Sand animation research - Caroline Leaf

Sand animation Is created by applying sand to a surface and then rendering or creating images in the sand. This is done by drawing lines and figures in the sand by hand. Often a light box will be used to view translucent films.The technique was invented by Caroline leaf who created her first sand animation in 1968 at Harvard university. The short film was called peter and the wolf. She created the short film by putting sand of top of a light box and then manipulated the textures frame by frame.

This is a sand animation by Caroline leaf. The animation was created in 1977. It was based on Franz Kafkas short story 'the metamorphis'. The animation is about a travelling salesman who wake up to find that he has morphed into a gigantic creature. I think this type of animation works well to tell a story as the artist is able to  manipulate the sand  to create an animation. This technique also allows the animator to work at a faster pace as scenes do not have to be re created for every frame. The animator can move the sand to show movement, whilst using the stop frame technique to capture the animation. The artist has been able to create very detailed scenes capturing them from different viewpoints and angles.In some scenes you can see how the artist  has manipulated the sand to show how backgrounds appear to be moving. The scenes look as if they are moving out of shot. I think the contrast created between the sand and the light box captures the animation very well. The dark areas created with the sand adds depth to the animation. The areas where there is no sand over the light box allows light to shine through highlighting areas of light. This also allows the animator to show pattern and shape. The shapes created with the sand look like silhouettes. The artist has also created tone within the animation by changing the amount of sand she has layered on the light box. In areas where the sand appears lighter the artist has used a thinner amount of sand allowing light to shine through.

This is an inspiring way to animate as i feel that this technique would allow me to tell a story using a lot of pattern and mark making.