Here’s one thing I learned from school: Stop-motion animation is hard. Damned hard. Not only does it come with all the normal challenges of character animation, it’s incredibly time-consuming and requires either years of experience or a preternatural talent in order to look even half-way decent. This is understood amongst students and teachers alike, so allowances are made for sophomoric attempts at greatness.
But every now and then a student like Stefan Schomerus comes along and screws up the curve for everyone.
While it’s only an excerpt of his full graduatation project, “Plywoodpirates” shows an astouding level of technical aptitude. It’s also full of beautiful compositions and brilliant production design.
Stefan’s planning to put the entire film online soon (with subtitles). Stay tuned!