Out of all the things we've seen in the past year, Dot. The World's Smallest Stop-Motion Animation Character – shot using a Nokia N8 – is one of the most impressive. Since we published the video, we've stumbled across a film showing how Dot was created – join us after the cut to find out more...
In a bid to promote the Nokia N8, Nokia approached stop-motion animation wizards Aardman Animations – known for its Wallace and Grommit films – and asked it to create a film to show off the Nokia N8's capabilities.
The result is Dot. The World's Smallest Stop-Motion Animation Character, an internet phenomenon that's had more than a million hits on YouTube.
Check out Dot. The World's Smallest Stop Motion Animation Character
At only 9mm tall, Dot created a host of problems when filming, such as the fact she's too tiny for traditional stop-motion techniques. Instead, hundreds of Dot characters were created using a 3D resin printer, including stand-ins for when arms, legs and heads fall off, and all were pain-painstakingly painted by hand.
Hardware-wise, all that was required was a Nokia N8 – with its 12-Megapixel camera – and a special CellScope lens. The lens was actually developed to help diagnose malaria in developing countries, letting doctors attach a Nokia handset and photograph blood cells, but Aardman decided it would be a little tricky to animate blood cells!
The resulting film speaks for itself – it's truly staggering to think that it was created using a smartphone. 'Dot'. The Making Of is equally compelling, however, so we suggest you check out the photos and the film below:
The making of Dot. The World's Smallest Stop-Motion Animation Character:
