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Previous News
 06.30.07
* Phil and
Travis Knight: Their Journey .... You of course know who they are.
Nike founder, Phil Knight and his son Travis,
who really did not want to run the father's athletic shoe
empirebusiness. I posted this  about a
month ago. I got
feedback by someone, kind of dissing Travis
as Rich Kid status and getting privileges &
breaks. It was in reference to Travis' attempting to get
into the music business as a rapper (about 5 years ago)
but it was not successful. In my view, in this case, Wealth
did not give Travis advantages.
Brew yourself a Pot of Java, light up your Gandalf smoking pipe; then, for some personal life
revelations about the Knights, deeper understanding about
them, and their venture into the Animation business
aka Laika Studios; read this in depth article The Knights' Tale
* I Told  You So .... You think I
am just shooting my mouth off and empty tirades to merely
entertain you, while you hide anonymously in the
dark?? Why don't you come out here and do this?
I am no big ego head pundit, but just
very observant, have commonsense instincts and can see
the repeatable patterns of people, business, politics,
society, etc.. "We" are so predictable and screw
up continously and never, ever
learn from mistakes. Back to topic: Remember my commentary
earlier this
month about Creature Comforts?
It has just been cancelled by CBS (Link 2) for the exact reasons I stated. Why doesn't
someone hire me to do this or buy
out Stop Motion Works (I am easy,
make me an offer  ).
P.S. On a related note; Disney
just bought the rights to broadcast Aardman's,
Shaun the Sheep beginning July 8. This is for the Disney
Channel in the USA; the cable/satellite niche
market, and so, it might have a better chance of
success.
* Mike Bates
Bites the Dust? .... Some of you
might already know; he is an animator/artist
who has been online for quite a few years,
slowly pursuing his Stop Motion projects. First, there
was Skullwell  Predicts short,
then the unfinished Stop Motion Film Noir, Time
and Time Again. In the beggining, regular
postings to his blog, then gradually less and less, and
eventually, many months not posting. Well, you
now click on his website www.skullwell.com and it has vanished. I do
not know why. Perhaps personal, or loss of interest and
just dropped out? Here is archive.org's cached link of Mike Bates website and of Skullwell Predicts. I do have a link to his site/blog and was considering removing it
because of mostly, lack of activity.Wth this discovery of
a dead link, I will have to nix it as part of website
maintenance.
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06.23.07
* Stop Motion
Software BUZZ:
CSMC Digicam, Stop Motion Recorder, Anasazi, Secret Beta
for Macs, Xipster, FrameThief, Stop MotionMaker ....
I was informed about a remote capture program
for some Canon digital still cams (like
the Powershot line) and it is suppose to be free.
The site is in German but partially translated into
English. It is called CSMC Digicam & link 2. If you want more info or do not
understand, try contacting them, or maybe the translator of the pages. Edit: 06.24.07
Someone who is a Brickfilmer (passionate about Stop Mo Legos), created a
simple, free framegrabber for Windows
& Linux (who uses Linux?). The
program is Java based (not sure what
that means). Again, it is free and called Stop Motion Recorder. Here are some comments.
Then, we have one of the oldest online available
(to general consumer) Stop Mo capture animation framegrabber software, on the
planet  , Anasazi. It has
been offered for free by AnimateClay site for some years. One of the
early Stop Mo capture programs but has some glitches
& bugs, however, 'people' insist on
using it, inspite of the newer available
framegrabbers. I guess, 'free' is the motivator
for many. Anasazi is suppose to be updated,
tweaked, modified by a group of people at the Brickfilms forum. I have not yet seen any
beta version or progress yet. We shall see.
Remember last month, I
wondered about Secret New Beta Stop Motion
Software? Well, I
got some feedback by someone out there. They revealed the
name of the software, to me. It is an existing
framegrabber program for Macs
that you all probably have heard of, and for now, the
updated Beta version is only being disclosed
to a select few. Do not ask me why. IMO,
with a Beta program, the more you expose it to a wider
audience, the faster you will get feedback about any
bugs. I was asked by informant, to keep this
'confidential', for now.
If you click Xipster
Company (aka Xow), the original websites
have just been removed.  They no longer are
offering Stop Motion Software products
for the consumers but they 'say', available for educational
clients. One was called FreeStyle (graphics
animation) and the other older one was, FullStop (for
Stop Motion). This is an archived page.The  company, Xow, I am told by
my 'source', that they will be focusing
as an animation production studio. Their
last venture was Otafuku Rex, a Cool Stop Mo music video. FullStop was the most fun
interface for newbies or young
users, however, from the beginning, one could not
use FullStop (formerly known as Instant Animator ) with DV camcorders.
It would only work mostly with USB Webcams.
Also, it only allowed you to shoot on Two's.
It has been too quiet since Otafuku Rex. We are waiting
to see the re-incarnation of Xow.
All the best, to them. Edit: 06.24.07
Someone at message board, not too long ago, commented
that FrameThief appears to be AbandonWare.
The pay for it link is still working if you
wanted to purchase FT, however, Roman Blok who wrote FT, has vanished
from public view and seems to not be
accessible. He even removed his online FrameThief forum. I do not know about you FT
users (using it as 'video assist' with your DSLRs) who
give it much praise. Then there are some
who kind of  whine that it needs
updating. For myself, I would not feel
too secure  . You pay for the
software but there is no
customer service support. Do not get
angry at me. I already tiraded about this in the past. I
am just calling it as I see it
(raw naked truth).
P.S. I suppose, as long as the earlier
Mac OS
are available, you can also have an
older dedicated
Mac station using FT, for
just frame-grabbing. Misha
Klein's philosophy about video frame capturing tools, pretty
much mirror's mine. I can actually, probably get
by with just the ability to only
toggle back to one previous
frame! Anyone know, what
the hell is this Secret, 'Misha FrameThief
Break-out Box'? (maybe a custom keypad-controller?) Edit: 06.25.07
The new powerhouse  of Stop Motion software for
PC/Windows seems to be Stop MotionMaker? It appears to be gaining
popularity, similar to the two top players:
Stop
Motion Pro and Animator DV. Craig is the
creator behind Stop MotionMaker. He
seems to have much enthusiasm for Stop Motion and is very
responsive to feedback and willing to experiment &
tweak his products, especially his premiere program
called Stop MotionMaker Advance with many features for compositing
/ special effects. They will soon be offering
another Cool feature:
Full Screen Mode, for use as a basic
framegrabber and will have user
assignable hot-keys. Can also be used as a straight
"video assist" for all you
High Resolutionist Stop Mo DSLR fanatics. Edit: 06.24.07
* LIO Bumps
in the Road .... HEY, do not rush me! What
about you? Yes YOU with the face in the
dark out there. Just lurking? Are you
doing anything? Soooo, I am getting accustomed
again, to 'wire' armatures.
Sure, I can mesmerize you with El
Slicko Jointed-O-Rama Stop Mo Armatures  , but I want to challenge myself
for my participation at StopMoShorts Puppet Training and I should be on similar
or equal level to others. I am thinking of the
talented Stop Motionist upstart, Justin Rasch, and then we got the white haired Stop Mo
Gandalf, in the Land of Oz, Sir Nick Hilligoss. Both of them creating
& breathing incredible
animated "Life" with Wire
Armatured Stop Mo puppets! Okay, back to
practice animation sessions and wrestling with these
springy armature things  . Edit: 06.24.07
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06.16.07
* Fast Takes:
Born, Robot
Chicken, and FBI
Zoo .... Guillermo del Toro
producing & Clive Barker as exec
producer on a movie called 'Born', as reported by Variety. Chiodo Brothers supplying the Stop Motion
work. Soooo .... Born
is about a Clay Animator Arteest.
Just observating: I wonder if the clay puppets
might intentionally be designed
to look kind of 'extra rough' and
animated jerky style, to emphasize
that they are puppets? Also,
how this may further reinforce the 'image'
of Stop Motion in the minds
of the Suits & Audiences,
by using the misquoted
'Clay Animation' phrase-description.
All Stop Motion is NOT Clay
Animation. Using
the clay material is a subcategory of
the general Stop Motion technique. P.S. I am not implying
that Clay Animation is inferior in any way. Just
'terminology accuracy', is my point. Updated: 06.17.07
'Robot
Chicken: Star Wars', premieres tomorrow Sunday June 17,
10PM. The Official Site. An article.
'FBI
Zoo' , from
France, a Stop Motion short project by Julien
Vray. The publicity and info seems vague.
Maybe because not promoted towards USA audiences, however
FBI Zoo is about America in the
1960's era and has French subtitles.
The FBI Zoo brief teaser, captures very well,
the Retro-ness, in a stylized,
dreamy way. This is the filmmaker's MySpace page (bad design / I cannot horizontal
scroll); or, you can try his YouTube page and some Pics. Again, not clear if FBI Zoo is finished yet or maybe now doing the
festival route in Europe. You can always email him or
invite him to post at SMA.com
* LIO
Comeback  .... Some slight delays in trying to
debug the Stop Mo workflow here for some of my
submissions to StopMoShorts', Puppet Training. Minor things; getting the stage set-up the way I want, and also IDshot camera familiarization.
To save me some time, no little
decorative, thumbnail photos embedded
with this week's SMW News. Can
you give me a break? Writing does not come easy
for me. Too many re-edits for me to get
it 'right'. You know how much work it
takes to do this weekly thing? If it is any more
frequently, then it becomes too much, or someone
would have to pay me to do this more
often. I cannot do it all by myself, doing this
News/Commentary, to feed YOUR Stop Motion
INFO hungry compulsion;  in addition to, finally getting my
ASS moving and into the trenches to
crank-out some Stop Motion. Updated: 06.17.07
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06.09.07
* McDonald's
does Stop Mo 'Healthy Food' campaign.... The Burger suits
apparently approved an animated ad using Stop Motion
Object Animation methods, The big M, attempting to
spin their health concerns for you. Maybe they are
having some remorse about the plethora of years, pumping
out all those artery clogging, hyper-saturated fattening
fries & ground up meat and high caloric shakes, or more
likely, they want to cash in
the health consciousness market. Why
does everything that tastes soooo fugg'n good,
have to be bad? Read McDs Gets All Stop Motion. We
Remain Unconvinced
* Canadian Studio's
sudden, different Style/Look ..... One of our Stop
Motion Works Underground Spies  notified me about a Stop Motion spot
that the studio calls a PSA (Public
Service Announcement) for a "celebrity",
of sorts. The studio is Cuppa Coffee (in
Canada) and the Stop Mo ad is for
someone by the name, "Dog" Chapman
who I have never heard of but in Bounty Hunter
circles, he is suppose to be kind  of flamboyant and known as
a top bounty hunter.
Cuppa Coffee website labels this ad as their Signature
Style. Well, if you look at their Stop Mo Reel, nothing looks
like the 'Dog' Stop Motion style.
I have never seen this 'style' before,
from Cuppa. They must have hired new
talent or artistic directors?!
IMO, this is a departure from Cuppa's
previous styles, with this Dog
piece looking most awesome. Intricately
fabricated Stop Mo puppet. The overall detail; real hair
work, the clothing, and also the model work; miniature
sets, props. Most especially, the good
'Caricature' design-sculpt resemblance to Dog. The mouth lip-sync most
likely animation replacement technique,
where you pop in Jaw-Mouth pieces, for
the frame by frame talking dialog (like
in Jesus the Miracle Worker). Replacement can be a
sophisticated Stop Mo method that works well
when executed with quality & finesse.
Again, I would not call it an existing signature
style of Cuppa, but perhaps, a very different or
New style for them. Take a look at the YouTubified,
Free the Dog, or at Cuppa's site for QuickTime
version, small
or large
(slow download). Updated: 06.10.07
* Buzz, Rumor
about LIO ....
It appears the vicissitudes in his life,
starting to get under control.  Come on, let's be real.
Is anyone reeaaally all happy Pollyanna about their life? Society, the world, &
people, are not like that, and negative
forces impact all
of us (Yin &Yang). Maybe money can
give comfort & pleasure, a false sense of security,
but even the Wealthy, have royally
Screwed
themselves up. Just to remind you,
those who are internet active with their
blogs, message board postings, My Spacers, etc. etc. ....
you do not know what the people
are really experiencing or going
through, behind the words-text.
What the hell was my original topic? Oh yeah; well, it
appears that LIO (Lionel Ivan Orozco), will finally
be coming out of semi-retirement and
participating at Stop MoShorts' Puppet Training, perhaps as early as next week. A Merkle, indeed. Most likely; mistakes will be
made, rough animation, and starting slow
like the Tortoise, but hopefully, will
eventually gain momentum and in the end;
beat the Hare. Be afraid, be very afraid. Updated: 06.10.07
____________________
06.02.07
* Nick
Hilligoss has gone VIRAL? .... He is spotlighted in
a local USA online paper/voice from Clarkesville,
Tennessee. Read about it, L’Animateur by Nick Hilligoss (StopMoShorts  also mentioned). Nick has been YouTubified, Yahoo Videofied, Google videodized, the French Koreus.com site and here, here, etc. etc. and so on. Where are the 'suits' (producers),
studios, ad agencies who can perhaps offer
Nick some animation gigs, or commissions, contract?
Nick shed his own
blood, sweat, tears  and personal $$$ to create L'Animateur.
Always, Stop Motion struggling
to get respect &
recognition and astounding, the
sometimes amazing quality of
work with verrrrry low budgets.
Can you imagine, the leaps & bounds of Stop
Motion, if you threw just a little
money at it? This is Nick Hilligoss' Photo Album Site & Showcase Gallery Updated: 06.04.07
* Stop Mo on
mainstream TV Network in USA in primetime, June 4 .... An Aardman Studio product. The Americanized version of the Brit Creature Comforts. As much as I would like
it to succeed, deep down I think this
would have more success &
maybe longevity on the cable channels
where it targets niche
audiences with more selective tastes.
The CBS network will be broadcasting
this. The suits are addicted
to instant meteoric high ratings and
many times, they do not give a chance
for an audience to develop. CBS, ABC, NBC mostly caters to
the LCD masses with the
programming tending to be formulized &
homogenized. Gary & Mike and Phantom Investigators were short-lived
on the smaller major TV networks in USA
(Fox & The WB). I think The PJs almost lasted 3 seasons,
then got axed.
Maybe mainstream TV
networks have had a change of heart, and
now willing to be more daring & experiment?
(losing audiences & money because of competition
from internet, satellite, cable, etc.) Of course, I
remember the buzz how costly
it was to produce each of The PJs episodes and maybe
too high a price is a deterrent.
If Stop Motion is to be competitive
with other animation styles, you need a reasonable
but not bloated or
excessive budget. That would be a death
knell for Stop Motion in the TV
broadcast market. In Euro countries,
a different culture & sensibilities
and I am guessing that it is more common
to see Stop Motion on
TV over there. We will see how Creature
Comforts does or maybe only for the summer
season of TV shows, Creature Comforts Series Premiere and a review
and here Updated: 06.03.07
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