Kate’s Creative Catalyst: iStopMotion

Australia based illustrator and artist Kate Churchward believes in the importance of details, something that is plain to see when viewing her intricate and whimsical work. Having recently become interested in stop motion animation, Kate looked to examples made with iStopMotion for inspiration and thus was bitten by the animation bug.

Kate’s first clip with iStopMotion came together quickly; she drew a character and pulled some 3D objects from around the house until a story came together. For her second clip, she started with a storyboard, listing important elements of the story and key effects.

“The beauty of stop motion animation is that you can play or plan in whatever approach to the creative process that works for you,” she says.

Kate adds that the intuitiveness of the app has only helped her creativity flourish, noting that the stock sound effects of iStopMotion have encouraged her to further explore all the possibilities that the software has to offer.

Kate says, “As an illustrator, music and sound is not something I’m used to dealing with, so it was heaps of fun to use the sound effects and sound tracks on the fly during the editing process.”

Citing the hands-on nature of stop motion animation as the catalyst to her creativity, Kate loves the feeling of connectedness to her work through building sets and characters.

“Stop motion appeals to me for a few reasons,” says Kate. “Conceptually, anything goes! The storytelling possibilities are basically limitless and reach across 2D and 3D, so it’s a wonderful medium to really engage your imagination and express your ideas.”

Though the technical aspects of stop motion may seem daunting at first, Kate assures that they are very easy to pick up. Learning comes naturally from one project to the next, which Kate describes as “addictive.”

As for future projects, Kate has several ideas on the drawing board. If her past work is any indicator of what’s to come, we will be eagerly waiting to see what comes next!

To see more of Kate’s illustration work, click here!