The following animation originally started as a university project, where we were supposed to create a so-called Doodle, which became very popular through Google. The task was originally to create a lettering suitable for an event or anniversary of a famous person.
But in the end I put much more time into it and it became a personal project. I have always been interested in the craft behind elaborate stop-motion animations and decided to make a paper cut animation myself.
The animation shows the first atmospheric steam engine invented by Thomas Newcomen in 1712. It was used as a groundwater pump in mines and many years later James Watt improved the efficiency of this machine, today he is often wrongly thought to be the forefather of the steam engine.
Process
In the following video you can see my working process quite well. I used black photo cardboard for the silhouettes and animated them in front of a small green screen by stop motion technique. Then I put everything together in After Effects. The sound design I realized with Ableton Live.
If you want to know more about the effort and production process of such an animation, please contact me.