So here’s the thing: real artists come up with masterpieces no matter the platform, tools or limitations. Real artists break the rules. An English firm named Dentsu London has managed to realize a series of stop motion shots assembled from long exposure light paintings.

Here’s how it works:

We developed a specific photographic technique for this film. Through long exposures we record an iPad moving through space to make three-dimensional forms in light.

First we create software models of three-dimensional typography, objects and animations. We render cross sections of these models, like a virtual CAT scan, making a series of outlines of slices of each form. We play these back on the surface of the iPad as movies, and drag the iPad through the air to extrude shapes captured in long exposure photographs. Each 3D form is itself a single frame of a 3D animation, so each long exposure still is only a single image in a composite stop frame animation.

Each frame is a long exposure photograph of 3-6 seconds. 5,500 photographs were taken. Only half of these were used for the animations seen in the final edit of the film.

The result is incredible. Especially when they “slide the iPad” and 3D images come out from it, it looks as if the screen comes to life. I would risk to call this experiment “magical”.

Make sure to check out the embedded video below, with the stop-motion film Dentsu London created. [via TUAW]