First Touch to Sand Animation

1/10/2019, CSM Animation Studio

In the beginning of the Character Animation course in the Central Saint Martin in London, our tutor Steve introduced sand animation practice to us. It was my first time touching sand animation. Because there was no keyframes drawn ahead, we need to choose one inspiration from given pictures and morph the images and shapes of the sand frame by frame. Initially, as working in groups, we selected a picture of a huge black egg hiding a boy inside in front of a tiny bird and discussed a short story from it: an egg left from a leaving bird cracks and breaks into several parts, then a boy stands from inside the egg and his hands transform into a bird’s wings. Eventually, the boy flys into the sky and goes away like a bird.

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We used dragonframe to frame them one by one and edited these photos in the computer. The final video lasts for more than 1 min.

Sand is an unstable material that can easily change itself. When I was moving the sand shape, I realised that sand animation needs sensitive touching due to this property. And it is best thinking the mature version of images before you move the sand. Additionally, sand animation seems to be a more freehand style of art, and could be added into the animation like puppet animation or stop frame. Maybe I can consider this kind of style in my own animation film in the future.

It is useful getting to know different styles and materials of animation such as sand and digital softwares. That did open my eyes and broke the limits of paper using.