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Previous News
MAY
2004
05.28.04
* I do
not know if it's just a perception of mine but I think
there seems to be an increase of animated products coming
out of Canada? I am not sure but this may be one of the
reasons according to The Financial Times and Guardian Unlimited .....
"UK animation companies were being squeezed by
the decreased buying power of the large UK broadcasters, low-cost
production resources in the Far East and
the existence of public funds,
subsidies and tax breaks for animators
in other countries, such as Canada,
France and Germany"
The UK animation industry/group is the one making this
siren call and perhaps their British bureacracy might
listen? I believe in the USA, the NEA, National
Endowment for Arts is kind-of, sort-of our
equivalent to government subsidies for the Arts but that
is general and not animation
specific and also these groups seem to be
overseen by the Artsy-Fartsy types.
Remember the Cross in Urine so-called
"arteetistic" statement? My view is .....these Fine
Arts Elitists sitting on these grant approval
boards obviously have no interest to
help artists-creatives in the commercial aspects to
promote industry or commerce.
* Check out a few video tutorials for
beginners about how to create clay animation. They are done by Mark
Sawicki who is
somewhat eclectic and worked as a
technician doing optical composite/special effects work
(before CGI takeover) but also has done small gigs as an
actor, an educator, artist, etc. Speaking of teaching
yourself .... if you have the determination,
perserverance, etc. ..... you can do it.
I ranted about this before in my Workshop and Books links. Not all information about Stop
Motion or related arts/crafis available for free online
and you will have to make some purchases
.....books, manuals, videos, etc. if you really want to
learn. A little bit of cash investment in your
own education will save you much time in trial and error
and consider this ..... way cheaper than paying
for this at college. Anyway, there are not that
many schools/colleges teaching the traditional
methods (it's mostly CGI indoctrination). There
are a few but I cannot remember. I know that Rick Catizone teaches some Stop Motion as part
of general animation curriculum. One of a rare breed who
has done a variety of animation techniques and probably
has a good perspective of the industry.
____________________
05.20.04
* I do
not know how interesting this would be to you..... an
approximately 27 year old magazine article
by S.S. Wilson. It is about the old Stop Motion
TV series Land of the Lost. This was originally published in
Cinefantastique magazine in 1977 and someone put
this up online.
* We already mentioned this in our
News here in another article, not too long ago. This AWN
article, again announces a new upcoming TV series Green Screen created/produced by comedian Drew
Carey. Live actors will do actual
improvisatiional comedy bits in front of a compositing
screen, then in post production, animation will
be added to the improvisation. They will use
different types of animation ..... computer, drawn, and
supposedly stop motion.
____________________
Special Weekend Edition - 05.15.04
* So what is going on in a distant,
far away studio in East Granby Connecticut, USA? I am
talking about Wreckless Abandon Studio. This was posted at SMA.com. I know some in our micro-scopic Stop Mo
biz that have relocated there and I was even contacted by
Wreckless, but not given details. I kind of heard some
buzz but not confirmed yet. Wreckless is somehow
affiliated with this other site called Animation Content and I found this on one of their pages. In the
smaller window on that page, click on the first link . I
am not sure about anything but the clues are out
there to do your own guesstimation
about what they might be up to. If anyone has more info
or buzz, you may contact me anonymously, if you would
like to share with the hungry
& thirsty Stop Motion fanatics aficianados
out here.
* Here is some more info about a Stop
Motion TV series The Wrong Coast that
seemed to have had a mysterious production history and
some delays in debuting. In April, "04, this series
finally started broadcasting on Canada's, The
Movie Network. Here is a small promo page I found at TMN site. Has anyone
seen the shows? You might be surprised to know,
that according to the article, the puppet heads are hard
cast resin with animateable eyes & eyebrows (nothing
unique about that), however, the animated
lyp-syncing of mouths were computer/digitally composited
in post production! It is no wonder why this
could have helped made the hands-on Stop Motion
animation go Faster.
Of course, this mouth animation method applicable to
mostly humanoid type puppets with humanoid type lip-mouth
structures, but nevertheless, a clever way to do the
sometimes time consuming mouth syncing on Stop Motion
puppet characters. This mouth compositing method is not
new. Something like this has been hilariously
done with Steve Oedekerk's Thumbmation Movies (started back in 1999). Here is
another Wrong Coast article about behind the scenes.
____________________
Special Weekend
Edition - 05.08.04
* From one of our sources .....Cuppa Coffee Studios is well underway on a
self-financed $2 Million Christmas Special, called A
Very Barry Christmas. Directed by Andrew
Horne, Exec.Produced by Adam Shaheen and Written by
Brendan Russell. The Christmas special was sold
at this year's MIP to possibly 14
different countries. Shaheen has also created a show
rumored to be sold to Nickelodeon worldwide
called Bruno. It is not certain if this
show is Stop Motion. There was word that Cuppa
was talking to Disney about Stop Motion feature,
still no news there, but it is confirmed that they are
doing a second season of Jo Jo's Circus
for Playhouse Disney. They are also in
development with a Stop Motion musical.
Maybe we might get some pics for you to be posted here at
SMW news.
* Hey .... whatever happened to
another book about Uncle Ray.....
Ray Harryhausen: Master of the
Majicks This page
is dated from year 2000. That is about four years ago. I
heard that Ernest Farino was involved
with it. Anybody have news or rumors about
Majicks book? I don't know if Animated Life will be the definitive Harryhausen
book (Ray seems to be promoting that more) but would be
nice to see a different take or perspective from other
books. Come on people .... it does no good
to keep some of this secret. Stop Motion will
surely die if we do not talk-it-up and generate interest.
I always say, you can contact me and I keeps my informants confidential. You
can skewer me with surface guage points
and I will never reveal my sources.
____________________
Special
Weekend Edition - 05.02.04
* Of course as we all know, to the
mainstream movie biz, Stop Motion has generally been the
outcast black sheep of the animation family and so we
usually have been screwed. 2D
(cartoon style) animation seemed to be
supposedly "safe" until Disney
announced, pretty much abandoning their 2D
classical animation roots in favor of hi-techy CGI,
and is setting a possible precedent, as though CGI is the
panacea automatic answer to the Mouse's problems. So I
wonder now about those working in CGI when I read an
article....
"Using
artificial intelligence, the researchers have developed a
new software technology that allows computers to learn to
animate a computer-generated character through examining
animation examples provided by a human. The computer then
makes choices based on those examples regarding how the
character will behave and react, even if the computer is
presented with an unfamiliar situation"
To me, how unexciting, dry and so sterile.
Gazing into my Crystal Ball.....
enabling the studio corporate suits to pump out
more homogenized CGI at a faster rate and just oversaturate
the audiences more quickly?? How about
the possibility of this affecting employment of CGI
artists .....FEWER working on a production with
predominately motion capture and this automation
animation?? I know, Lord of the Rings
used some similar technology Massive, specifically for the battle scenes. How depressing
.... Brave
New World is
here. Read it for yourself....
Computer animation taking new steps
____________________
04.30.04
* In my opinion, this article Imperfection Animation is one of the best
observations why real tactile animation
techniques such as Stop Motion, Puppet/Clay,
Cut-out animation has a uniqueness all its own and
computers cannot match (they have their own look) or CGI
attempts to fake it. I have done my past rants covering
some of what article says but this is the most concise
& cogent analysis. Most Hollywoodized
producers & studio corporate suits will never understand the subtlety of
this. To them, they myopically think it has
to be computers only because that is the supposed
flavor right now (until the flavor may
eventually sour because of market
glut or overexposure. Article was written by Tom Gasek, a long timer in the biz. Our paths crossed
way back.... he was one of the animation directors of the
Gumby TV series.
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