Oh My Gourd - A Halloween Stop Motion Pumpkin Carving Experiment

Dozens upon dozens upon dozens of pumpkins were cut, gutted, rotated, scraped, poked, slapped, and banged to make this stop-motion animation and the music that bring it to life. It took a few years - pumpkins rot, schedules get busy - but we loved discovering the methods that worked and the many that didn't.
Many pumpkins were photographed twice. First as a nicely lit, carving-free plate. Then again after carving our designs and removing the top or back so we could insert a light. The two were then composited together to remove the lighting equipment. We re-used pumpkins where we could (fronts and backs and sometimes sides) but that wasn't always possible.
We often projected images onto the pumpkins to improve our carvings' consistency between frames, but due to each pumpkin's unique curves, it often took just putting it in front of the camera to check alignment.
There were many animations that didn't make it into the final piece which seemed like good ideas at the time but ended up being too complicated and did not work (a carved heart that emerged and beat with the pulsing of the light, a complex halloween themed pumpkin zoetrope, and an animation of a tree that grows as the pumpkins sizes do among others).
The music was created by through what we've deemed "Pumpkin Orchestration." Grayson Matthews’ Igor Correia created this catchy rhythmically-driven underscore with the help of Tom Westin and the team of sound designers at Grayson including Ben Swarbrick, Laura Titchner, Chris Masson, Sebastian Biega and Aaron Verdonk. Special cameos by Brian Bernard and Asha Dillion. Most of these sounds were smashed, tapped, kicked, clapped or scooped out of actual pumpkins and carving tools, with some enhancement and sound manipulation courtesy of Logic and Protools.
We hope this inspires others and can't wait to see what you create!
Created by: Sean Ohlenkamp and Rob Popkin
Photography: Rob Popkin (www.robertpopki...)
Music: Grayson Matthews (graysonmatthews...)

[@Maffoo]

Dope. This should have like, a zillion views. In before it does

[@atrelex9442]

It will*

[@Evify]

It hurts me to imagine how long this took

[@xxdoctorkingzxx]

Evify 2 years

[@coyotix]

It took these creators well over a year to carve all these pumpkins and do the final filming for the stop-motion video here!

[@h0rcrux774]

Evify and like 500 pumpkins

[@Arctic_Jungle4]

it was a couple years i watched this in school

[@JoeyV34]

I hope this goes viral because this was very awesome and creative! Can’t imagine carving that many pumpkins...

[@greygraham5361]

BayernMann agreed!!

[@annm4833]

BayernMann Absolutely! these guys nailed it! 👍

[@sturm3n]

The soundtrack was pumpkins, too? 🎃 Wow! 🎃

[@Fran-Mago]

the camara is a pumpkin xd

[@The_Old_Wolf]

Brilliant work of art. Mad props to artist and musician for creating this delight.

[@ThisLittleCriticSanad]

First off, how do you only have 3k subs and secondly, wow that must have taken forever!

[@amany8538]

This Little Critic was thinking that

[@giuliana1118]

This Little Critic I hope this goes viral

[@jennyfundie7137]

They don’t post often

[@meganmelissa914]

Yup

[@RandomDudesJa2002]

This Little Critic subscribe yo

[@vvarietyshow]

I would pay good money to have even 10% of your guys' talent.

[@robinminkler]

I just kept shaking my head imagining the mind-boggling amount of work that must've gone into this!

[@YouTube]

OH MY GOURD, this is incredible.

[@sillymissile]

ahhahaha hehe

[@7race684]

Bro what

[@jaydofr]

This is one of the most least liked KZbin camment

[@Melissa_Lawrence]

really f*****ng cool guys! Great job, look forward to seeing and looking at more of your creations! Dope AF!

[@maddyline5797]

I want the kind of friends and teammates that spend years carving pumpkins with me but it's hard enough to get them out for brunch. Fantastic work! :D

[@crazedadman]

HAHAHAHA! Love it.

[@RM-ud9tf]

Really, really impressive you guys. I just saw this on my local news, and immediately came over to KZbin to search for it....You guys are to be congratulated on spending SO much time cutting, splicing, slicing, cutting, and the blood, sweat, and tears you put into this project. It’s very impressive, but what’s even more impressive, is the time it took to produce this and to splice all those clips together and match it up with the sounds of all the carving, cutting, etc on those gourds ! BRAVO team !!!!!!

[@nickmonaco7451]

Man, people can do AMAZING things.

[@boekster7108]

Needs to be number 1 on trending! Let’s make it there!

[@zoecamky4579]

It is in the Halloween tab :p

[@RaymondMcCarthyBergeron]

Hi from reddit. That was beautiful.

[@RandomDudesJa2002]

Raymond McCarthy Bergeron subscribe yo

[@Sportsastoldbyagirl]

Raymond McCarthy Bergeron 🎃🎃

[@DarshanSenTheComposer]

No pumpkin was harmed in the making of this video

[@Thorrez]

Absolutely amazing. I especially like the 3D cube.

[@kdogthemaster]

Big shout out to these guys right here, I'm an artist myself, and i can do alot with a knife, but that, that's celebrity type work, keep going 👍

[@villyanv123]

Awesome video! I can't carve pumpkins worth my life, except for the typical jack-o-lantern face.

[@satviktandon3508]

This is one of the best things I have ever seen. I hope it goes viral for amount of hardwork you put into it.

[@donnahogan6762]

Awesome Job! Awesome video!💙🎃👻☠👽💀🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃🎃

[@FeelgoodMusic88]

This is SO cool!! You guys are so talented!

[@edenkennemer3194]

Why hasn't this gone viral yet? I heard this took years to make and you went through thousands of pumpkins!

[@SurfacedStudio]

That's amazing! Respect to the dedication for making this Pumpinimation!

[@DomCarusoToronto]

Nice work Sean - proving again that you never sleep

[@leesag.9804]

Wow! A true labor of love. Great Job!

[@flyingshrimpgd5791]

This is a masterpiece, it makes 90% of all videos on the trending page look absolutely ridiculous, and I'm being completely serious.

[@VeganDefinition]

Wow, I'm gonna go carve a pumpkin after watching this. Such beauty.

[@igorcorreia9851]

I wrote the music for this! Pretty fun!!

[@toshinotakiyami]

Igor Correia sweet!

[@_taylor_1604]

You could make so many pumpkin spice lattes with those

[@h0rcrux774]

TMoney, Bro I don't think pumpkin spice latte has real pumpkin in them, just flavoring

[@NurseInTraining]

Awesome and incredible! I hope you are all having a wonderful day and know that you guys have done a Beyond brilliant job

[@charlottedejongh7181]

So much respect for you guys!!!!

[@hottakebabe3842]

I’m exhausted just watching this

[@IronBridge1781]

You must of made one big ass pie with all that pumpkin!

[@thenerdherdforum]

Unbelievably good!

[@danielgalis6644]

This has to go viral right?

[@1517lmc]

That is so awesome! So much talent.

[@BakerBearProductions]

Soooooo beautiful and creative! Wonderful job!!!!

[@NecrochildK]

XD You guys must be set for life on roasted pumpkin seeds. Amazing work!

[@dylanframe8165]

How many pumpkins where used in the making of this video so cool should get billions of views

[@Lets_Play-]

It looked like the pumpkin was dancing lol.

[@JonS_Animation]

Happy Halloween you hardworking talented SOB. Beautifully done!

[@TheRealRRDemon]

Great and creative video! Definitely shows just how much work you guys put into making it.. even if it took years to do.

[@gracecollins17]

holy shit this is amazing

[@thomaswolf5486]

That’s really incredible!

[@ArvidOlson]

What the holy gourd! This amazing! I love it so much! :) thank you for making this

[@TheMsLollidella]

Awesome !!! I can't imagine how many pumpkins it toke to make this

[@vaehsvines8544]

Yall are lucky this was on CNN 10 and my class watching that everyday hope it goes viral

[@AyushPramanik]

WOW! This is brilliant. 💖

[@SpoopyDudz]

Ceci était si cool, Bravo à eux!

[@MrAntieMatter]

This was absolutely amazing!

[@cookndoodlecreations4556]

Woow. This is amazing! Love it!

[@uchoosajosh9473]

The sound of craving orange

[@CalebDoesStuff]

I accidentally clicked on this video, and I’m glad I did! Great video!

[@toshinotakiyami]

I want pumpkin pie lol

[@CZukoh]

As soon as i heard the music, i knew you guys did it yourself. sounds just like smacking on a pumpkin

[@crazedadman]

Yup! It was made from smacking and tapping pumpkins and all of the pumpkin carving tools!

[@ClayDay]

absolutley incridible!

[@tshhhhh11111]

Mean crazy parent: “Aren’t you a little old to be trick or treating?” Me: “Aren’t you a little old yo be alive!”

[@IMRAHAMAN]

Awesome sound track 🤘

HOLY JESUS! AMAZING

[@CryoRaid]

good job guys, you got featured on CNN 10 on 10/30/2017 great job, this was absolutely amazing and looks like it took lots of commitment

[@nancyrawson9787]

This is so cool. These guys must have put HOURS into doing this!

[@liquidfred]

Try years

[@justinztan]

They should sell those pumpkins. I would love to have one.

[@ZotYT]

Pensaron que iba a tener millones de visitas. Y creo que tendria que haber sido asi.

[@shooterz923]

HOLY that must of took years!

[@gemmacrellin3560]

I seriously hope this gets the attention that it deserves. Fantastic vid, Thank you for the pumpkin massacre.

[@Bl4ckR4in]

Awwww OMG!!!!! Amagazing!!!!!

[@stephy369]

That's a lot of pumpkins

[@jillianrenee842]

SO MANY PUMPKINS!!!!

[@memillano]

WOW!!! This Is amazing

[@AMERiNORGE]

Looks cool... and tedious. Great job on the animation.

[@kevins8646]

10/10 spooked me good

[@legocraft837]

Wait... why is there dislikes how could anyone hate a good animation

[@xxdoctorkingzxx]

They showed this at my school holy hell

[@crazedadman]

Awesome! What school do you attend? Was it shown for a specific class? Thanks!

[@ShaunEllisParty]

Unbelievable!

[@matthewleenknecht3091]

Amazing. thank you

[@МишаЛачихин]

This is amazing!

[@JacobyBrown]

That was amazing

[@Shadowkey392]

That was amazing!

[@BarbArneson]

Just WOW!!!

[@GoodyTymes]

This was amazing!

[@The_NSeven]

Dude, that was awesome!

[@drunken_irishman]

This is totally rad! Awesome work! Do you have an exact count of how many pumpkins you used? Hope you rack up views worldwide!

[@Laurpud]

Holy shit - that was amazing!

[@donnalogan]

Found this on The Weather Network Canada!

[@ristin59]

Amazing! Shared it...

[@poppy9540]

ART

[@deepvoid9038]

Omg good job guys!

[@Kokozuii]

This is sick

[@bradeno1090]

Wowowowowo this is AMAZING

[@Popyman51]

What the fuck, I saw this last year and just remembered it, I figured it would have millions and millions of views but it doesn't even have 500k?? What's wrong with this world?

[@kylezinho_]

Only 1k views? :( It makes me sad that you guys put so much effort into this and it isn't being noticed too much.

[@3dgyt33n3]

AWESOME!

[@vazak11]

Incredibly creative and entertaining! I do hope the pumpkins got eaten though.

[@einsteinzvice517]

#NationalPumpkinDay Hello from Bored Panda!

[@cherish8311]

Love it!

[@HarrisD214]

Amazing

[@contramuffin5814]

before 1k views :D nice work man. Seriously impressed!

[@witchcraft_pl]

Amazing! 😄❤️❤️❤️🎃

[@mrtony1985]

Here b4 100k views. Calling it that it hits over 10 mil