MD6001 Week 14 - Dot (World's smallest stop-motion animation) and the 'Making of'

'Dot' (2010) is a short stop-motion animation film that was directed by Sumo Science, produced by Aardman and shot on a Nokia N8 using microscopic technology. It involves a little girl named Dot who runs through her world that is destroying itself, very much like a level in an adventure-themed computer game.

It uses the smallest ever stop-motion animated character who is only 9mm tall and she has had several replacement figures made because not only is she far too small to manipulate like a normal-sized stop-motion character but she is liable to losing body parts such as her head, her arm and her foot, all of which she lost during the making of the film. Throughout the production the creators would place one model of Dot on the set, take a photograph of it, replace it with another model, take another photograph and so on. The models of Dot were first made in a 3D-modelling computer program and then printed out as resin figures using a 3D printer. Rods were then attached to the the models and they were painted. Due to her miniscule size, the models of Dot were painted underneath a magnifying glass. Lew Gardiner, Aardman's senior mechanical engineer, built the microscope that was attached to the Nokia N8. The set could move underneath the camera to give it a sensse of precision. The film was edited in Adobe After Effects. One notable edit made within the programme wasthe removal of the rods that supported the models of Dot. Although the film was made using minute models and a short set, the stop-motion process still inspires me for the making of my Aduna side project that I will be making at a somewhat larger scale.

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