Every Halloween, people turn toward the humble pumpkin as their canvas of creative expression, with especially spectacular results coming from those who really care about the seasonal craft. And every once in a while, somebody comes along and raises the pumpkin-carving game to a whole new level.

This year, that recognition has to go to designer and YouTuber Sean Ohlenkamp. He and his team made the stop-motion pumpkin carving video below, and if it looks like it took an enormous amount of effort and a couple of years to make, that’s because it did.

The stop-motion pumpkin carving video is titled “Oh My Gourd – A Halloween Stop Motion Pumpkin Carving Experiment.” And as far as experiments go, we’re going to go ahead and say that this one was a resounding success. A small army of pumpkins were most definitely harmed in the making of this video.

Ohlenkamp, who’s made some other mind-blowing stop-motion animation videos, like this one about the joy of reading real books, adds a new dimension to pumpkin carving by animating the designs. Across the various pumpkins are carved scenes of playing a keyboard, loading a computer program, and even a full game of old-school snake. Numerous other designs also flash into and out of stop-motion existence.

“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,” Ohlenkamp says in the accompanying explanation of the video-making process. “It took a few years – pumpkins rot, schedules get busy – but we loved discovering the methods that worked and the many that didn’t.”

The music was also a creative experiment, and made utilizing what Ohlenkamp and co. have deemed “Pumpkin Orchestration.” In other words, Igor Correia — the composer of the pumpkin score — and a few others really beat the hell out of some pumpkins and recorded the resulting sounds.

If you’re now thinking about trying to up your own carve game, then the video worked its intended magic. “We hope this inspires others…” Ohlenkamp says in the video description, “can’t wait to see what you create.”

What do you think about this stop-motion video? Do you want to see this again, but including David S. Pumpkins? Give us your thoughts in the comments below!

Images: YouTube / Ohkamp

Carve Out More Time For Pumpkin Posts

• Watch a 1,300 pound pumpkin crush a car
• Adding robotic eyes to your pumpkin is a ghoulishly good idea
• The Dancing Pumpkin Man is back. Yes, that guy