Stop Motion Geek

Most Stop Motion film behind the scenes books do not give you the full on puppet making process that you want.  Well, I can gladly say that The Art and Making of ParaNorman does.  We get to see and in depth look at modeling, fabrication, and of course, the art.  In the 2012 Oscars 3 out of 5 of the animated film nominated were Stop Motion one of those film being in which ParaNorman , it did deserve an Oscar; but if LAIKA can pull it off with The BoxTrolls, then just maybe... The book is a great behind the scenes look at LAIKA and what goes into making a Stop Motion feature.  Also you get to see the equipment used by LAIKA.  There is an chapter near the end that's basically Sam Fell taking about going onto Google Maps and finding houses that look like Norman's,

Recently Carlo Vogele released a trailer for his short film Wurst.  Carlo's work has consisted of animating fish in his previous short.  For behind the scenes pictures go to Carlo's blog . Link:  http://vimeo.com/72567250

The LAIKA/Planters team-up is back again with more nut related commercials.  In these he is a motivational speaker, now he is voiced by Bill Hader, not Robert Downey Jr.  As always the scripts for these are funny and clever; but not as much so as in there previous ad campaign.  The stopmo ads that LAIKA produce are usually great, but these just don't' do it for me.  I have enlisted all the ads below so enjoy! Link:  http://youtu.be/ugM--bKAqYw

Canhead , is a 1995 Claymation short flick created and produced by Timothy Hittle.  It looks like animation from the '70s/'80s or something straight out of George Pal's Puppetoons .  I think it is an amazing work of art, and also showcases some of the best animation with clay I have ever seen; in fact the animation trumps that of which is in Wallace & Gromit: a close shave which also performs amazing work.  The emotion is totally over the top an the way Timothy got a clay figure to perform in such a way is just outstanding.  I could gush over this work all day. What strikes me as interesting is

Longbird achieved a 2013 BAFTA nomination; plus plenty other awards.  Anyway, below are the videos.  The reason I'm cutting this short is because I have prior commitments to attend to.  Very cool film, go and watch it. The making of Longbird :  http://vimeo.com/willand/longbird Making of the making:  http://vimeo.com/willand/retrospective

If you are familiar with Cinefex  Magazine and know what an awesome resource of behind the scenes pictures, interviews with creators, from pretty much every film from the past fifty years that has special effects in it well, your lucky, because I was not made aware of it until today.  New Scribbler Press is doing a Kickstarter for an iPad version of the first 126 issues; which you can get if you donate $285, or you can donate $50 for the issues covering Stop Motion!  The 17 films which they cover are as in the following promotion picture: Coraline!  Nightmare Before Christmas!  James and The Giant Peach! Come on, it looks awesome right?  Or am I just a huge geek?  Anyway, there goal is to reach $217,500

John Lasseter, who is a founder of Pixar stars in the second episode of Friendship All-Stars .   Now I am so stoked that Stoopid Buddy Stoodios it pumping episodes out so fast, however they are awesome.

Among the plethora of captivating videos to come out this week during YouTube’s “Geek Week” comes a particularly interesting find for fans stop motion and Lego-lovers alike: a stop motion Brickfilm version of the Adventure Time main title. There’s something uniquely charming about Adventure Time – Cartoon Network’s wildly popular and incredibly charming 2D-animated fantasy show, currently in its fifth season. Part of what seems to contribute to its special sauce is the sense one gets while watching it that the show is something of a haven for imaginative, creative animation, offering a breath of fresh air while scanning the current landscape of animated television shows. Well, now the show can mark another notch in its belt for its pioneering of an eclectic breadth of animation prowess, as its most recent guest-animated title sequence made entirely of Legos carries the show into a new medium – stop motion. The camera zooms quickly through the Land of Ooo, swooping over mount...

Flat World is a Stop Motion half hour special that won over 30 international awards along with a Bafta nomination.  It is really a groundbreaking project.  It even inspired me to make an upcoming 2 or 3 minute long short that will be released on Halloween of this year.  To honor such a masterpiece, I thought it only fair to give it the August Stop Motion Geek Award.   Flat World is done all with cut outs in a 3d environment a very hard effect to achieve. The link:  http://youtu.be/6DE3qPuJLV4 PS. if you are wondering where you will be able to see my Halloween special it will be released on this website.  It is not done with paper, but with cardboard.

More than one person has asked me what exactly do you need for a simple puppet.  The basic materials are foam latex, an armature, faces.  The best place for me to buy foam latex is  http://www.burmanindustries.com , or  http://www.animationtoolkit.co.uk/ , both are trustworthy.  I prefer foam latex over clay, it's easier to use (after molded properly) although, it is somewhere around 15 - 20 times more expensive than clay, but if it will work for you budget it works best.  The armature is sort of tricky, it depends on how much you use the character.  For instance, all the puppets on Robot Chicken  all have wire armatures, on the other hand with a feature flick like Coraline , all the armatures are ball-and-socket.  I usually use a wire armature.  You can buy the wire at a reasonable price here on  http://www.amazon.com .  The best way to make an wire armature is to use a drill to twist two strands of wire to create a heavy dut...