Making Progress on My Stop-Motion Animation

I am so close to being done with my stop-motion animation! In the beginning I had such basic drawings and now I have a piece of production that I think looks pretty cool. Of course I had a couple setbacks like not knowing how to light any shot, accidentally making my project 4K (literally have no idea how I did that), and struggling to hide the paint marks on the bottle cap. A number of people helped me solve each of these problems as they came up (thank you Arturo!) and now I have this:

Ta-da! I'm still working on the sound design and the LMFAO song that's in there right now is more of a placeholder than anything. I'm hoping to get an original track from a friend to swap in for it. Let me know what you think.

Kubo and the Two Strings

If you're a fan of the stop motion animation films that have been produced by Laika studios (they're known for producing Coraline, ParaNorman, and The Boxtrolls, as well as contract work for Corpse Bride,) then you may have heard about their new film that's releasing this summer, Kubo and the Two Strings.  

Like the films mentioned above, this is a 3D stop-motion animated film that provides some glorious visual effects that is just a pleasure to watch, and this is only the trailer.  When I first saw this trailer, I had the same reaction to it as I did to when I first saw a preview for Steven Universe: I thought that there is definitely some potential to this film and I can see it doing really well.  In a way, the film's style reminds me a lot of Steven Universe.  The scenes have a very distinct color grade to enhance the mood, there's plenty of mystery to it that makes me look forward to seeing it, the fight scenes look very well choreographed, and it incorporates music with very specific instruments to highlight a character's personality and fighting style.

The art style and character design reminds me a lot of those from Over the Garden Wall and Samurai Jack as well, and coupled with the coming-of-age story arc of Steven Universe, this seems like it could be the animated film of the summer that could be enjoyed by all ages.  I recommend giving the trailer a watch if you haven't already.

Stop-motion Tetris Chalk Animation

One of my favorite channels on Youtube, called AWE me (Amaze, Wow and Educate), is home to a collection of videos based around creating various kinds of art, props and actual forged weaponry. While the channel's most popular video series revolves around the channel's owner's blacksmithing business, there are some pretty cool videos involving chalk art. This video in particular, which depicts a stop-motion simulation of the game Tetris on a large chalkboard surface, is really impressive.

At the end of the video, you can see how the chalkboard surface actually curves onto the floor from the wall, which makes it look like the Tetris screen is actually standing straight up on a surface instead of just being plastered onto a wall. I assume that similar techniques with the angles of surface onto which images are displayed can be used on green screens to project more realistic simulations, rather than just having them be flat.

Pineapple Calamari

Pineapple Calamari is a short film that has been recently highlighted on many animation news sites. It was created as Kasia Nalewajka graduation film and was produced at the National Film and Television School. This stop-motion production features a racehorse named Pineapple Calamari and his life with the two caretakers that look after him. The short has a lot of shifts in tone over the course of ten minutes. It starts off on an overwhelming happy note, takes an unexpectedly morbid twist which then leads into a rather creepy situation. There are a few endearing parts thrown in however and the stop-motion, especially on the horse, and beautifully crafted sets definitely make it a short worth checking out. It can be found through the link below:

                                                        https://vimeo.com/119044030

Stop-Motion Animation

When someone mentions animation, the first ideas that come to mind are works by famous companies such as Pixar and DreamWorks. Movies like How to Train Your Dragon, Shrek, and Finding Nemo have illustrated the power of graphical animation by developing complicated and concise fictional worlds. But, animation doesn't just stop with cartoon movies. Stop-Motion Animation provides an alternative approach to animation that utilizes all forms of media to create a polished project: still images, sound, video, clay figures (actors), set modeling, and the story-boarding process. One of my favorite stop-motion films, as a child, was Aardman Animations' Wallace and Gromit. Not only did the British stop-motion comedy consist of four short films, but it also included one feature-length film. The academy-nominated relationship, of the two main characters, grows over the course of the series as Wallace's new ideas are constantly met with Gromit's "unimpressed" body language and humorous facial expressions.

                 

This stop-motion graphics artist (below) decided to take the "Wallace and Gromit approach" a step further. With the recent release of Warner Brothers' The Lego Movie, YouTube user, "cheesybricks," takes a stab at his own version of stop-motion animation with the Lego theme in mind. In this short video, watch as the artist "paints with lego."

                     Video Reference: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxy1fkrXmCI#t=85

This video really opened my mind to the possibilities that one can achieve in animation as a field of study. Perhaps, it will be something that I will pursue in the future. But for now, I'm just going to enjoy its prestige!

Art Clokey & Gumby

With the premiere of The Lego Movie this Friday and seeing several previews for it, this movie made me realize just how much I appreciate legos along with Stop-Motion animated features. In fact some of the earliest movies and shorts i think many of us that grew up in the 90s had some experience seeing stop motion of some kind. Whether it was those films from Aardman like Chicken Run, the Wallace and Gromitt shorts, the Rankin Bass Christmas Specials (Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer, Santa Clause is Coming to Town etc) and even Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas (and the short Vincent)

But one stop-motion feature that stood out the most to me growing up were the Art Clokey animations of  Gumby. Clokey started out with stop-motion with the musical short Gumbasia as a student film at the University of Southern California in 1953 under director Slavko Vorkapich.

 After showing this to Sam Engel of 20th Century Fox, Clokey was later asked to create a tv show using claymation figures. This eventually to creation of the famous Gumby show. One of my first exposures to this character was the movie base on this character from the 1990s. The thing about this series that I have come to enjoy over the years has been the countless shapes that Gumby and his friends take as well as comic to appreciate the countless frames it takes to animate a feature of this sort. 

A few years ago I attempted my own experiment in stop-motion and found that is difficult process processing hundreds of pictures to a simple few minute movie and have come to admire the stop motion artists who have made considerably longer works. 

Stop-Motion: Then and Now

Stop-motion is a creative form of film making where several pictures are put together to simulate one fluid motion, similar to regular filmmaking, except stop motion usually uses inanimate objects that must be moved by hand for every single frame. Stop-motion is appreciated simply for the immense amount of time it takes to create. In the height of production for the feature film Chicken Run, it took 1 week to put together just a minute and a half of footage. The entire production took over three years.

Today I'd like to to share two stop-motion videos, one very old and one very new. The new one, made in 2012, is called Proteigon. It combines the use of stop-motion and After Effects to create a very visually stimulating piece. Not to mention the song is awesome and fits perfectly. 

Okay, so pretty cool right? Now watch this video. This one was created in 1930. It may seem pretty corny and poorly made at first... but keep in mind this is 1930 and the just the idea of stop-motion is mind-blowing to a lot of people. They also did not have After Effects or any other fancy programs to touch up their work. Just raw pictures being taped together. The most impressive part starts at 1:45 if you want to skip ahead.

It blows my mind that they were able to do this in 1930. Even though the new one looks cooler and is (in my opinion) more entertaining, the older one is by far more impressive. Because stop-motion is so much more work then regular film making, it's seen as novelty content. If you want to dress to impress, go stop-motion. 

Stop Motion Animation

We have discussed stop motion as one of the many ways to create an animation and I have always loved the medium.  Films like Wallace and Gromit from Aardman Studios or Fantastic Mr. Fox have such a unique and charming aesthetic about them.  In fact, it almost seems to be growing in popularity with films like Coraline and ParaNorman.  Although I have always enjoyed stop motion I never actually attempted to make one of my own.  Over the weekend, I participated in the Stop Motion Animation mini-course (as did Josh) with Prof. Harrington and it was a great deal of fun.  The process of creating models/characters, constructing a set/world for them, and bringing them to life is an awesome experience...though definitely tedious and time consuming.  Below is a stop motion I came across that I particularly enjoyed and also a quick written tutorial with pictures for constructing your own stop-motion models:

Stop-Motion Model Building Tutorial