Loon's New Art Thread: An Attempt at Stop Motion

[Loon]

Trying out a new thread here, so, let's see how this goes.

Alright, for this first post I wanted to share a project I had been planning for the past month, Godzilla Day. Godzilla's a dinosaur, depending on who you ask, and this is more of a blog than a strictly art post, but uh...

For those who don't know, I work as a child care assistant for my local school district. I work the morning shift, so after we're done taking care of the before school group, we have kindergarteners to watch. This is basically school before school for them, since we have to come with lesson plans that usually involve Sovial-Emotional learning activities or learning the alphabet, yadda yadda yadda.

Ever since summer, I've been marathoning the Godzilla films and other adjacent Toku stuff (Hesei Gamera for the win). I'm currently about to watch Final Wars for the first time in probably 15 years, so uh, wish me luck. So yeah, I've become interested in Kaiju again after a long break, you could call it a "Godzilla resurgence," but don't. I wanted to share that with my students, so, I came up with a lesson plan for a Godzilla-themed day for November 3rd.

There are two separate, smaller rooms in our overall child care room, one for older students and one for younger kids. I drew 2 of my favorite designs on the whiteboard (to varying degrees of success).


Ironically, Shin was in the younger kids room. Didn't really think that one through...

The first activity was making Godzilla (MosuGoji) masks and Mothra wings. While they were working on them, I put on the old Hanna-Barbera cartoon for the kinders, which they were surprisingly into. I can't share pictures of them, since the kids would be visible, so here's a scan of the Mothra wing.


Our "special guest" was Godzilla, himself, here represented by my sister's giant Jakks Pacific 2014 figure (it was once mine and I regret giving it to her sometimes, but alas). He was a smash hit with the kids, as well as this Chibi Mothra who they also fell in love with. After telling them who she was, one of the girls loudly told my coworker, "this is Mothra, she's from Japan!"


Finally, the main event, the Hedorah x Mechagodzilla x King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters Bean Bag Attack! The big activity is a bean bag toss using some classic villain monsters as targets.

These guys, despite their looks, took about a week to put together.

Ghidorah was the first, and he's the prime example of a learning experience. He was initially just paper supported by bundles of Popsicle sticks. Once I worked on the others, I realized he needed a bit more support, so I gave him a cardboard backing. He's a little Showa, a little Monsterverse. I actually had bought the masks at a 99 cent store a while back and never had much of a purpose for them, so I tore them apart to use here.


Hedorah has risen to become one of my favorite monsters in the past bit, mostly due to Godziban, tbh. I'm a late-Showa heathen, what can I say? I also thought he'd make for some nice contrast to the other ones. Also, honestly, he's not a ton of work. The eyes were a shiny backing from a Super7 Transformers figure box, and I think they're really cool. They also can pop off if they get hit.


Finally, my sweet, sweet Mechagodzilla. This is another one that came from me wanting each monster to have something unique about their materials, obviously this one is covered in tin foil. It's the only one to be made mostly out of cardboard and presented a bit of a challenge. Sharpie doesn't particularly like to stick to foil. I stayed over an hour late at work to finish him up. Like Hedorah, I used part of the Transformers box to make the eyes, since I wanted to them to look clear. It also pops apart, with the arms and head held on by Velcro. Knocking those off gets you extra points.


And here it is, the city scene. I used a lot of buildings that I feel define my local area, including the school itself. Alas, as much as my hometown deserves to be trashed by Kaiju, it will only ever exist as a cardboard fantasy.

The older kids got to play this game first, but they were relatively restrained. The kinders were the real destroyers, Mechagodzilla and King Ghidorah were absolutely destroyed once they were done with them. Hedorah, after some eye surgery was able to retire to my brother's room.

[Mamasaurus]

That looks really fun! I bet the kids had a blast. I know mine would

[Dusty Wren]

Loon, this is so freakin' delightful! The bean bag toss monsters and the little cardboard buildings are charming, and using the material off a Transformer's box to make the shiny eyes was an inspired choice. They all look great, and I'm sure the kids loved them.

[Halichoeres]

Wow, you went all out! What a fun day that must have been (although no doubt tiring for you).

[WarrenJB]

Too, too awesome.

[Loon]

Thanks everyone for the comments. I can confirm that the kids did have a lot of fun and I'm definitely going to do this again next year.

Meanwhile, I've been working on a book trailer for my Children's Literature course. The Magic Treehouse: Dinosaurs Before Dark was always a book I'd wanted to read as a kid, but never got around to, until last week when I decided it would be my book trailer subject.

I'm pretty happy with it, in a way. I don't have much video editing or stop motion we experience, so it's not the best. Luckily, my dad was able to help me out with a few scenes.

[Halichoeres]

That's a pretty effective trailer! I haven't heard of this book before, but I now feel like I have an idea of the plot and kind of want to read it now. Is that the new Greg Paul pterosaur book they're thumbing through?

[Crackington]

What a great way to introduce the kids to Godzilla @Loon , catch them young!

Your artwork is very good too, I prefer your version of Godzilla to the tiny headed Legendary version.

Good work on the trailer too - thumbs up!

[Faelrin]

Just stumbled on this, while browsing. Great Godzilla art, and kid me wish I had something as cool as what you went through the trouble of doing for those kids at school.

Nice little stop motion trailer thing too. I haven't read that book in ages. Honestly it was the only book in the series I actually had the opportunity to read, and it definitely fueled my imagination as a kid, and not too long after I was introduced to Dinotopia actually (the series at least).