Since touring Laika’s studios last spring, my fascination with the world of stop-motion animation has grown into pursuing it as a career choice. I was disappointed not to find more stop motion blogs. Few are professionally ran, even fewer are updated. But the website dedicated to being a promotional and informative website for the stop-motion software Dragonframe proved to be excellent in design and content.
http://www.dragonframe.com/blog/
The blog content ties in nicely with the rest of the website. The website’s purpose is threefold:
- promote awareness of features and sales of Dragonframe
- provide tutorials about using Dragonframe and general product support
- give information about what hardware and cameras work with Dragonframe
The blog part of the website ties in with the first purpose, but also supports the software users of Dragonframe by showing the animations they’ve made.
As this is a website made to promote and support a professional product used in the industry, the quality of the design and content is excellent. The organization and ease of navigation is clear and intuitive, a must for a professional website. But the simplicity doesn’t hinder the depth and richness of the content, both of the overall website and of the blog portion.
The blog portion itself does have great features and interesting sections. Down the right sidebar are profiles of artists using Dragonframe, adding a personal connection for the viewer. Each blog post contains a brief video of a great stop motion creation, several poignant stills from the featured video, and a succinct description of the content. They are appropriately tagged and categorized, so you can click on the creator’s name and see other posts featuring their work, or see others in the same category. The categories themselves are interesting and encourage exploration, as you can see student work, commercials, title sequences, and others.
All of that makes the Dragonframe blog professional, but what steals the viewer away into the miniature worlds of the videos is the actual content of the videos. Each one dazzles the imagination and sparks creativity. Personally, I had a hard time breaking away from watching them to move on with my workday. For a few short minutes, you can enter an enchanting dimension of the artist’s making. The Dragonframe blog allows us to wander through tiny worlds as enchanted observers. It completely succeeds on selling us on the magic of stop motion animation. You may never want or need to use the Dragonframe software, but if you love animation, this blog will be a delight for you.
