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Previous News
JANUARY
2005
01.31.05
* Well, a few weeks ago I had the
honor and privlege of doing a phone interview with the Godfather
of Stop Motion, Uncle Ray ! I was contacted by the PR agency
promoting his new DVD set, Ray Harryhausen: The Early Years
Collection. The
schedule of the interview was in flux & kind of
changing but the date finally nailed down. Tom
Brierton was available at the last minute and
served as a co-interviewer with me. Here is the Ray Harryhausen Interview and also with a dose of my
penetrating commentary (I toned it down a
little!) and my brevity review of Ray's DVDs! On short
notice, Anthony Scott and Marc Spess pulled through, helping
spread the word about this. I gave notice to
other websites that were animation related,
but so far, they seem to have ignored posting on their
news. The Article-Interview is already
listed in Google Search 
* Just
got word recently that renaissance man, Larry
Larson will be teaching again a course in Puppet
Making & Armatures at Detroit College of Creative Studies. He says there will be about 16
students. I am guessing that this is part of a major
degree, and Larry's classes are part of the overall
animation curriculum, so you possibly cannot specifically
enroll in this one. A few years ago, Ray
Harryhausen did visit Larry during his class session!
Larry ....a musician, singer, sculptor, painter, and
years ago known for his Stop Motion work in the Detroit
Area. He had a small independent animation studio at one
time. One of Larry's past gigs a number of years ago, was
on Evil Dead 2 working on the stop motion
sequences. Larry is listed at IMDb
and it shows he worked on other film projects. I did not
know that?! It looks like some of Larry's website site is under construction but
hopefully later, his About link will
give us a glimpse of his past work in the biz. Larry ....
keep us updated!
* We recently got this buzz
from our "sources" ....."
Cuppa Coffee Studios is in production and shooting a
Stop Motion pilot for VH1. Not sure what it's
about...under wraps...but Andrew Horne is
directing (Leunig / A Very Barry
Christmas), Christine Davis producing. Dave
Thomas is directing a Stop Motion series for
Mattel ( Directed Henrys World, Super
Why, The Wrong Coast). Season 3 is about to
start on JoJo's Circus for Playhouse
Disney, a preschool Stop Mo series ....Tim
Snyder directed seasons 1 and 2.
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01.21.05
* At the Stop Motion Forum, some are going gah-gah
with excitement over the just released Tim
Burton's "The Corpse Bride" Teaser Trailer. It does
looks fantastic but some at the message board
are already saying that audiences may think it is
CGI ? (computers) My view .... I do not
think so. First, it will be strongly
promoted as, from the creator of
"Nightmare Before Christmas",
and that will associate CB as
Stop Motion or Puppet Animation. Second
.... it just does not look like CGI. Look at the teaser
again. CB does have somewhat
fluid animation but the unique and stylized design of
puppet characters, the more limited facial movements
(nothing wrong with that) conveys its own unique
aesthetics and feel that is soooooo different
than the past & current hyper-fluid signature
of the computer animated synthesized products
such as "Shrek" series or the
just released "The Incredibles". Yes
the CGI products are dimensional but has no similarity to
the reality dimensional quality of REAL puppets, sets,
miniatures, etc.. What might give "Corpse
Bride" a more slick look
compared to "Nightmare",
is, that CB might be tweaked with
post computer effects, especially compositing
of puppets or the extension of miniature sets or
creating entire computer virtual sets and scenery,
atmosphere, etc. (digital matte paintings). "Nightmare"
came out about 12 years ago, so there is
much technology improvement today that can be applied to
the final product of the Stop Motion process. Again, take
a look at the CB trailer and try to be objective.
It very much has a real, tactile, dimensional look and
the animation does have the distinctive Stop
Motion quality, because it is Stop
Motion! Just having real mechanical
armatures within the puppets dictates the art
direction of their look-design and also the gravity
restrictions of real puppets just automatically
differentiates it from the aesthetics, look, feel of CGI.
You do not want Stop Motion to look exactly like
CGI. Anyway, Stop Mo cannot
duplicate CGI and it should not
have to. P.S. McFarlane creates Corpse Bride Toys
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Weekend Edition - 01.15.05
* I got a little present for
all you Windows' users. More accurately, just revisiting
some hidden gems here to remind all yous people. You want
to have a Stop Motion set-up at practically free
cost for software-programs? Well this is your
lucky day and you have come to the right place. Let us
start off with a basic and efficient frame
grabber program called MonkeyJam (it is free). The creator
is David Perry, an animation insturctor
primarily, and he wrote this MonkeyJam capture
program (for Windows only). It is initially designed for
2D pencil testing drawn animation but David has included
some features that makes MonkeyJam very useful for Stop
Motion. Go to his site and checkout MJ. One of their specs
requirements says that you should have the latest version
of DirectX. In Windows, go to start > run .... type in
"dxdiag" (without quotes), hit okay
button.... you should have 8.1 or higher DirectX. If you
cannot determine which version, go to Microsoft Update. If you get MonkeyJam, he asks
that you provide some info for statistical
purposes only. Also, you can be put on MJ's
update mailing list. A few other free program
pearls to include with your Windows-based Stop
Motion software package ..... for voice track
analysis there is the freeware
version of MagPie (for Windows) and there is another free one
called WaveTracker (for Windows). Okay there you have
it ladies and gentlemen of the vast Windows users
audience radiance, out here .... .Free, Free,
Free. I know in the present internet age,
there is that unspoken expectation to not pay for
anything. You should not think like that my
little Elflings. It may be free
..... but you should not just Take and Take
without giving something back (my Gandalf-like
wisdom here) Share your knowledge
.... spread the word, help others (to only those who are
sincerely passionate in wanting to learn), do not hide in
your closet. At the very least, please be proactive
.....encourage, email, phone, or give positive
feedback to those who are providing these freeware
programs. Not just one email but many (even use
alias') If they do not hear from you, then no
more freebie stuff. Is that motivation enough
for you? (your $ wallet $  )
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01.12.05
* So .... it's been awhile since I
posted here. Have you deserted me? I see that my traffic
ranking has diminished (scroll to bottom of page). You
cannot hide ..... the figures do not lie. How hard is it
to click on Stop Motion Works link so I
can get some page hits? Anyways, just seems kind of dead
with regards to Stop Motion specific buzz. I will stretch
it here .... Randal M. Dutra : You heard of that name? A former Stop
Motion dude who worked along side Phil
Tippett at ILM and also in the beginning days of
Tippett Studios. Last big movie type gig
he did was The Lost World and our paths crossed (at link scroll down) on that
project. He then seemed to drop out for years. Randy is a
wild life nature artist. Guess what? ILM
(Industrial Light & Magic) has appointed Randy as animation
supervisor on Speilberg's
updated version of War of the Worlds. Kind of unusual, Randy suddenly getting
back into the film biz? Hmmm .....I wish that ILM
would call me. There are a couple of
"War of the Worlds" being made this year.
Spielberg's is comtemporary, modern & updated but the
other version being done in UK by Pendragon
Pictures, is more true to HG Wells as a
period piece. I am actually more interested in
the latter one. It is suppose to be darker or more
serious. We know Spielberg's WOTW publicity
machine may smother the UK version. Too bad ....
audiences easily swayed by media onslaught. Here are some
articles and info of Pendragon's WOTW
..... 1 2 3 You can see some concept art at the link.
At least, this version will maintain the
insect-like look of the Martian machines that do
not fly but crawl on the ground
.... very Stop Motiony flavor! I do hope
the UK, WOTW version has some success in it's
theatrical release or maybe might have a cult
status popularity and do much better in the DVD movie
distribution market.
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12.31.04
--- 01.01.05
* Well .... last day of 2004.
I am so sick and tired of political correctness
....I see nothing offensive about using CHRISTMAS
1 2 These radicals with a bug up their butts
and too much idle free time to create
trouble over stupid insignificant crap. I am not a
Christian practioner and saying the word Christmas,
does not offend me. Life &
everything seems to be moving too fast .... everyone
being assaulted by too much media & advertising ....
so much information overload. Many of us by conscious or
unconscious choice, being kind of brainwashed and swept
up into it .... we subject ourselves to being jerked
around by these forces. Some call this phenomenon,
The Quickening .... so much online about that
with different interpretations. I only know that ....I
FEEL IT. Maybe that ol' trite line ... "Stop
and smell the Roses" should be practiced
much more often? It should not be all about material
things .....your cell phones, video games, 500
channel digital TV, and other hi-tech electronic toys and
diversions ....everything done in excess.
As a collective, our egos delude ourselves,
thinking we are ever more superior and we have this false
sense of security in completely believing that so-called technological
advancement is our supposed Savior &
Magic Silver Bullet .....but how fragile
we still are. Most recent example ..... the Tsunami
Devastation .... the POWER OF NATURE or
whatever Force way beyond our understanding,
still dominates. "We"
are merely temporary inhabitants of this place
called earth and we better start
realizing what is most important in life. What
is that other saying? Not exact but paraphrasing
...."At the end of the day, never go to bed, angry
towards someone you care for or love .... or quibble or
fight about meaningless stupid things ..... there is no
guarantee that any of us will be here
tomorrow"
P.S. Almost forgot .....Happy
New 2005 Year !
* Recently, "Davey and Goliath's Snowboard
Christmas"
was broadcast on the Hallmark Channel. I
did do a little bit of side work on that project here in
my shop. That was done last year and the show was not
able to be completed by last Christmas. I designed and
fabricated some Davey armatures (2 or 3
...my amnesia .... I actually forgot!), 4 Goliath
armatures, 2 Bear armatures
which I also molded and foam casted. I
did not sculpt the Bear or Goliath puppets. There was the
need for more human puppets for the show, and as always,
there was the ever present production schedule pressures
.....so Premavision Studio who produced "Snowboard
Christmas" decided to use other lower cost armatures
made by someone overseas. The armatures did not need to
be strong and did not require high joint tension strength
because the puppet fabrication department merely padded
the armatures with cut foam or cotton, then made
miniature clothes to fit over them. The resin heads,
hands and shoes were then added. So, there was no
sculpting, molding and foam casting for the human puppets
which saved a lot of time. The Goliaths were foam
casted, but not by me. Kathi Zung did that. There were also, all wire
armatured Goliath puppets used for certain long
shots or stunt-type animation. I did not have a chance to
photograph the Davey armatures, but took some pics of the
Bear and Goliath. There were two versions of the
bears .... one was sculpted as a 4
legged version and the other was scuplted in a 2
legged standing version. The reason is .....
because the foam rubber would not be able to properly
anatomically deform, bend or stretch between those
extreme positions of upright standing and walking on all
fours.
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