READY.
256 STOODERS.
65,536 PIXELS EACH.
ZERO CHILL.
SOME THINGS ARE BORN TO FIT IN.
STOODERS WERE BORN MISUNDERSTOOD.
THE COMMODORE 64 HI-RES SCREEN HAD 64,000 PIXELS.
EVERY STOODER HAS 65,536.
ALMOST THE SAME DIGITAL PLAYGROUND THAT STARTED EVERYTHING.
WE JUST NEEDED 1,536 MORE PIXELS TO GET IT WRONG.
It starts with something much larger and eventually gets forced into 65,536 pixels. Then it gets taken apart, moved through code, taken back into human hands and corrected frame by frame, and finally put back together.
01VISUAL RESEARCH+
Every Stooder begins long before the pixels. The first stage is an almost obsessive visual research process — looking for references everywhere: photography, movies, old video games, manga, toys, advertising, characters, objects, and images lost somewhere on the web. Most of them somehow connected to childhood or teenage years.
Sometimes it starts from a single reference. Other times different elements get combined — collages, redrawn parts, different solutions — until something emerges that can be reinterpreted through the visual language of the Stooders.
BECAUSE WHATEVER THE STARTING POINT IS, IN THE END IT HAS TO BECOME A STOODER.A huge head, a small stocky body, chibi/deformed proportions, and above all that furious, screaming, almost obnoxious and exaggerated expression that ties the entire collection together.
02HIGH-RES MASTER → 256x256+
From the research, a high-resolution master is built. This is where the pose, anatomy, expression, clothes, objects, and all those small elements that tell you who the character is get defined.
THEN COMES THE FUNDAMENTAL STEP: FORCING IT INTO 256x256 PIXELS.That resolution is not arbitrary. 256x256 gives you 65,536 pixels — remarkably close to the 64,000 pixels of the Commodore 64’s 320x200 high-resolution screen. Only about a 2.4% difference.
The Commodore 64 was a milestone — one of those machines that helped shape a visual imagination. So the entire Stooders universe is built inside almost the same amount of visual space.
Once the high-resolution master enters that 256x256 world, everything changes. Details disappear, lines merge, elements become unreadable. A process of subtraction and reconstruction begins — cleaning silhouettes, simplifying shapes and colors, recovering details, working on individual pixels until the character becomes readable again at its true size.
AND THIS IS EXACTLY WHERE THE IMAGE TRULY BECOMES A STOODER.03CODE VS HAND+
The character gets broken down into independent parts: head, body, arms, legs, and whenever necessary, eyes, mouth, or other elements.
A custom Python script creates the first animation structure — applying small movements, rotations, and variations to different parts, generating a basic sequence of 9 frames.
BUT THE CODE DOES NOT DECIDE THE FINAL ANIMATION. THOSE NINE FRAMES ARE ONLY RAW MATERIAL.They get brought back into Photoshop and worked on one by one. Positions shift, sections are reconstructed, pixels copied or redrawn, eyes or mouth modified. If a mathematically generated movement does not work visually, it gets broken apart and rebuilt manually: a constant back-and-forth between code and hand.
04DIGITAL STOP MOTION+
Only then do those nine frames make their way into After Effects. Here the work is mainly on timing, rhythm, pauses, and frame sequencing.
NOT LOOKING FOR THE PERFECT SMOOTHNESS OF TRADITIONAL ANIMATION. QUITE THE OPPOSITE.The goal is that slight imperfection, that snap, that controlled stiffness that makes the movement feel almost like digital stop motion.
Research → drawing → high-res master → 256x256 → pixel cleanup → breakdown → Python → 9 frames → Photoshop → After Effects → final loop.