Since the passing of Eddie Van Halen, guitarists and artists alike have taken it upon themselves to find new and creative ways to pay their respects to the guitar great.
Last year, we saw artist Paul Archer honor Van Halen with a massive building mural outside his airbrushing studio. More recently, we got our first glimpse at Robert Vargas's "Long Live the King" artwork at Guitar Center Hollywood.
Now, YouTuber Thomas J. Yagodinski has paid his respects to Eddie Van Halen with a Star Wars-themed stop motion animation that sees a Jawa shred EVH's guitar masterpiece, Eruption.
Created by making tiny increments to the Jawa puppet and stringing together hundreds – if not thousands – of photos to make a seamless video, Yagodinski created the animation as a fun way to pay his respects to the legendary guitarist.
"Edward Lodewijk Van Halen was a virtuoso, innovator, intergalactic legend," says the Jawa puppet, before promptly pulling out a 1:4, 16" miniature Frankenstrat and ripping through Eruption.
On his Instagram account, Yagodinski shared a a number of behind-the-scenes looks at the lengths he went to to complete the animation, in which he sought to have the puppet play the piece as accurately as possible.
A post shared by Thomas J Yagodinski (@tjystopmo)
A photo posted by on
"This was insanely fun to make, especially taking the solo apart, frame by frame, to replicate as closely as possible to the actual shredding," says Yagodinski. "Plus, I flippin' love Jawas!! RIP to the maestro, may his music live throughout the galaxy."
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Matt is a Senior Staff Writer, writing for Guitar World, Guitarist and Total Guitar. He has a Masters in the guitar, a degree in history, and has spent the last 16 years playing everything from blues and jazz to indie and pop. When he’s not combining his passion for writing and music during his day job, Matt records for a number of UK-based bands and songwriters as a session musician.