Stickbot Animation

February was the launch of my first ever youtube channel. I have been using youtube for a long time. I mean, who hasn't. From watching videos on how to fix your dishwasher to tutorials on some new software you've always wanted to learn, to learning a guitar riff to your favourite rock song, to endless silly cat videos. It can be a wealth of information and one of the biggest time burglars of my day.

Stikbots were a toy that I found on a list of cool tech toys for 2016, when I was looking up Christmas ideas for kids. Unlike the various $300 robotic toys that made the list, these came in under $10, came in a variety of colours, had lots of moving limbs but no batteries. I went on a hunt to find them. After tracking down a few at Mastermind (the only retailer in Canada that currently sells them) I bought a few and the kids and I discovered our love of such a simple and yet fun toy (for those with a creative mind, a tablet or smart phone and a little know how with video and sound editing - thank you four years of film school)

And so burst forth our Stikbot Youtube channel. These little toys are perfect for making stop motion animation. Little known to most, but I was accepted into film school with my own home made VHS tape stop motion made video, that I had hand drawn and recorded page by page. These days animation technology is accessible for most people, which I think is awesome because it really IS fun to make your own stop motion or animated movies.

The videos I post on our channel are made from animation snippets done both by me and my children. My children tend to have more random things happen in their videos which I love because the humour is in the absurdity of it all. 

Our most liked video so far is our Stikbot vs. The Blob but feel free to check our other videos on our channel.
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