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Previous News
02.26.06
* Slowwww
.... dead as a "Heart Attack" .... Strider mildly ranted recently, about lackadaisical participation at message
board and I also added my small "two
cents". As I always do in spite of
my other "life" & issues going on, doing
maintenance/upkeep on Stop Motion Works.
IF only you knew, the time & effort of
good webmasters who keep their sites
current and do not let it stagnate.
I still have not really completed SMW site since it went
online some years ago. You know though, I'm usually here
& alive and also that SMW does not
"feel" abandoned (like
"other" sites or blogs  ). I do
not get paid for this. Do not take SMW
for granted ....if you do ... I will
shut-down this site!  Where
is all the buzz & rumors? How many
times have I said? .... You will remain anonymous! Your ears stuffed with foam
latex? I do not need to know who you are. Geeeez
people .... get motivated .... do
something, say something, anything ....
at message board, or "whatever"! 
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02.22.06
* Stop Motion
Creature Effects ..... Everyone brainwashed
that only CGI can do that no w. I have always said that
is B.S.. That is what you believe, Mr. Suit,
Producer, or Director .... all of you pigeon holing and
stereo-typing Stop Motion as suppposedly only
good for puppet/cartoon style animation? You
all are just a bunch of myopic shee p and I probably
can never convince you of Stop Motion's use for
creature effects. Maybe not for the mega-million
wannabie blockbuster movies .... however .... I say ....Stop
Mo creature FX very viable for direct to DVD productions
aka B movies. I always mention Randy Cook's work on The Gate & Gate 2 and I, Madman .... the potential of what Stop
Motion could be. Today, with all the advantages
of acessible computer tools, we can really digitally
turbo-charge Stop Motion.  Yes .... I know CGI is easier to integrate
& more seamlessly composite with live action and you
can clone thousands of creatures. Also, CGI people
seem to like masturbating the moving camera.
To me, many times a distraction. Thousands of
stories can be imagined & told, and one does
not need a plethora of CGI cloned
creatures or the barf inducing excess camera motion.
BEFORE CGI took over the
minds of the masses in movie theaters then on TV
(such as the CGI, Walking with Dinosaurs .... the glowy
& floaty stuff) ..... there was Hall Train Studios ..... using Stop Motion
techniques to portray dinosaurs in a realistic manner.
Tim Synder worked for Hall Train in t hose years. For your viewing, here
are what seems to be rare, very brief clips (Quicktime)
of some Dino shots done at Hall Train, Clip 1 & Clip 2. Looks good to me and "real
enough" in the context of the documentary ....
"real-surreal" as I like to describe
Harryhausen-esque Creature Stop Mo. These Hall
Train Stop Mo animated dinos have a solidness
you can almost touch & feel (because they are real
figures). IMO, hyper smoothness motion
is not the holy grail
and that is what CGI creatures generally feel/look like
to me. They have their own artificiality
about them too, and the public has been suckered
to accept only that type of digitally
created synthetic imagery as supposed
"reality". Edit 02..23.06 Added Still Image links ...... 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 .... Yeah .... Stop Motion Digitally
Turbo-charged 
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02.15.06
* Don Hahn
head of Disney for a little while .... With all the turmoil of the big
D aquiring Pixar, it  seems like Hahn will act as
fill-in head of animation. Article says ..... "Hahn
is known to be an advocate of the many styles and
techniques of animation, from 3-D to hand-drawn 2-D and
stop-motion as well as integration of 2-D and live
action". Stop Motion? Yeah .... we will
have to wait an d see. I am usually skeptical about
mainstream biz. Pixar's John Lasseter is the one
who will eventually make the creative decisions.
I kind of did my ramble - pleading - begging
at this topic (SMA message board) .... but most likely it
will fall upon DEAF EARS. In general
..... Tinsel-Town Movie Biz does not think
"out of the box" or they are very much
cowards in experimenting or try new
things .... hence .... all the current homogenized
entertainment movie products. Here is that brief
soundbyte news ..... Hahn tapped interim chief of Disney
Animation
* Duck
Studios .... the "new" Colossal Pictures? CP were located in San Francisco
years ago. Don't know if the ADD internet generation here
remembers them. Colossal was everything
Disney was not ..... loose, organic, all
manner of mixed media animation and special effects. They
were on top for a long while, then downsized some years ago and I think eventually
closed shop. Anyway ..... check out Duck Studio .... they have many clips and you can
select them by categories ..... 2d, 3d, Stop Mo,
etc. It is friggin refreshing to see a plethoric "Salad
Bowl"
of styles & aesthetics ..... compared to other
studios with the same ol' tired pure
100% CGI .... can get boring and very sterile
look & feel. BTW .... Duck Studios did the recent
incredible United Airlines Stop Mo commercial
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02.11.06
* CineMagic
Magazine .... about 20 years ago, stopped publication .... It focused
on amateur-hobbyist, verrry "poor man's"
special effects including coverage of some Stop Motion
tips, methods, etc.. In those days, mostly using the
Super 8mm film format. The publisher was the Starlog
group and it appears they are still around with
their Fangoria and Starlog magazines. I have all the old CM
issues ..... pages are  yellowing a little. In
hindsight ..... the how-to and other articles
were not that detailed or the step
by step descriptions not clear and many of the photos
on the inside pages were poor or about newspaper
quality. The later issues of CM slightly
improved but still, the how-to info was
so-so. In those days though .... that was almost
the only info source around for
the Stop Mo Starved  .
In the 21st century internet era, information
about Stop Motion is more accessible with
perhaps a little better & more how-to
detail. Re-visiting some of the Cinemagic articles, I
found a few which are the better ones
and are still relevent and useful today. I am guessing,
this might be the very first time, these CM Stop
Mo articles are on the Internet  . I
present to you, for your mind edification
& for the Stop Mo historical documents
preservation cause ... Hinge-Jointed (Rex) Armatures CM #35 (this is
full page scanned copies of actual mag pages) ... AND
... Dinosaurs from the Inside Out CM #21 (redone as
webpage & I slightly edited text for clarity).
Original authors of articles are clearly indicated &
credited for their written works Edit 02..11.06 I may periodically post more old
articles from CM or other old mags that I have in
storage. Like I said, articles may not be as good as
currently available how-to info .... but for the sake of
Stop Mo history .... they could be interesting reading.
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02.09.06
* "Wallace
& Gromit" visits San Francisco ..... February 11
.... At Zeum .... pre-registration required.
Quoting them, "All visitors to Zeum on this
special workshop day will see actual sets and characters
from the feature film,  including Wallace &
Gromit, their rivals Victor & Philip, and Hutch and
the other bunnies". Unfortunately or
fortunately, this is for kids and young adults.
If you do not have kids, maybe borrow
one of your friend's kid, your niece, nephew etc. Pre-registratrion
required. Teresa Drilling (formerly of the old Vinton
Studios) will be host. A direct link to the page
(non-framed) about the W&G Event. Zeum verrrrry
interesting .... read their About ..... to foster the
CREATIVITY of the YOUNG, of all backgrounds. My
observation .... the constant onslaught of Video
Gaming & plethoric excess of hi-tech toys
upon the young minds is numbing
and deadening and creates addiction
to these diversions. Looks like the Zeum
organization depends on
dedicated volunteers and probably $$$
donations from a few generous people who deeply care
about our children & the value of creativity. Edit 02..09.06
____________________
02.04.06
* CGI
animation saturation & Oscar agrees? As much as I like Pixar's
work .... especially The Incredibles,
other Pixar wannabie blockbuster computer created
animations (from other studios) have that
"signature" to them ..... all
looking & feeling like Pixar products. Kind
of homogenized or formulaic? Not saying
that is a negative, but something that I am always aware
of when watching CGI animation, in general. As you may
already know, The Academy Award nominations
are for three NON-CGI animations .... Howl's
Moving Castle (2D drawn), Curse of the Were-rabbit (Stop
Motion) and Corpse Bride (Stop Motion). This
surprised me as I did not think both Stop Mo flicks would
get final nominations. One can get excited about this but
I am cautious. I never ever saw
Hollywood as helping Stop Motion. It has always
been rejected by mainstream biz. If one of the Stop Mo
films does win an Oscar, difficult to say what the
implications are or if it will make any positive impact
for further use of Stop Motion (the cartooon-puppet style
of Stop Mo) in "mainstream". Just have to wait
and see. For your info absorption .... some articles
..... Oscar shuns computer-animated
cartoons ..... Diversity rules Oscar animation
picks . Read this
.... CBS OK's First Animated Series in
13 Years Could
this be a "preview"of the positive
effects-karma, if Stop Motion gets
an Oscar? More Stop Mo projects?
Edit 02..05.06
* Paint Specialty Lab gone ....
Duchess Art Products emerges ..... Last year, Leo
Bergman of Paint Specialty Labs passed away. He
was inventor & chemist and primary person behind PSL.
He developed paints for artists & specialty
industries. The paints were durable and
waterbased non-toxic (no solvents). One of the paint
lines was specifically for Foam
Rubber Latex. The paints work straight
out of the bottle (no involved
mixing like PAX paints). Very concentrated paints and the ounce
sizes would last for the Stop
Mo hobbbyist. Well, I had hopes "someone" would
carry on with the foam paints, but I heard there was no
one to continue the PSL buisness.  Recently, I received an
announcement about Duchess Art Products
..... they said they have a paint for foam latex
rubber called Foam Coat and it
is suppose to be similar to PSL's paints.
I received some samples of their paints
but have not had a chance to test it. You can read the
advantages of PSL's paints. Hopefully, Foam Coat
paints will have some of the same
properties/characteristics. PSL was in
Portland, Oregon and I see that Duchess Art
is also located in Portland. That would be good
news if there was a connection and perhaps Duchess
Art maybe acquired the foam paint formulas!?
Here is online copy of a page from Duchess Art Products brochure that they sent to me via
postal mail. Contact them for further information
or samples. If you test their foam
paints, be sure to give them feedback. Edit 02..05.06
* FPS Mag
Contest for 4 Curse of Were-Rabbit DVDs ...... Hmmmm ....
I just got this from them .... kind-of short,
last minute notice. Contest deadline
is THIS Monday, Feb 6. If
you like, you can give it a shot Entry form/Contest Details
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