Light Painting Animation of a Skateboarding Skeleton by Darren Pearson.

Los Angeles-based filmmaker and light painting artist, Darren Pearson has created this mind-bending stop motion short film that follows the adventures of an illuminated skateboarding skeleton. The one-minute video contains over 700 individual photographs that were painted in camera using a small flashlight. So just in case you missed the memo – Pearson painstakingly paints with real life, in real time, rather than adding in special effects later. Ok cool, just checking you got that!

The project started out as an experiment in animating his light paintings through gifs. “After animating a few skeletons doing some break-dancing moves, I decided to try and make them skateboard,” said Pearson, who is a skateboarder himself. “I knew where all the movements should be, and how each trick should look.”

Pearson filmed all over Los Angeles, as well as in parts of San Diego, Yosemite, and Austin, Texas. “I envisioned a video that would be unlike anything I’d seen before,” said Pearson. “And that’s what kept me going even if it’s only a minute long.” Seriously cooltown.

[Cinematography & Editing by Darren Pearson / Sound editing by Ryan Gerle / Music by Gangplans.]