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An Architectural Study of a Norwegian Cathedral Facade Animated From a Single Photo

Animator Ismael Sanz-Pena has brought the sculptural facade of Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim, Norway to life through a unique continuous motion animation that uses just one photograph. Sanz-Pena’s pairing of the video with a lively, fast-paced field recording of chants, cheers, and drumming adds an extra element of vitality. The artist described his process to Colossal:

The idea behind the film was to find the innate movement inherit in still forms. Every sculpture has movement in it, and it is the task of the animator to discover it. It was through the process of editing my imagery that I discovered that a single image would suffice to create the animation. The film was made by zooming into the image and panning row by row while making sure that different architectural motives aligned in every increment. This also gave a structure to the film.

Originally hailing from Spain, Sanz-Pena has studied and worked in the field of animation around the world and is currently an assistant professor of animation at the Kansas City Art Institute.