WATCH: Stick Figure Runs Amok Across Digital Devices in Delightful Animation
Friend of Yahoo Tech Prosthetic Knowledge points out a totally charming and very creative animation video from Alan Becker.
I was a little skeptical at first when I noted its length, but it turns out to have been the best 13 minutes I’ve spent so far today. (And apparently it’s not just me: The clip went up yesterday and already has 1.2 million views on YouTube!) Here it is:
What, you want a plot summary first? OK: A guy fiddling with digital animation leaves the room for a moment, and a stick figure he’s just drawn onscreen comes to life and starts climbing around his computer desktop.
By the time the animator returns, his creation has found its way into a digital stick-man smackdown reminiscent of the vintage viral hit Xiao Xiao No. 3. But you don’t have to know what that is to enjoy how things go from there.
The animator swiftly wipes out his stick man’s playmates, and digital stick man goes nuts: He wreaks havoc all over the desktop, insults the animator’s Facebook friends, shimmies through a USB cord into the guy’s phone and (after hiding under the SnapChat ghost-sheet icon), starts pummeling his apps.
The animator furiously taps, swipes, and clicks to control the damage.
Can this artist and his renegade creation come to some sort of agreement? No spoilers here, my friend. But I did call this video “charming,” didn’t I? You’ll enjoy the ending.
This is actually the latest in a series of Animator vs. Animation videos that Becker (evidently a recent college grad) started on when he was still in high school. (See earlier installments here.) This one is definitely the most epic, and was bankrolled by Kickstarter supporters.
He writes that he put in “738.25 work hours” to complete it. And all he’s asking for now is 13 minutes of your time. It’s worth it.
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