The Italian graffiti artist Blu uses the public streets as his canvas. He is known for his large works of art that stretch across public walls and buildings often depicting strange images and creatures. Although he is a 2D graffiti artist he has made several creations he calls Muto meaning “dumb” in Italian. In these creations he uses stop motion in order to have his creations crawl across the walls and streets, often displaying somewhat disturbing abstract images. By using stop motion and general surroundings, Blu is able to take a 2D image and turn it into a living breathing entity that has character and personality.
The fluidity of the animation in this video is amazing. To think that it is all done in chalk and every movement is the result of several pictures taken is astonishing and undoubtedly time consuming. This being compared to the old chalk drawings of J. Stuart Blackton show how far animation has come and the abstract ideas of current artists (Blackton animation shown below). Many people also view graffiti as needless vandalism. Although that may be true in some cases, this displays the technical aspect of it and how artistic one must be to truly bring the medium to life.
The stop motion does not only bring the images to life but it also allows them to interact with the environment. This is shown at time 1:56 as the humanoid image crawls under the barred window. This is again shown too much greater extent at time 2:18 when the three-legged robot kicks the log off the wall. This sort of interaction gives the drawing a lot of personality resulting in a more realistic feel.
Finally, with the fluid movements, interaction with the surroundings, and flow from one image to the next, one thing brings it all together. This one thing is the sound effects used. Each being has its own sounds that correspond to their specific actions. This gives each character depth and gives the feeling that they are actually moving around in the environment as their feet rustle on the ground. If this animation was silent it would still be impressive but it would not feel as though the images were alive, walking the city streets.
I commented on Megan’s Blog and Brittany’s Blog.
