"Friendship All-Stars of Friendship" (AKA, Stoopid Buddy Stoodios' next Project)

Seth Green's company Stoopid Buddy Stoodios (Robot Chicken) has made some pretty awesome Stopmo before. But, there about to leave all there other work in the confetti dust. As the Hollywood Reporter reported (what the fudge else would it be doing?) that SBS will be coming out with a web-exclusive show, set to come out this July 24th. Check out the article
out here: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/robot-chicken-creators-launch-friendship-575844.

Slap this on your calendar: "July 24th, go on LStudio.com to see the awesome pilot for "Friendship All-Stars".

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Interview with Joseph Wallace, Director and Animator of Psychedelic, Cut-out Stop Motion Music Video for Canadian Artist Parker Bossley's "Chemicals"

Parker Bossley as seen in Chemicals . Photo courtesy of Joseph Wallace. “I think the thing I’ve always found wonderful about cut out animation is that it’s one of the most immediate forms of animation,” muses British stop motion animation director Joseph Wallace – currently based in Bristol, UK, where, in January of this year, he founded the stop motion studio Hangar Puppet Animation Studio – in discussion of the medium he employed in his most recent film – the surreal, psychedelic music video for Canadian artist Parker Bossley’s debut single, Chemicals , which has already won a Vimeo Staff Pick. Perhaps more than anything else – perfectly suiting the film’s subject matter –the style and medium allow to film to transcend to time itself, just as Wallace implies, undoubtedly allowing the film to become just that – immediate. Almost so much so one gets the feeling they’re clawing at air in search for a handle on reality as they fall…along with Bossley – also the film’s protagoni...

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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. “...

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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 ...

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Interview with Bradley Slabe, Co-Director of Stop Motion Love Story, "Lost & Found" (Part 1/2 of Interview with "Lost & Found" Directors)

Knotjira (foreground) and Knitsune (background) in Lost & Found . Photo courtesy of Andrew Goldsmith. The true essence of art – a reflection of life itself – is very much akin to the Japanese aesthetic of “wabi-sabi”: it’s imperfect, impermanent, and, at times, profoundly...incomplete. It is both at once a fundamental truth, and, curiously, more often than not, a thing incredibly hard to acknowledge, to make peace with. Yet perhaps our resistance is justifiable, for once we admit that the world is full of unknowns – unknowns that aren’t ideal, that aren’t perfect – we are just as soon confronted with the actualization of a deep, intrinsic, and very human fear: the fear of a future full of...unknowns that aren’t ideal, that aren’t perfect. Yet it’s the confrontal of that fear that is the most terrifying reality of all, for the moment we make peace with it we have just as soon have acknowledged that our paths in life aren’t in our own hands, or something we can contro...

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A Screen Novelties Christmas Present, to Us!

I check my email and I see... Property of Screen Novelties This gets an ' ohmygosh ' reaction from me; which doesn't happen every day for one who loves his internet tidbits. Oh, I almost forgot, I have been deprived my internet due to an ice storm that happened last morn, just thought I would throw that in there... For those of you who know me personally, you will notice after watching this [Screen Novelties] is breaking new ground. I have been saying that if Screen Novelties works hard enough they will be the next Laika. I believe in you guys! So anyhow check it out right here: http://screen-novelties.com/greetings-from-krampus/#.UrjRCNJDuuJ Screen Novelties website: http://screen-novelties.com/ "A Krampus Christmas" eCard from Screen Novelties on Vimeo .

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Interview with Bram Meindersma, Composer and Sound Designer of Oscar® Nominated Stop Motion Short Film, "Negative Space"

Sam and his father, from Negative Space . Source: Vimeo. Unlike practically every other medium, film has the unique aesthetic of being composed of the elements of sound and image, and, curiously, whenever watching a film, the two blend together into something of an impeccably hybridized concoction. With as much influence as sound has over the audience’s final experience of any given film, composer and sound designer Bram Meindersma’s work on the Oscar-nominated stop motion short film Negative Space – directed by Ru Kuwahata and Max Porter – proves an endlessly fascinating and extraordinary case study, as it uses sound – both its soundtrack as well as every other element of sound design – only sparingly and in subtle ways, one that could almost be called conservative. Yet it is perhaps just that component of its sound design that, at least in part, makes the film such a powerful one. Perhaps the reason why Meindersma’s delicate work on Negative Space is so powerful is i...

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Interview with Tim Allen, Key Animator on Wes Anderson's "Isle of Dogs"

Tim Allen animating on the set of Isle of Dogs . Source: YouTube. “The Wes style of movement has a simplicity & a more experienced animator has to learn to not put in the little tricks or flair that they may have used animating elsewhere,” Tim Allen – an animator whose career spans decades and includes credits on prestigious projects such as Shaun the Sheep , Postman Pat , Fireman Sam , The Flying Machine , Creature Comforts , the Oscar®-nominated films My Life as a Zucchini , Corpse Bride , Frankenweenie , Fantastic Mr. Fox , and the Oscar®-winning short film Peter & the Wolf – tells Stop Motion Geek, describing the metamorphosis his animation style underwent on one of his most recent projects – Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs , currently available on digital and set to be released on Blu-ray and DVD on July 17th. “The Wes style is direct & clear,” he goes on. “I take the old stop motion phrase & embraces it: ‘Less is more’.” "Atari" Isle of Dogs ch...

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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

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Interview with Robert Shaw, Director, Writer, and Co-Animator of Stop Motion Short Film "The Machine"

Parables and allegories, amidst every other kind of story that can be told, have a unique and extraordinarily powerful quality that is all their own: They allow us – the audience – to learn lessons about and to see ourselves, others, and the world in which we live through a completely different lens – that of narrative. The best allegories and parables, in fact, have the unique ability to simultaneously act as conduits for important lessons and to also exist as literal stories, which gives them the unique ability to challenge beliefs and ideas held by the audience in a way that only art can do. Some of the most cherished stories ever composed, illustrated, and put on film are parables and allegories, and what makes them so exceptional are how powerful the lessons are that they teach. The Machine meets The Farmer in The Machine . Photo courtesy of Robert Shaw. Robert Shaw, in his haunting and beautiful stop motion short film The Machine – which he wrote, directed, and co-anim...

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Laika to Concentrate on Making More Features

Laika, the incredibly talented studio currently housing some of the most brilliant minds in the Stop Motion industry, and talent behind films such as Coraline, ParaNorman, and the upcoming The BoxTrolls, announced earlier this week that they plan to convert their spin-off studio, Laika/house, into a studio mainly concentrated on making feature films. Getting rid of commercials complety from their plate. Formerly, Laika/house only produced television commercials and shorts. LAIKA/house President Lourri Hammack, Creative Director Kirk Kelley and Managing Director of Strategic Operations Al Cubillas will lead a new studio specializing in short to mid-form animated content for advertising and broadcast markets. Located 19 miles away from the main Laika production house, the Laika/house facility in Oregon has been responsible to make some of the most iconic branding characters, (i.e. the M&M characters), plus, they've revamped some of the most iconic characters in the com...

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