Stop Motion Geek

I am so freaking glad I get something to post about today.  It's been a really dull Stop Motion world for the past months and some LAIKA awesomeness is just what I need to perk me up.  This film, ( The Boxtrolls ) looks like it will be the most incredible, detail oriented, picture LAIKA has produced.  What is so cool and interesting about the trailer is that they are promoting the fact that it's stopmo!  It's never dawned upon Tim Burton, or Wes Anderson or anyone else to include making of in the actual trailer!  That for me is the most brilliant marketing tactic I've seen in a Stop Motion film since Nightmare Before Christmas releasing internationally. The trailer has some sexy behind the scenes including armatures, making puppets, and other fun stuff. I also think you might find it interesting to see the man behind the armatures blog: http://graham-skinnbones.blogspot.com Link:  http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/focus_features/theboxtrolls/#videos-lar...

The following is my unsent letter to the Stop Motion legend Henry Selick ( Nightmare Before Christmas, James and The Giant Peach Coraline, Monkeybone, The Shadow King, and upcoming A Tale Dark & Grimm ).  I wrote this in early August of 2013, (before the news about him directing A Tale Dark & Grimm ).  And Henry, if your out their reading this please let me know. Dear Henry Selick, My name is A. H. Uriah.  I am an enormous fan of your work.  In fact, your flick Coraline inspired me to write a blog dedicated to the art of Stop Motion.  My question is when can we see The Shadow King , or another Selick/Cinderbiter feature or production?  I read what you said about CGI animated films and how they are very much the same.  Also, I saw in May on Rotten Tomatoes that The Shadow King only had a 64% on how many persons wanted to see it.  This discouraged me; because it would seem that after Coraline and Fantastic Mr. Fox failed box office wise...

Alright, I originally had invented this awesome title to get you guys all excited for Plasticine Pad.  It was something along the lines of "Plasticine Pads!  The Sensation that's Sweeping The Nation!"  Maybe I'm just lying to myself but I don't think that would have worked. But now, what we're here for: an awesome DIY project.  So, as you may know, I use clay many a times in my Stop Motion projects.  And the other day I was melting down my Van Aken Clay on the stove.  It had reached boiling and this is when I decided it would be a good time to take it off the burner and let it harden.  So what do I grab for?  Cardboard.  Just a piece of cardboard.  The clay after being pored on the cardboard began to spread out and harden.  This formed great looking clay-grass.  And this is why I bring this to your attention.  It gives a great effect in a film for grass, or a countryside hill.  It also would work great for any typ...

I'm not really sure what to say about this film.  It is a strange mixture of light sound color and character that it is very hard to classify it.  Over all it is incredible and well worth your time watching.  If I could have watched this or something like it in Biology I would have, because that's what it plays out like, a 70's Bio flick; but done way better than any Bio film I've seen.  It is also worth noting that you should check out Jessica's Vimeo channel , where there is plenty of cool Stop Motion to check out. Link:  http://vimeo.com/77777314 There is also an awesome behind the scenes time laps that I put the link to below. BTS Link:  http://vimeo.com/61997273

First of all I want to say thank you for all of your positive feedback with Cardboard Arcade .  I just want you to know that I do have two other projects that I'm working on right now (one in development and one in production.)  But I will try to stay in touch with y'all. Anyhow, enough chatter.  Let's jump right into it!  This is the Storyboard Comparison between Cardboard Arcade and my many, many drawings:  http://vimeo.com/79720168 . Cardboard Arcade Storyboard Comparison from SMG on Vimeo . I did take a few 'making of' pictures.  But I took them near the end of production.  I only wish I had done a 'puppet making' time laps.  That would have been bananas! Here we have the rigging behind the running puppet near the end of the film, with the monster chasing him/her (not really sure of the gender.)

Very often as we have seen in Stop Motion animation, ads bring some of the greatest breakthroughs in the medium.   The Bear & The Hair is no exception.  It combines 2d animation with a Stop Motion background and foreground, this technique is used in this 1930s Popeye cartoon: 1:36- Which is a really old but great idea. The Bear & The Hair link:  http://vimeo.com/78740926 Blink website:  http://www.blinkink.co.uk/# John Lewis - The Bear & The Hare from Blink on Vimeo . Behind the scenes video link:  http://vimeo.com/78254514

Mooon , is a short film by James Kwan.  And, I don't really want to spoil anything for you but I will say it's awesome, and very original.  I also think that it is some of the best puppet animation I've seen recently. Link:  http://vimeo.com/jameskwan/mooon The second short film I'm going to give to you to watch isn't a short, it's a commercial for Tim Horton's.  You don't have to watch far into it until you realize how much time it must have took to make.  Credits are as follows: Chief Creative & Integration Officer: Brent Choi Executive Creative Director: Paul Wales Art Director: Andy Brokenshire Copywriter: Jed Churcher Planners: Doug Poad, Chantaie Allick Head of Production: Pam Portsmouth Account Team: Scott Miskie, Renee Ray, Cameron Stark Directors:  Alan Poon , Eric Malika, Robin Nishio Animators:  Dale Hayward  and Evan Derushie Production Company: Common Good / Radke Films Post-Production: Common Good / Alter Ego/ SAUCE Prod...

First of all, I didn't find write the following article, Ramin Zahed for Animation Magazine . he stop-motion animated feature  Solan and Ludvig: Christmas in Pinchcliffe  has set a new box office record in Norway. According to the folks at  Twitch.com , the movie has posted the second best opening weekend in a decade, with 174,000 tickets sold, exceeding 2013′s previous top opener Iron Man 3 , which debuted with 99,000 tickets sales. The 72-minute movie (original title  Solan og Ludvig – Jul i Flåklypa ) is directed by Rasmus A. Sivertsen. A Maipo Film production, exec produced by Synnøve Hørsdal and produced by Cornelia Boysen, the film follows the lead characters Solan the Hedgehog and Ludvig the Mapgie as they try to save their town from the evil plans of Plosen, who has stolen Reodor the inventor’s powerful snowmaker. Sivertsen’s movie features the popular characters based on the works of Kjell Aukrust, whose last movie was the 1975 feature adaptation...

Guys I don't really know what to say.  But here it is.  The one manned flick that has been a passion project I have worked on for the past two and a half months; Cardboard Arcade .  Take note: i'm no God when it comes to sound design.  What can I say? -I'm an animator.   Not a sound designer.  So if you can get past that, here it is: Cardboard Arcade, fresh off the press... Link:  http://vimeo.com/79062258 Cardboard Arcade from SMG on Vimeo . If anyone is interested in buying a puppet or prop from the film let me know.

Congratulations Peter Lord and the rest of the crew at Aardman!  You guys did it!  The Morph Kickstarter raised 75,000 Euros and counting.  There are still 19 days left until the project ends, you might want to consider donating, just think about the awesome prizes...  Any how, Morph is back and that's what counts. Kickstarter project:  http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1961548517/all-new-adventures-of-morph-from-aardman-animation?ref=category Aardman website:  aardman.com

PES, I could eat it with my eyes every day.  I mean this with the utmost sincerity.  How can you beat Stop Motion candy for your eyes? -You just can't. Anyhow, here is another recent uploaded video from PES entitled Sprint . Sprint by PES:  http://youtu.be/iC6Wd15OIAI PES' YouTube channel:  http://www.youtube.com/user/PESfilm?feature=watch The PES website:  http://eatpes.com/

Before I jump into the review i'm going to say that Boinx is not paying me to do this review and the following is my personal opinion only .  With that being said let's get to it shall we? Before we get into it I would like to show you some clay test animation that I made with iStopMotion... Untitled from SMG on Vimeo . The first thing that shows up when you open iStopMotion is a quick Stop Motion video which runs you through the key features of the app for instance: the capture button, playback, and adjusting your camera settings.  Let me say that this video is of the poorest quality of animation, it's just terrible.  But, if you stop to think about it, there is a good explanation for this; my guess is that Boink doesn't want beginners to look at animation that is the equivalent of Coraline and comparing their own work to it. This app itself is very straightforward.  Directly below the welcome video is a plus button which if you tap creates a new proje...

Wow, so much Aardman news.  First Shaun the Sheep then Morph , now Creature Comforts ? -Thats just awesome ! As the title implies, Aardman animations has recently launched a Youtube channel for there classic Oscar winning series, Creature Comforts .  In case you are not familiar with Creature Comforts , I will give a quick run-down of what the basic premise is. Creature Comforts, is based around the idea of interviewing real people candid, who live in situations similar to the conditions of an animal.  For example, there is an episode in which a Brazilian puma talks about living in a zoo; for this, Nick Park (who directed the Creature Comforts pilot) interviewed a Brazilian foreign exchange student, who was living at the time, under the same conditions as a puma in a zoo.  This forms a rather interesting and diverse animation series formed much like an environmental documentary. Now that you've gotten the brief (thank you for NOT skipping over it  ) yo...