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Leeper icon The Hell’s Half Mile / Toast!

The Hell’s Half Mile / Toast! Exhibit Display
The Hell’s Half Mile Sixteen Candles Zoetrope | 2022
Automated Loop
36” Zoetrope diameter, three-tiered animated anniversary cake fabricated with laser-cut plywood, 3D resin-printed objects, laser-cut acrylic, and a variety of paints, fabric, LEDs, and fiber optics.
Toast! an Animated Potluck | 2020
Stop motion loop. 50 sec
Laser etching applied to cocktail crackers photographed in stop motion.

Like the medieval alchemist in pursuit of a mystical process to transform common materials into pure gold, I have long been fascinated with animation, an artform that transforms static forms and images into living motion. My hope in combining the primitive mechanics of a pre-film zoetrope with modern animation tools and digital fabrication, is to restore the wonder once felt when witnessing a simple static form come to life, unmediated by a glowing monitor.
Due to the long-term, complex nature of most animated projects, I see smaller projects like Toast! as an opportunity to stay artistically nimble, allowing me to establish creative partnerships and to engage new technology.
Toast! an Animated Potluck is a personal contribution to A Midwestern Animated Potluck, sponsored by ASIFA USA-Central.
The Hell’s Half Mile Sixteen Candles Zoetrope was constructed and filmed by CMU Animation majors as a Festival Bumper to commemorate the 16th anniversary of the Hell’s Half Mile Film & Music Festival in Bay City Michigan. The cake refers to John Hughe’s coming-of-age film Sixteen Candles (1980).


In many ways, working with physical materials is like collaborating with a brilliant, but stubborn creative partner. While animation is an artform where anything can happen, the seemingly endless possibilities of the digital workspace can sometimes overwhelm and shut down my creative process. Ironically, I find the limitations of working with physical materials both inspire my artistry and ground the creative process. I suspect there is a similar effect on my audience as well. Somehow, the near-magical qualities of animation are amplified when paired with the mundane limitations of our physical world.
As humans, we are bound to image and movement in a visceral and sensory way. While animation is not the only artform to embrace these aesthetic elements, in my experience the animator’s ability to shape, bend, and amplify these two powerful forces make animation a uniquely poignant form of artistry. Both for the animator who makes the work, and for the audience who encounters it.

Experimental stop motion is a straightforward process that leaves room for randomness and play quote symbol

Stephan Leeper
Stephan Leeper
Nationality: American
Central Michigan University

Storyteller, Animator, and Educator. Formerly Layout Supervisor on Veggietales and freelance Stop Motion Animator, Steve has founded two animation programs in the Mid-west. In 2017 Steve started the Animation Program at Central Michigan University where he continues to produce animation in a variety of media. You can see examples of his work at www.jsleeper.com