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Previous News
JUNE
2003
06.30.03
* I receive email inquiries about stop
motion capture programs and I am not an expert
on this and have personally tested only a few which work
okay for me. There are a number of animation capture
programs and I do have a page Animation
Framegrabbing Overview in which at the time, I did research to see
what was available out there. I do not necessarily
recommend any particular frame grabbing animation
software or hardware but only list them with a brief
description. Here are some additional animation frame
capture programs not listed yet in my overview link....Tepee Animator for PCs which costs 35 pounds or
about $57. USA and they have a freeware trial version for
testing before you buy ..... MonkeyJam for PCs which is for drawn/cel animation
but can be used for stop motion and it is in beta and
free .... iStopmotion for Macs in three versions, Lite
(free), DV at about $40. and a Pro version not yet
available.. I am amazed that some of these animation
programs are free and at only about $40.-$50. plus, which
is really affordable for a critical &
essential tool that will enable one to do
animation so one should not really complain about these
prices. Even if they were $100. I still think that is
reasonable. Remember, you should first research carefully
or contact the companies to find out the compatibilty
with your camera, computer, and other software/hardware.
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06.25.03
* It is my understanding that Ray
Harryhausen has a few homes. I am not sure if he
still has one in Los Angeles area but we all know that he
definitely has been a long time resident in England and I
heard he might have a place in Spain? Anyway, in one of Uncle
Ray's houses,
someone was hired to make some Fantasy themed stained
glass windows based on a few of his stop motion classics.
Here is the studio Powell Bros. Glass Art and you can see the custom
stained glass pieces that were created for the Godfather
of Stop Motion.
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06.18.03
* If you are a regular visitor here
or at the Stop Motion Animation message boards, you will recognize
the name of Nick Hilligoss. Not too long
ago, in Australia's "The Age", they did a news
piece on Nick, called Rubber Man. Nick just completed a series of 5
animation shorts called, Good Riddance,
about the mis-adventures of an Eco-friendly animal/pest
controller. This was done for Australia Broadcasting's
(ABC), natural history unit. I was able to see a preview
of his animation work. Nick of course being a true
artist, was perhaps too close to this project which was
about a couple of years in the making and he sees some of
the so-called "flaws". Myself, being more
objective and seeing it for the first time, I did not
personally notice any. Nick's unique & warm
story telling style is what grabbed me and any
lack of quality is not apparent to the viewer. Nick told
me that he had to work with a modest budget and only a
few people assisted him with the actual
"hands-on" during the animation & set
building stage. You should know, amazingly,
Nick used good ol' wire armatures for the puppets on this
project. NIck just has sheer genious to
work with his overall restrictions and yet he can
produce outstandingly creative work. In Good
Riddance, much of the action is
"visual" and with limited dialogue. If any of
you remember the old TV shows from the UK, Benny
Hill or Mr. Bean, many of their
live action comedy skits were also done with limited
dialogue. Even though Nick would have liked to use more
dialogue, I think the limited verbal style, creatively/artistically,
works well for Good Riddance. It will be aired
in Australia this year and hopefully, will be available
to the public on Video/Dvd.
____________________
06.13.03
* Here is an upcoming how-to
Stop Motion workshop which is very rare these days:
Stop-Motion Animation Workshop / August 15th - 17th
Location: Chicago, IL (exact address TBA)
Chicago-based stop-motion filmmaker/educator Tom Brierton
will be holding a two-and-a-half day intensive workshop
on stop-motion animation August 15th - 17th in Chicago,
Illinois.
For further information, please contact Tom Brierton at:
Phone 773.924.1424 or Email armatures@sbcglobal.net
Tom Brierton Website
* From
AWN website, here is brief article Harryhausen joins Hollywood Walk of
Fame. Also,
courtesy of Heather "Guzzy" Milne,
here is a nice photo of Uncle
Ray's Star. She
went back the next day of the event on her trusty scooter
just to take to photograph the star. Thanks Heather!
* Here
are a couple of more articles about continuing
saga of Will Vinton 1 - 2. Looks like Will already has some projects
in mind and also advertising he is available to
collaborate. May you succeed Will, in
your new re-birth! Even though it might
be a great disappointment how this has turned out maybe something
positive will result .... an infusion of
new creative energy. Do not disappear from us
Will. We need you to help keep Stop Motion alive
in the 21st century!
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06.11.03
* Well, Uncle Ray now has a
Star in Hollywood. Here are some photos Ray H. Gets his Star! I previously suggested that
someone perhaps might video record it. If you have any
other photos please contact me or perhaps you might consider posting some
of the photos on the SMA message board. If you live in Los Angeles area,
pehaps a nice close-up photo of Uncle Ray's Star?
The man who pushed for Harryhausen to get his star, is Arnold
Kunert Beast That Wouldn't Quit. He also created the buzz that may
have contributed to Ray getting his long deserved Oscar.
The Hollywood Walk of Fame is run by the
Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and it took Arnold FIVE
long years to convince the stubborn bureaucrats to give
Harryhausen his recognition. Once the Chamber of Commerce
approves, there is a $15,000. fee and by Hollywood's
opulent Lifestyle & Money standards, it is not that
much $$$ and we can gratefully thank actor Tom
Hanks and also, director Peter Jackson
which was reported that they donated the most. IMO, Tom
& Peter not only praise (others do that too)
Harryhausen, but also "walk the talk" with
their $$$.
* The
Life Aquatic starring actor/comedian Bill Murray
is in the works to be shot in Rome, Italy. Here are five
brief news articles about it 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 . The story will have a Mythical
Shark Creature. The Big News is
that Henry Selick will be directing the
underwater sequences. I assume it is going to be
Stop Motion? If anyone has heard of any additional info,
buzz or rumors, at your option, you can anonymously contact me.
____________________
06.09.03
* As usual, for the summer, all kinds
of mass media hype about certain movies. The Hulk
directed by Ang Lee is really being
pushed & marketed (it's a franchise!). Just do Google
search on the Incredible Hulk. One article from Australia
caught my eye How Bana became The Hulk. Personally, I am starting to feel
that the word Animator as applied to
certain types of CGI character work is
starting to be a misnomer or not
applicable anymore. Much of these things are motion
captured and even Ang Lee was doing some
of the acting bits for the synthesized Hulk.
What the CGI person does now, is to
function as a motion technical adjuster
(I made that up!) and augments and tweaks
the existing live action motion capture data.
Is this really Animation? In the traditional
sense, I consider "The Art of
Animation" as, creating
motion/movement from the artist's hands
which is done in an altered stated of time; frame by
frame. Again I ask, is real time live action
motion capture, really Animation? On another item related
to The Hulk, here is a quote from that article, "ILM
was under pressure to create a Hulk that supersedes the
visual effects breakthroughs made by the Gollum character
in The Lord of the Rings: The Two
Towers. With Gollum coming out I
think everyone is going to be really nitpicking and
analysing The Hulk to death". I ask myself,
who is creating this pressure?
I see it as their self imposed endless obsession
about all this computer-technology driven CGI/Special
Effects. Studio "suits" and the big special
effects houses think that the audiences
are also obsessed with it too. At my other blue
collar-type job, I talk to just regular people who are
part of the masses that watches these movies. They really
do not excessively nit-pick and analyze; as a matter of
fact, they seem to be mildly impressed by the special
effects nowadays. Initially it is curiousity and a
novelty for the movie goers when they get blasted with
visual eye candy, but they soon get jaded and even more
bored if the story is not so good. Some of you may have
already read this, Tippett, life of Fantasy (he does not think so). His cogent
observations about the reality and insanity of
computer special effects biz and refreshing
to hear some of the Truth from the Tippett
Meister!
____________________
06.05.03
* If you did not notice, I added a store
link above. There is nothing set-up there yet.
Just trying it out and no definite plans yet to sell
items because stop motion is such an extremely
niche/esoteric market. Perhaps I will make more of an
effort to offer some of my services. I am, kind-of
working on an armaturing/jointing system
for the masses. Anyway, in the past, I have designed
& built some injection guns and here is one of the
prototypes, I call the SMW FOAM INJECTOR. I am amazed that foam latex
companies do not advertise more or push foam injection
guns which is a necessary tool to more efficient
working/handling the foam latex. Sure, you can
build one yourself but I already did the R&D
and my injector design is guaranteed to work.You
can also buy the $70. small Burman
foam gun (which I
actually made one similar to theirs) or spend $235.
for Monster Makers injector, and GM
Foam's gun has one
for $348.. Mine is not clear plastic
barrel/tubes like the higher priced injectors. The clear
plastic does not contribute to a better working injection
gun. You can cast puppets without using an injector but
it is not always applicable with the more complex
puppet/armature designs. When you close both halves of
the molds together, to squeeze out the excess foam,
sometimes the armature will shift or move.
Injection allows the foam to flow around the armature
without disturbing its position within the mold and it's
just a more quality but low-tech way to do it. Price? A
little more than the Burman injector but much
less than GM's or Monster Maker's injection gun.
If you want to find out or have questions, just contact me. Mine holds same amount of foam as
the so-called professional injectors: about 3.75
quarts of foam which equals the quanitity of the
large bowl used with
the Sunbeam Mixmaster. That is plenty of foam
capacity for stop motion work! I also, don't
just offer the injection gun only, but as a bonus,
will include tips & tricks how to effectively
use the foam injection method.
____________________
06.02.03
* Sick and tired of the news,
dismal economy and world events? Well, if you
are in the USA or you have a satellite dish
somewhere on this earth, near the end of this month you
will want to tune in to the Turner Classic Movies channel, because starting June
27 to the 29, there will be a Ray Harryhausen Festival showing 12 of his stop
motion classics, including the
television premiere of the
restored and finished Tortoise
& the Hare. What a month this will be for
Ray. As mentioned in 05.30.03 news, Uncle Ray will be
getting a Hollywood sidewalk Star and other events will
be celebrated in his honor. So, forget about the current
depressing news and escape to a more innocent and
quieter time, from about 1949 to 1981 when
Ray was King of 3D animation well before the
current plethoric onslaught of computer animation. Set
your VCR's, get your fresh pop corn, and kick back in
your favorite chair or couch and enjoy the
fantasy & dream world of Ray Harryhausen!
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