Litterbug: Animating with Litter

Presenting our 4,5 minute Christmas short film Litterbug! A stop motion/live action hybrid animation created from litter to usher in the 2020s.

A short story about a litter constructed tiny robot
that encounters the magic of Christmas while out collecting other litter.

His name? — E.D., or rather, Ed. E.D. is short for Energy Drink, which it says on his back since that’s made from a can. The name is also an obvious reference to E.T., a film which heavily influenced the short. E.D. is a litterbug, just like his companion Litter Critter. Both creatures are made from litter and I could imagine a whole bunch of litterbugs if any sequal or series was called for.

Why Litter?

I try to do a short animation each year, preferably preferably something with the family. In the previous year we didn’t get around to it, so somehow my brain farts conspired to let this production get a bit out of hand.

This litter theme came up during the year since I went out to collect litter several times. The choice to do a litter stop motion animation for Christmas and New Year quickly became obvious.

Suffice to say, litter bugs us. It bugs us a lot. And we’re hoping to make the world a little bit cleaner by doing our bit and inspiring people.

Production videos

The film has three accompanying litter collection vlogs, as well as a short making of. I'll also place them here. The vlogs are in Dutch, but subtitles are available.

The short itself was the most time-consuming but the vlogs took quite some time as well, even featuring some bits of animation.

Production started with collecting litter with the kids. Their part in the animation itself was some ideas and the voices. Saskia and I did the construction and animation.

It was absolutely essential to have likeable characters so a lot of thought went into the design of E.D. It was kind of obvious that emotive expression were needed and that called for treading the beaten path. I’m sure you noticed the design and story has elements of E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, WALL·E, and Star Wars’ BB8. I should also mention Johnny 5 from Short Circuit. Some of these similarities were intentional, some inevitable.

We hope to create a longer behind the scenes video at some point to show more of the proces behind the project. The following short making of will have to do. Suffice to say that recycling is indispensable — pun intended.

You can watch them, along with the film itself, in this Youtube playlist. Please like and share so we can actually inspire some people to help make our world a little bit cleaner.

Constructing E.D.

A stray bikelamp got the whole character started. Most of E.D.’s components are from a really old computer found in the bushes in the playground behind our house.

E.D. has lots of bottle caps: four for the wheels and a bottle cap with lid for his neck. Those half spheres on his wheels are from crackling ball fireworks.
The on/off switch for his headlight … facelight? … came from a mangled solar panel lantern.
I didn’t use solder holder, it’s all litter, so his arms are from an umbrella. We found three of them — broken and discarded or swept away — and used two in the animation. The third umbrella came rusted from a canal and was too far gone.
Two cans were used for his body. One Heineken and one Energy Drink. You can still read ‘Energy Drink’ on his back, hence his name E.D., or Ed.
And that aluminum foil is actually from a single use BBQ. That came in right handy bacause I wouldn’t have managed hinges without it for his neck, shoulders and brow. I was really stumped on how to accomplish those until I came across the discarded BBQ.

We did allow ourselves to use glue, batteries and lights in the film, so the battery holder inside wasn’t litter, just recycled. The lamplight still worked, though! And I added wiring from the computer we had found.
Constructing ED took me a week to figure out!

Follow us online at:
Saskia Groenhard on Instagram: @sassefratsels
Frank Boxman on Twitter and Instagram: @frankboxman
Mutant Worm on Facebook: @mutantworm