About the animations

"When I started working with stop-motion animations, I felt the same sense of fun that children have when they are really involved in something. It was a refreshing change for me after years of computer designing. I started to do quick short animations that were simple and easy. Then they turned into an animated alphabet, which began to increasingly evolve. I felt like I had discovered something new! Not only the process was fun, but also the results were rich, organic, and detailed in a way that would be hard to achieve in regular computer animation.

As a mom concerned about the environment, I also enjoyed the fact that this creative process is eco-friendly: In addition to art supplies, we use recycled materials such as toilet-paper rolls, sponges, buttons, and whatever else we find around the house. Cosima and Nikolas helped out with their ideas and feedback!

The initial project grew to include flashcard chapters (including some designed by college students), creative alphabets submitted by various artists, and a website with downloadable files. We are also planning iphone/ipad applications, coloring pages, memory games, books, and stop-motion kits with collage material and digital cameras. We are also focusing on the Spanish, German, and French version of the DVD.

Here is some information on the technical aspect of the animations: Each animation is 5 - 20 seconds long. Each second has 10 photos, so we took up to 300 photos for each animation. Then we added up to 30 sound layers and voice-over, plus a music layer. Everything was retouched and modified in post-production, and then more layers were added. The work for the English Alphabet DVD involved a total of 25,290 files.
We think it was worth the effort! "

Ulrike Kerber

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