Sand Animation

Playing with sand can be recreational and rewarding! We love to play with sand on the beaches and in the backyard making houses and domes. It is so much of fun. Kids love it anytime and unfortunately adults just have to get back to their business shutting up their kid souls. But if anywhere you get burdened by the thought that you must stop this fun to get back to work, you can try this out- Sand art or Sand animation!  Sand art is simply a game that the artist plays with the sand and earn laurels for their creativity.

The artist can create amazing visuals with the use of hand or brush to play around with sand on a glass board and project his creations with the use of an overhead projector. The artist will add some sand or remove some to create a series of images. The effects are enhanced by the use of music and lighting techniques. The effectiveness is at its best when there is a storyline to it. The animation is most tricky to be captured as the image once drawn just get dissolved quickly in the sand again to emerge into a new one with yet another touch of the artist. It is amazingly fascinating.

Many presenters and orators use sand animation to enrich their speech and presentations and make them more impactful. The sand art or painting as it is called as has been there for ages but perhaps its cultivation as a serious Hobby or business started only a few decades ago. Ferenc Cako (Hungarian artist), Illana Yahav (from Israel), Kseniya Simonova (Ukrainian), David Myriam, Joe Castillo, are some popular names associated with sand animation.Students (Arena Multimedia) in India used sand animation to create  a five-minute movie of A.R. Rahman’s version of Vande Mataram. They worked under Kareem Meppadi, an Arena Multimedia faculty.