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Previous News
 02.24.07
* Artists:
Andrea Caro and Andre Masters ..... Co-incidentally, both have
similar first names and are in the UK, but not related.
However, both are creative artists, and most talented.
Recently, Andrea Caro posted at the SMA message board. She is a musician, composer,
singer, also including Film and TV scoring. Andrea has
great appreciation of the animation arts and
if project is interesting, she might consider
collaborating. A side note; she is a big fan
of Bernard Hermann!  Listen to some of her works at
MySpace (What
if you're wrong, Nicotinia, & more). Her
website, Andrea Caro: Composition with more selections of her
musical artistry.
Andre Masters,
a name unknown to me, until I discovered his new website.
Apparently he  has had prolific experience in the
area of model making, but that description does not fully
describe all his talents, including puppet making,
molding & casting, miniature sets, large set
construction, illustration & design and more. He also
worked with the godfather of Stop Motion, Ray Harryhausen
on a DairyLea TV commercial (1997). Andre's website, All HandMade
If any of you 'Suits',
producers, directors, ad agencies, etc., are
smart, wise, & forward thinking,
you should give consideration to these,
not well known yet, but verrry talented artists.
For later online reference, I will be adding them to Stop
Motion Works Studios/Artists resource page. Edit 02.27.07
* 'Davie
& Golimyr' on DVD and 'Sneax Shoes' Ad ..... Believe it or not, an
animation  studio that does high
production values/quality Stop Motion and is not
located in the mecca of Hollywood,
New York, or England. They are known as Lumenas Studios. I posted about them in past blog and they
are also listed in Studios/Artists page. One of their finished stop
motion projects, 'Davie & Golimyr'
is generously being offered as a free download
for your iPod (or similar porta players), but probably better
to view it on your TV set if you get the affordably
available David
& Golimyr DVD.
The artist known as PES
(he does not give his real name) has just done an eye
grabbing Mike Jittlov style animation
for an Ad. Low tech methods but IMO, most effective. CGI
&  Digital FX complexity excess, is
not the holy grail and not always needed (You listening
Hollywood?) It's originality & creativity,
FIRST! Will the 'Suits' ever learn?
Read, PES creates Human Skateboard. It has generated an interesting Sneax Shoes campaign. PES is also listed at our Studios/Artists page. Edit 02.25.07
* LIO
Secret Revealed .... You remember
I rambled-blogged about that? I did say, if you found out,
you might say, "What the Fug? Is that it?"
Well, it is your Loss if you cannot see
the big picture & benefits. The 3rd Secret
Element is, Blue/Green compositing;
but not just using any painted
chromakey blue/green surface or the typical cloth
backdrop. There is this very 'engineered-designed'
Blue/Green Screen foam-backed material, that
amazingly reduces the hassle
of lighting the chromakey background. It
is more  forgiving to light
compared to other sufaces. The surface of the material is
somewhat similar to velcro.
What is unique, is how it reflects
& diffuses the light very evenly with almost
no Glare. I dig this
type of passive technology,
just using light reflectance-diffusion principles.
It will never be outdated, get old, or you never
need to get the latest model! For the best 'Bang
for Buck' benefit, IMO, this screen
is very Cool.
In a past blog, I did
give you a general hint that this was
posted July '06 at SMA message board, but not much attention paid by
the members. Thanks to Tony McVey,
who immediately took notice of that topic at the forum.
Also, in-person & first-hand at his studio, I was
able to see, touch, feel, & caress
 the background screen material.
Full description and
product listing of this miraculous Blue/Green
Backdrop material is available from the EEFX
Company. Many
available size choices. For myself, I purchased two
colors Blue & Green, each at 5'
x 8' size. Since I intend to do significant
compositing/chromakeying for my
tests-experiments, this aspect is critical
& important for my production workflow. I do not want
to waste time with producing compositing work and looking
for methods or materials that will streamline the work
flow (cost-effectively too).
P.S. This unique compositing screen
does not eliminate the chromakey
color painting of rigs and other objects
which may be necessary. However, the
EEFX material, IMO, significantly will help
or reduce general chromakeying screen lighting
issues, giving more consistent
& predictable results. EEFX also sells chromakey
color matching paints, or you can maybe have
custom mixed at general paint store. It may not be exact
but possibly close enough. Edit 02.25.07
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02.17.07
* The 'Stop
Motion Centennial Celebration' Replacement? .... Remember I posted back around
May '06 about this? Some subsequent
controversy about it. A mysterious letter  was made available to me,
announcing that event and it had
a dream list of Stop Motion Hall-of-Famers:
Uncle Ray, Jim Danforth, Phil Tippett, Henry
Selick, etc.. The Chiodo Brothers
were behind that Stop Mo Centennial
event. I quickly 'heard' that they did not want the
letter to be circulated, so I voluntarily pulled
it offline. Apparently, the Chiodos discovered that it is
very difficult to plan such an event
that they envisioned, of that magnitude.
Well, here is another
event and ASIFA branch in Tinsel Town are
the sponsors. They are calling it, Stop Mo Expo and it is scheduled for April
21, '07. Why didn't they notify and provide Stop
Motion Works with a press release?
I accidentally found out about it. The online
information about event is in PDF format. IMO, a mistake. It should
be displayed as a Website for more user
friendly access. This could be really big
if they promote it more effectively and
in advance, so that perhaps other Stop
Motionists & Fans may participate
or contribute. Stop Motion has
to learn how to hustle & push
their wares  . Anyway, here is their contact for more details or questions. It is two
months away and so you got time
to plan and attend.
* Stop Motion Ads for
Nascar's Daytona 500 ..... by the Coca-Cola
people, will make its broadcast debut in the USA, this Sunday,
February 18, 2pm ET on the Fox Network.
Here is one of the online press releases about the Stop Mo commercials. No
online teasers or previews of the TV ads that I could
find, except for some still images here (large jpeg downloads).
* Large Files
Upload/Download Hosting ..... This is NOT a YouTube
video sharing thing for the masses. Someone tipped me
about this cool online
service. At times you may need to 'Privately'
send, exchange & receive big files with individuals.
Email usually has a megabyte
size limit and the recipient's email
may not be able to accept or
download the large file through their
email.
For example, you have
an animated movie/clip that you think StopMoShorts might consider : You upload your movie
to YouSendit and the file will be temporarily
stored (& unaltered) at a private
online web address for 7 days.
With the free YouSendit 'lite' version,
you can upload up to 100 MB. Of course,
IMO, you should not have any movie clip
that large (less incentive for people to
view it) but first make attempts to use
compression codecs to reduce big video
files. It is assumed you have some sort of Broadband
internet service for this work more effectively
(dial-up would take forever) Here is Wiki's YouSendit overview/summary. Save and Bookmark YOU SEND IT
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02.10.07
* Why aren't
you 'Representing' Stop Motion? Dudes and/or dudettes, get out of your closets! Talk it
up to everyone or everywhere or as the ol'
saying goes, "The squeaky wheel gets the
$Grease$" Get yourself a SMA
T-Shirt .... a $ 5. coupon savings (expires 2/14/07). Since many of
you seem to be introverted types  , the shirts and other Stop Mo related
promotional items/products could be a Chick Magnet
for you .... a conversation
starter; but you got to change your attitude;
show confidence. We are
cool .... renegades,
underground, we have no fences,
as free as the wind, march to
the beat of a different drummer,
etc. etc. Keith J. Brett's, Bride of Wire Studio Store has the tools
that might help your social life (even without the coupon, you
should 'represent') Edit 02.11.07
* Tinsel Town
hoping Stereo flicks will get your $$$ .... They want
you out of your house
and inside the pricey movie
theaters. In past blogs, I posted some articles
about this. Is it just another carrot
in addition to the current plethora & sometimes
excess, empty eye-candy calories of "CGI &
Digital Special Effects"?? You know how 'they' work;
formulaic, LCD, homogenized. We shall see, we shall see.
Read, 3-D: The Eyes have it Edit 02.11.07
* StopMoShorts
for the 'Discriminating & Selective' ..... YouTube is
for the masses. Yeah, some good stuff there but the comments can be negatively
brutal  . The loud mouthed
YouTube posters are supposedly courageous
under the cover of anonymity, however,
they are nothing but Yellow-Belly fleeing cockroaches
if confronted in-person. StopMoShorts does not post all
movie/video submissions. They are verrrry picky.
When you do get a privileged spot at SMS,
you can be sure it will be noticed by your peers
and the comments will be diplomatic,
positive and constructive.
We are here to "Pump each other up"
(courtesy of Governor Arnold). P.S. StopMoShorts has
been showcasing Movie Trailer/Teasers that have Stop Motion content and
also providing brief background info. Check this one out;
very B-movie but Fun,
Planet of Dinosaurs (1978) Edit 02.11.07
* Sesame St.
Characters in Stop Motion ..... Not coming from USA,
but to be produced by a studio in Italy.
See what happens? Hollywood obsessed with their one-trick pony CGI & Digital Schmigital
Special Effects. Euro 'Suits' maybe smarter
and more open to 'thinking out
of the box'? Read, Bert & Ernie set in Clay, and this is the Italian animation
house,
MISSERI STUDIO Edit 02.11.07
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02.03.07
* Ray
Harryhausen & BlueWater make a Splash in '07 .... I got a press release from Blue Water Productions who publish high end & splashy
graphic novel comics. A quote from Blue Water, "Each
RAY HARRYHAUSEN PRESENTS comic will feature five
pages of original artwork from Harryhausen's collection".
Some of the comic titles are .... Wrath of the Titans,
20 Million Miles More, Sinbad: Rogue of Mars
and others. The first issues suppose to be released in May
(4 months from now) and I am not sure why the announcement is so early. Hopefully, Blue
Water will also send out another press release 'later',
to remind us.
* Dreamworks
 &
Aardman Split ....
It's all over the news now. To me, this is sooo old. I
saw it coming long
ago. Also, you will get the Dreamworks corporate line
that Were-Rabbit was a box office flop
and not profitable. Do not believe everything you read on
the internet as Gospel. Many times it is "spin and
hype". Compared to the general excess
of CGI production budgets, making the Stop Motion Were-Rabbit
feature was a bargain. One of many sound byte articles, Aardman Gets Flushed
* FlexiMusic
revisited .....
Stop Motion Works announced it in Oct. '06 and also was just mentioned at forum, but with the constant deafening
silence out here, not sure if this is worth my time
trying to motivates all yous peoples!
Check-out FlexiMusic. NO it's not a high end,
Yamaha Schamaha Moog Synthesisr, or 'whatever'
keyboard set-up, BUT maybe FlexiMusic
might work as an introductory/starting out, background
Stop Motion music/sound composer & editor that is
cost-effective (cheap). It is for PC Windows
and they have very generous free trial period.
Speaking of keyboards
& music; this is not directly Stop Mo
related but if you are a general gadgeteer build
it yourself type; check this out on
YouTube, Ghetto Talk
Box (build
yourself one) ..... then listen/watch this dude's
keyboard & talkbox rendition of A Merry Talk
Box Christmas
(crank up the volume & get funky). AMAZING
.... currently with accessible &
somewhat affordable tools to the public;
there is hella lots of talent out there.
Hollywood Power People no longer are the
GateKeepers of determining who
or what talent is exposed to the masses.
P.S. Hurry up Eric
Scott! (of StopMoShorts Celebrity Fame ).I believe you got a tricked-out Yamaha keyboard set-up?
Start learning it so I can use your services for
my Stop Motion experiments Edit 02.04.07
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