent last a little longer.  The scene went so quickly as it was, the audience didn’t have enough time to marvel at our onscreen “miracle.”

Also, notice the editing of the scene, which was cut to elongate the effect.  You actually see a couple of different takes of the feather drop.  And what you do see doesn’t last very long.   You really only see the feather rising for about two seconds.  For most of that sequence, we’re watching the kids watch the feather.

We used iMovie HD to run the clip backwards but the effect shouldn’t be too difficult in just about any basic video editing application.  In iMovie HD, simply highlight your clip on the timeline, and then click Editing. Click Video FX, and then click Fast/Slow/Reverse. Select the Reverse direction check box and click Apply.

And that’s it.  Sometimes the simplest solutions are the most effective.

Evil Bowser recruits “volunteers” from other video games in a final bid to defeat his arch nemesis Mario!

And stay tuned for a detailed “making of” feature.  A LOT of post-production work went into this one!

What changes do you notice? And why do you think we made those changes?

Katika Studio Anifilm Festival

Production Notes:

The Epic Of Greenboots:

Based on a character we made up a while ago. A small design homage to Miyazaki. Gabe summoned up all of his undignified improv skills and improvised the voices of Greenboots and Captain Carapace. Enjoy.

Cages:

Not our masterpiece, but an okay white-board animation with art by Gabe.

The Littlest Harlequinade…

Probably our best film out of this collection. Creepy with lots of dolls and rabbits and babies, which are our three favorite things to use in creepy stories. Very painstaking photography and videography by Alex– this film took a whole day. Special thanks to Adam for the set pieces. Glad to have it over with and very happy with the result.

Change is Gonna Do Me Good:

Pretty good whiteboard animation that we spent a while on. Added in the title and music afterwards and that made us laugh a lot more than it will make you laugh.

Thanks for viewing!

Studio Katika ~ Gabe Gill (artist) and Alex Koester (videographer and technician)

We both co-plotted and co-directed the films.

For more stuff by Gabe, visit http://gabegillustration.blogspot.com.  (Gabe is a kid, by the way, which might not be so obvious looking at his work.)

Happy (Almost) Halloween!