I've been reading BoingBoing for 7 years. I was inspired by the 3d pipes screen saver:
To make this:
(It may take a few seconds to load all the way- gif's are slow the first time through)
It's 96 frames, which took two evenings with the blinds closed (for uniform light) to take. There's 30 feet of 1/2" pvc pipe and 22 pipe couplers in the shot. Pictures were taken with a Nikon D60.
FULL EXTENT OF DIGITAL MANIPULATION:
Cropping and resizing of photos with Irfanview
gimp was used to create the gif. The photos were imported, then saved as a gif. That's all.
Some build photos:
The backdrop is the duvet cover off our blanket.
Lighting provided by part of an IKEA lamp from the bathroom. The dinosaur I rescued from a trash can at my school. We had to iron the duvet cover to get the wrinkles out.
The toilet paper was later eliminated in favor of making it largely self-supporting, with parts that needed additional support being assisted by fishing line tied to a broomstick.