On July 4th, I posted a great video of stop-motion fireworks created by animator PES.

Today, I decided to eat my lunch while being entertained by more short films from PES, and I came upon The Deep. It’s an imaginative ocean populated by creatures made from vintage tools and other random metal items (is that first fish a notary seal?). It’s distinctly steampunk in sensibility, and very, very beautiful.

I’m having great fun watching it over and over, each time figuring out the origins of another element. There’s hand tools, film lenses, chains, skeleton keys, calipers, a cake server, and a host of other things I haven’t figured out yet. I especially love the vintage Whiting & Davis mesh purse fish.

PES is possibly the most patient man on the planet. When discussing his stop-motion work with the LA Times, he told them that on a bad day, after 8+ hour of work, he would sometimes have completed only 3 seconds of film. Yet somehow, he’s created nearly a hundred films, including commercials for Sprint, PSP, and Coinstar, to name a few.