Rubik's Cube Animation

It’s a simple concept, but took a lot of time and effort to execute. I’ve done similar animations prior to this one, and each one got progressively better as I recognized mistakes and imperfections that I hadn’t thought to avoid. The planning of the frames were done in my head, which I realize in retrospect that I got a little lucky it worked out considering the intricacies of this animation compared to the previous ones I’ve done. On top of the increased complexity, this was the first time I set an animation to music, so I had to ensure each animation sequence either took 8 frames or was at least divisible by 8 when combined with others. If I do more animations like this in the future, I’ll make sure to storyboard the animation rather than relying on focus to get it right.

The video is made up of 192 frames with 168 of them being unique. the same animation sequence is iterated 3 times but in different orientations each time. This means that the cube was solved into 56 different designs total for the making of this video. This took approximately 6 hours. The time could have been reduced if I had improved my cube manipulation skills prior and also if I hadn’t accidentally scrambled it entirely several times. Another thing that would improve the creation experience is if I had a proper set up or designated work area so that all the photos wouldn’t have to be taken in a single sitting in order to maintain continuity. I don’t necessarily plan to create another stop motion video, but if I get the inspiration to do so, I know several things I will do differently.