Embroidery Animation

Hey hey! Long time no post. But, there is good reason: I have been working away at a hand embroidered animation. And yes, I am a little mad. As I’ve been really into embroidery of late, I thought well why not combine that with animation to create something using two of my favourite art forms? So I did just that.

I decided to use a straightforward concept: just a 12 frame walk cycle, which could be looped. I wanted to keep it fairly simple in order to be able to complete it and not make it too hard for myself, especially as this would be my first one. I mean the task is ambitious enough itself, without needing to complicate things further with an intricate design.

I had a load of footage of people walking left over from my ‘Bear’ project, so chose someone who didn’t have too much detail on their clothes and also so you couldn’t really see their face. I then made a walk cycle from the footage and rotoscoped the frames once I was happy with it. After that, I just treated them all as if they were separate embroidery pieces. I used a 6 inch hoop, as I didn’t want to be working too small or I’d have been at risk losing some detail. But I also didn’t want to make it too big, or each frame would have taken too long and any bigger wouldn’t have added anything anyway. I think the size I decided on was right for this project.

I wanted each clothing section to contrast with one another, so I used a mixture of stitches to add more texture. Plus if they were all the same, I think it might have looked quite odd. Which I obviously didn’t want! So I went with back stitch for the outline, satin for the trousers and long and short stitch for the hoody. I also used satin for the shoes, socks and skin, but in different directions than the trousers, to add further contrast.

As I was sewing the project, I was pretty nervous as to whether it was actually going to work or not, but not knowing this kind of gave me the drive to keep on going and to finish it. I was curious about the result myself, which really spurred me on- I was very excited to see how it would turn out! I think because it was 12 frames it made it more manageable, whereas if there were any more, I might have been less enthused throughout because it would have felt like I was sewing frames upon frames and thinking in the back of my mind it might be a little pointless if it doesn’t work. But now I know that this technique works, I would happily do another, possibly with more frames. I do have a few ideas, but I also have a few ideas for other projects, so we’ll see!

As I alluded to in the previous paragraph, on the whole, I am happy with the outcome. And I am super proud of it. It’s by no means perfect, but I also kind of like that about it- I have created it by hand, so why not play to that? I always think if something is hand crafted it’s a little pointless if it’s too smooth, because then it might as well have been CG or something…

I think doing this project has definitely upped my embroidery skills, especially in certain stitches and I think my next embroidery project is going to feel very weird when I don’t need to sew another similar one straight after! Oh and just a side note before I forget as if you’re reading this and feel you want to make something similar, then just a little bit on how I digitalised each frame. I decided to scan them in, because to photograph them you would really need the use of a studio, or else the lighting would differ frame to frame. Scanning was also a good way of keeping each image flat and getting a similar result each time.

Regarding the hoop marks and any creases in the fabric, I used the ‘spot healing brush’ tool in Photoshop to paint them out. I tried it without any smoothing and the result didn’t look as good until I used this brush. Here’s a side by side of the ‘raw’ version (on the left), versus the smooth:

And finally, I’m guessing you want to see it?! Here you go: