Stop Motion Sound Design

The goal of this challenge was to create a dark and atmospheric sound design for a stop motion animation. I was provided with the animation. A dark, moody, and visually dynamic stop motion clip made by Nathan Moody. This piece should was a really fun challenge and quite the departure from the usual stuff.

This piece was inspired by the eastern European stop motion master Jan Svankmajer, who in turn influenced the American animators The Brothers Quay, whose style in turn was emulated by Fred Stuhr (RIP) in the well-known Tool video, Sober, and NIN’s Closer. This was made shortly after I was lucky enough to meet and chat with Phil Tippett and see his masterwork, Mad God, so there’s a little bit of that in the mix, too.

I had about two hours to do this. My personal limitations were that I only used sounds I recorded specifically for this challenge and minimal audio processing. Basically I didn’t want to mangle anything beyond recognition.