‘Bringing the pages to life’: Calgary Public Library entices readers with classic animation

Forget flashy AI, the Calgary Public Library is tapping into a classic animation technique with a new video to inspire readers.

It’s a new chapter for the Calgary Public Library, which debuted a video using a classic animation technique to inspire readers.

The stop-motion video showcasing a character called Page exploring the Central Library at night and encountering other bookish creatures is meant to entice readers to visit the space and seek out stories and knowledge.

“Libraries are magical places. There’s a million ideas that come out of here every day, and Page was one of these ideas,” said Casey Corneil, media production lead with the Calgary Public Library.

“Our hope was this story would inspire people to find their own stories.”

Corneil worked with Michael Kohlweg, founder and creative director of Mountain Fold Studio, to create the video.

“Two grown men playing with a little paper doll. Late night at the library.” Corneil said with a laugh.

While artificial intelligence is on the rise, the Calgary Public Library took a page from an old book with this tangible creation using a timeless craft.

Stop-motion animation began in the mid-1800s.

“It kind of represents that tactile feeling of reading a book and bringing the pages to life,” Kohlweg said.

“You could shoot a stop-motion character in front of a green screen and add a background later, but we really wanted it to be on location—for it to look like this character actually came to life in the Central Library,” Corneil said.

Hands, not hard drives, guided each movement, and hundreds of movements are needed for this short video.

“I think it was around 450 frames in the whole two minutes and some seconds,” Kohlweg said.

Months of planning, five days of shooting and weeks of post-production went into this project, but almost anyone can create a stop-motion story.

Page’s creators held a workshop teaching children how to make their own video.

“Stop-motion is one of the most accessible forms of animation because all you really need is a camera, iPhone, iPad, and then something to animate,” Kohlweg said.

The Calgary Public Library shared the video with libraries in other cities that are considering the idea.

“They’re so impressed with this—they can’t believe a library produced this,” Corneil said.

You can watch Page’s story here.

There is no timeline for when a second Page video might be created.