Skip to main content

Best Book for Stop Motion Enthusiasts?

So help me, I can not figure out why I'm not putting this post in the FAQs page.  Still, here it goes.
A question that I probably get asked the most is: "I don't have a ton of money to put to Stop Motion, but I need to know exactly what to do.  Is there a good website or book that can help me?"

Dear (Joe, maybe) [Stop Motion enthusiast],
The book you should look into getting is
the Aardman Book of 3D Animation.
 Or, the updated version Cracking Animation (not that there's much of a difference, I own both).

Now, the book in which I actually first heard of animation is: Industrial Light & Magic: The Art of Special Effects.  The ILM book doesn't go over Stop Motion in detail, but it goes over how they made there first film like: Star Wars, Indiana Jones, E.T. etc.  I think that both the ILM book and the Aardman book are both worth getting, but, that's up to you.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Vincent & Puppet Scales

Tim Burton's Vincent  is a masterpiece; the short was animated by the brilliant Stephen Chiodo .  I do love that the short was shot in black and white film, ask any true film-lover and
Post a Comment
Read full article »

Interview with Matt Bollinger, Painter and Animator Behind Stop Motion/Painting Hybrid Short Film "Between the Days," a Beautiful Portrait of Routine, Unfulfillment, and Despair in Middle America

"Before Work" finished painting featured in  Between the Days . Photo courtesy of Matt Bollinger.  Often – far too often – we forget the true weight of our actions, our everyday decisions, ranging from those big to small. And, in forgetting, we forget ourselves – who we truly are, where we have been, what we have done, how we have gotten here, to this very place in this very moment. For we are nothing if not the sum total of all our decisions, our actions…even the most minute, even those – perhaps especially those – made in the thrumming humdrum of the everyday: the act of rising from our bed and reaching over to flick off the alarm resting on our bedside table, lighting a cigarette, collecting yesterday’s trash before moving on to more, equally menial tasks. Moments spent alone, in ostensible comfort – the comfort provided us by 21st century accoutrements so many of us have grown to take for granted. Whether we are aware of it or not, each of our actions leave a ma
Post a Comment
Read full article »

Phil Tippett Launches "Mad God (Part 2)" Kickstarter

In 2012, Phil Tippett ( Empire Strikes Back , Indiana Jones , and is ILM veteran), along side of a small group of dedicated volunteers Kickstartered, storyboarded, shot, and edited, his passion project  Mad God .  Now, comes the 2 part in this four part epic.  In the Kickstarter video for Mad God Part 2 , Phil announces that there will be four parts in this epic.  I find it very funny the way he puts this though, "I got four parts.  Four parts, and I know what I'm doing!  I'm not making it up as I go along, (laughs), honestly! His goal for the sequel is to raise $60,000.  Though there is a number of stretch goals he has incorporated, for instance, if Mad God Part 2 raise $70,000, all backers receive a 'family photo' of Phil and his crew.  Today is day 29 of the total 30 day campaign, and they have raised $1,500 so far.  I recommend supporting this project.  If you haven't yet watched the first part of Mad God , you can do so by going to their website (link b
Post a Comment
Read full article »

Interview with Lucy J. Hayes, Producer of Stop Motion Love Story, "Lost & Found"

Knitsune in Lost & Found . Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith. Ever since her childhood, Lucy J. Hayes – the producer of Lost & Found , an extraordinarily beautiful short film that make for a profound mediation on the impermanence and imperfection of life and beauty – she’s wanted to play some part in the creative industry, in some way, shape, or form. For Hayes, that dream went unquestioned. However, the challenge turned out to be figuring out quite where she belonged in the creative industry. “I dabbled in acting and directing, however, I was terrible!” Hayes tells Stop Motion Geek. It wasn’t until she began to put on plays with her friends in her adolescence and early adulthood that the answer to her search dawned upon her: All that Hayes found came innately to her – everything from her ardor for creative work to her love for working with creatives to bring an idea, the kernel of a story, to fruition – she found in the title of “producer.” Knotjira (left) and
Post a Comment
Read full article »

A Trip to the Moon!!

Today, on Stopmotion geek we are going old school, and I really mean old school.  Why this is so old is that were discovering, well, your discovering, I'm giving you info that I already know, so, you know, not really discovering... so what, I can rediscover, mmmhun!  Georges Melies, was the first-ever Stop Motion animator, in fact, he invented Stop Motion; therefore, we'll
Post a Comment
Read full article »

Short Flicks: Bent Image Lab's "Fruity Pebbles"

What could be better than starting your day off with part of a whole breakfast, Fred Flintstone, and Stop Motion?  We couldn't think of anything either.  Nevertheless, these awesome commercials/BTS will bring out the kid, and nerd, in all of us.  Directed by Rob Shaw for the incredible Bent Image Lab (a studio that just moved to Manhattan , by the way), these TV spots encapsulates everything we know and love about the modern stone-age Flintstone family who establish how we now think of Prehistoric times. Fire House :  http://vimeo.com/45991027 Cocoa Pebbles "Fire Hose" from Bent Image Lab on Vimeo . Cop Rock :  http://vimeo.com/42010097 Cocoa Pebbles "Cop Rock" from Bent Image Lab on Vimeo .
Post a Comment
Read full article »

Frankenweenie armatures

These are armatures and puppets from the Tim Burton film "Frankenweenie."
Post a Comment
Read full article »

Interview with Mark Smith, Director and Writer of Stop Motion Short Film, "Two Balloons"

A still from Two Balloons featuring the character of Elba. Photo courtesy of Mark Smith. As I sit, listening to Peter Broderick’s moving composition for piano  More Of A Composition , I close my eyes and envisage an enormous funnel cloud skimming across the crystalline face of an ocean – the skies are murky and unusually dark, lightning crackles, spider-webbing across the darkened skies before then vanishing, and still, after its gone, an electricity continues to hum in the air and I simply  know  that it’s going to soon strike again. And as the scene presents itself to me, I suddenly feel something similar to what director Mark C. Smith felt when he saw the same image as he sailed to a small island called Grenada along with his wife in a timeworn sailboat. For him, in that moment inspiration struck, and the idea suddenly came to him for his heartfelt stop motion film,  Two Balloons . For me, I open my eyes and feel as I did the instant  Two Balloons  faded to black – as if I’ve j
Post a Comment
Read full article »

Interview with Ru Kuwahata and Max Porter, Directors of Oscar® Nominated Stop Motion Short Film, "Negative Space"

Sam walks to his car in Negative Space . Source: Vimeo. Across the Baltimore-based director-duo Ru Kuwahata and Max Porter’s Oscar® nominated short film Negative Space ’s 5 minute runtime, rooted in the profoundly emotional soil of the film’s essence , an extraordinary spectrum of deep themes are explored – death, grief, what one’s childhood means once one has “grown up” – yet perhaps none are as front-and-center than that which binds all of the film’s themes together: that of the relationship between father and son. Negative Space , a film inspired by a 150-word poem of the same by Ron Koertge , is, at its heart, the story of Sam, a young man, as he internally processes his relationship with his father throughout his life as well as the grief and emotion that come with the loss of his father as he travels to his recently-passed father’s funeral. Sam looks upon a toy taxicab in Negative Space . Source: Vimeo. Undoubtedly the primary visual motif as well as the crux of t
Post a Comment
Read full article »

Interview with Samuel Lewis - Animator, Character Designer, and Sculptor on Stop Motion Short Film, "Lost & Found"

Knotjira, a clumsy dinosaur made of wool, as seen in Lost & Found . Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith. “If I had to pick a starting point for my career as a stop motion animator I would have to say it was my obsession as a six year old with a book called ‘Playing with Plasticine’ by Barbara Reid,” Samuel Lewis – a London-based stop motion and 2D animator and director, whose most recent labor of love can be seen in his contribution to the Australian stop motion short film, Lost & Found – tells Stop Motion Geek. Upon reflection, Lewis explains that his love for the medium of stop motion began very early in life, and has merely managed to burn ever brighter in his fervor to master the craft. “I would spend countless hours fixated on sculpting tiny snails, fruit bowls and dinosaurs to the point where I would stay inside on family holidays sculpting a surfer in a beach scene rather than going to the actual beach that was only a short walk away,” Lewis recalls wistfully. “
Post a Comment
Read full article »