GIFs and screencaps by the author, via

In just 49 seconds, filmmaker Qanta Shimizu sweeps viewers into the succinct stop-motion narrative of Grandfather’s Match Case. As matchboxes ricochet across a plain wood surface, we are set upon a virtual quest for one special matchbox out of the multicolored cacophony. Shimizu complicates the matter with a wooden whirlwind of colliding, multicolored rectangles and geometric formations, all captured at a painstaking 30 frames per second. 

Created for NHK’s educational TV “TECHNE: The Visual Workshop,” the short film is a lesson in digital storytelling. Check it out below: 

Grandfather’s Match Case from Qanta Shimizu on Vimeo.

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