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Previous News
11.25.06
* Meister
Tony McVey slowly emerging ..... About 5
months ago I gave
you an exclusive peak at what he was up
to in his spare time. I got another update. He finished
some animated test shots/compositions.
Looks cool .... very Willis
Obrien .... miniatures & matte glass
painting-like surreal but with the aid of digital
compositing .... the best of both world techniques. Take a
look at this photo of a stop motion puppet
of a large beak pterodactyl species. I am guessing maybe 9
inches length by 11 inches wingspan, thereabouts. Not a
big puppet and why does it have to be? IMO, some Stop
Motionists sometimes go overkill on large puppet sizes.
Whatever zips your zipper. Personally, I prefer smaller
puppets, which then can be supplemented with some larger
puppets for close-up scenes. Anyway, I cannot say much at
this time about this, but wait until you see what
Tony does with this "singular & small"
puppet in the animated scenes!  . He said, maybe next
month he might have ready and reveal the
test shots to you all. As
usual, we here at SMW have our fingers
on the pulse
of Stop Motion and you will be the first
to know when that happens.
* Chiodo
Brothers (pronounced Ki-odo) and I
wish they would also HURRY UP .... get back into some  Stop Mo on more
regular basis, before I start pushing up daisies  . Last
month as reported
by freelance correspondent (hired by SMW) Keith Brett (aka Stop Mo Pho); the Chiodo's
have written a childrens book, "Alien X-mas", and the plan is to turn it into
an actual Stop Mo project. It seems they
also have other things percolating. Come
on Suits! Don't just sit on your asses
with your little security blankets. How about being
trailblazers, take a little chance,
with some funding for these Stop Mo projects.
You already know we got CGI up the yin-yang
and maybe soon to be drowning in it. Stop Mo =
Retro = Cool. Here is an article somewhat giving
us a rough idea what Chiodos are currently up to, An ''Alien Xmas'' with the Chiodo
Brothers. Also,
check-out the Chiodo Brothers very early
years, Beast from the Egg Edit 11.25.06
* Let's
Escape: Society and World Sucks (partly due to Cell
Phones & Flash websites) ....
That's maybe for a future
blog-tirade  . Let us return to more 'calmer'
times where there appeared to not be
as much stress & dysfunctionality
in the psyche of the masses.
Make yourself  some popcorn, get some soda pop,
and turn down the room lights and crank up the speaker
volume. Are you ready to hop into my Time Machine and abandon this insane
world?
Okay, here
are  some beginning Harryhausen-esque
Stop Motion examples. A little rough around
the edges, however, pretty good. Lots of energy and
enthusiasm went into it .... Death by Dinosaur , Dino Dreams, Toxic Nightmare, & Encounter. That was kind of Fun
 . Give them
feedback & encouragment.
The following clips
have the Jim Aupperle karma on them. Here is an
oldie from 1974, Flesh Gordon, a scene of the Beetle-man
dueling, animated by Jim Danforth. Jim Aupperle worked on that cult
classic, including a few other well known special effects people. In this clip of Planet of Dinosaurs about 1977, Jim A. did much of the
camera work and special effects compositing using Front projection & 2. Jim
Danforth did some glass paintings too. This next
one, a USA TV series, about 1978, called Jason of Star Command & 2. I believe Jim A did the Stop Mo
animating in that episode of the bug-like creature.
Finally, lets end with a compilation from the Godfather
of Stop Motion Classic works; a YouTuber edited this
together .... Uncle Ray Harryhausen Creature List Edit 11.25.06
* No one
'Owns' the 'News' ..... That is maybe not news
to you. Anyway, whatever I post, say, or rant  here, is free for everyone
and you can spread the word. . I
cannot FUGG'N do this by myself. I swear, Stop
Motion people have got to be the most uncommunicative and introverted group  . Let's
get some Action
going. In the past, I have hinted that you are welcome
to re-post anything from here, at your
own blog-news or at the Stop Mo message
board. Geez .... be pro-active
and get your butt moving. Maybe use some
viral marketing techniques? I do not
want any credit. I am just the messenger.
I guess many of you just have a disconnect
in your brain and cannot see it. You do
not have to ask me. I am giving this
info away ... no charge! Edit 11.26.06
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11.18.06
* OUT OF THE BOX 'Thinking'
with Stop Motion ..... I would say, the general public mostly associates
 Stop Motion with only
'Puppets'. Many of you may already know that
there are other variations or categories
of 'Stop Motion': You got Object and  Cut-Out/Photo animation, Replacement animation, Clay animation, and then there is Pixilation. Aardman's Angry Kid shorts, has used combinations of these Stop
Mo variants. A Mike Jittlov's cult classic of
many years ago, 'The Wizard of Speed & Time', was a good
special effects 'textbook' examples of pixilation,
cut-out/photo animation, stop
motion and other resourceful traditional
special effects techniques. Here is the original
Wizard 16mm film short from 1979. About10 years later in
1989, they did a full length low budget feature film remake
of the Wizard short, with many of the
original special effects scenes newly re-done.
Here is that Trailer.
Let's zoom
forward to 2006. We now have this thing
called 'The Internet'  which now provides a wide open
public stage  where anyone can display
their talents (or no talent), especially since
the invasion of YouTube
and other similar free video hosting sites. Plenty of so-so
stuff out there, but some creative gems,
not just animation, but also personal and/or video shorts
employing good filmmaking methods & storytelling. One
of my Stop Motion Works
'Groupies'  , turned me on
to this  YouTuber whose name is Lasse
Gjertsen, from Norway. First, take a
look at what he has done, Hyperactive and Amateur. Then, read some of the veiwer's comments
at YouTube. What would you call this? A hybrid
of Pixilation? Stop BeatBox-mation, Stop Looping-mation, or Stop Music-mation? Whatever you want to name it, I
think it's kind of Groovy  . He seems to be
one of the original ones that started this on YouTube and
it looks like other YouTubers inspired by Lasse, doing
similar or homages to the Norwegian talent.
I already mentioned Object
Animation. One of the better practitioners that I have
seen is from Eat PES. He uses
and animates common items that you see
in your house or just all around you. Roof Sex,
Kaboom and Fireworks
are creative & clever. Most of the
PES shorts available online. Just watch
all of them. Simple
objects being given life and character,
but more importantly, GOOD
Storytelling.He also does live action work (Real
people! Non-animation).
To sum up, I would
suggest, do not be myopic
and get caught-up in just
puppets and armatures. Other
forms or variations of
Stop Motion are available for you to apply
your talents &
creativity, especially for the beginners
(at the message board) that are budgetly challenged
and pre-occupied & side-tracked
with the anal retentive Stop Mo
technical aspects and mega schmega,
pixel schmixel excess. Just, START
ANIMATING! Edit 11.18.06
* Walmart in the
Movie Biz
....You remember, some months ago I posted that here? It looks like, on
November 21st, Walmart is ready
to release their first
installment of the Holiday
themed Rankin & Bass-style Stop Motion
specials, direct to DVD and only
available through Walmart. It is suppose
to be an hour long and it might have behind the scenes (I
am not sure). Here is direct link, Holidaze: The Christmas that Almost
Didn’t Happen.
If Flash heavy sites bothers you like it does me,
you can just see the teaser here. Tennessee apparently has been quiet (or maybe just
busy) about this project. I am not sure if he worked on
the Holidaze gig. Edit 11.18.06
* Cuppa
Coffee is expanding .... with additional 40 stop-motion studios,
50 compositing stations, 7 online editing suites,
including one HD suite; a character, sets and prop
fabrication department. They say this addition makes
Cuppa Coffee the largest stop-motion facility in the
world. I assume when they say '40 stop motion studios',
that must mean, animation "stages or cubicles"?
Their terminology not clear (to me). Read further details
...Cuppa Coffee Acquires New Studio
Facility
* FPS
Magazine Online Charity Auction ..... to help the Cancer
Society. Auction will go live November
22 and end on the 29th. They
have a link page of all the items being auctioned. If you do
not wish to bid, you can just make a donation.Contact FPS Magazine for details or how the bidding
process works.
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11.11.06
* Flushed
Away: Pseudo Aardman
...I have
subscriptions to a number of online news services and
that's how I get some ideas of what topics to include
here. Whenever a particular movie is about to be released
(in this case I'm looking for animation related), I get a
flood of press releases, articles, hyping it up, then it
dies. Predictable cycle. Just a little behind the scenes
for you, revealing my ongoing dangerous Stop Mo Missions  .
Back to Topic: With
Flushed Away, for some reason, just not
interesting to me. I have much respect
for Aardman. Maybe it's the thought that
they sold-out to CGI
and also let go of "control"
of  their product to
become somewhat pop-culture Americanized.
Flushed Away may have Brit voices
but from the clips I have seen online, to me, their
British sensibilities & signature, very much diluted.
Not the same as their past true Aardman
works.The Flushed Away teasers/clips has CGI written all over
it. No amount of hype-spin
in the articles and the
favorable reviews & interviews
is going to convince me that Flushed Away supposedly
captures the Stop Motion look
& feel. This is a strategy
of Studios and their PR
departments in attempts to brainwash
the general public "to
think" that there is no distinction
(difference) between CGI &
Stop Motion. In addition, implying that CGI is
the superior method. Our "Stop Motion"
title & heritage being parasited
on and HI-JACKED.
Many of the Flushed
Away articles parroting the same line from the studio,
claiming that the "water" elements
was the reason for "going
CGI". What a bunch of Bull
Crap . If
there was a true will & desire, the shots,
scenes, storyline,
could have been executed differently so
that it could be done within the
Stop Motion style & aesthetics. Also, I am
all for combining different techinques; Flushed
Away could have had CGI water elements
composited with the Stop Motion.
A side note: Most all the pro-Flushed Away
articles do not mention anything about Dreamworks
& Aardman recent split. I already tiraded in the past
about both studios divorcing. Here is the other
side (reviews) so you get the big
picture, Prototypical Anthropomorphic Fish
Out of Water Tale
- More of the same in this CG
animated feature -
A serviceable talking animal movie - Flush the Awful Animation - Wasted Opportunity. Also, good read
about mainstream
animation biz, Toontown heads for double trouble Edit 11.12.06
* The 3
Worlds of Gulliver .... I am sure that many of us who have
watched magician's, we were wowed
by their illusions.
I believe Uncle Ray followed that philosophy
during his career as the king of
character-creature animation & special effects.
During those times, Ray did not reveal much, however all
of us were still in awe of his work. In
the practice of Illusions, the audiences
just eat it up, but once you find out
how the trick is done (i.e. Spoilers), they are perhaps,
still somewhat intrigued of the sometimes, simplicity of
it, although, thereafter, the illusionary effect
or entertainment value might be diminished.
In some ways, I
perhaps yearn for that philosophy
of keeping things mysterious,
but today, everyone addicted to information
glut (I have a lot to say about that sometime). Ray
used ol' school traditional effects work
and tricks he developed on his own. No
'Puters in those days. For me, that is
the beauty of Stop Motion .... the journey
& process of getting there.
You have all the time in world
to create the special effects between each frame.
All hands-on and tactile. BIG
"visual special effects
bang-for-the-buck" via much creativity
& resourcefulness.
One of Ray's,
not as popular classics (compared to his other works) was
The 3 Worlds of Gulliver , 1960. It did not have as much Stop Motion;
basically an oversized squirrel and crocodile
when Gulliver is in shrunken
mode. Gulliver movie did use
plenty of other kinds of special effects
to create human giants & mini-sized humans.
Even to this day, we sometimes wonder how Ray
created some of his frame by frame
illusions. Okay, here is a spoiler.
In the Crocodile creature battle scene with
Gulliver, Ray used the most simple
method to enhance the illusion
of interaction between Gulliver
and the Croc. Courtesy
of Rick Catizone, a faithful
Stop Motion Works follower who sent me a nice close-up pic
of Gulliver & the Crocs tail still frames.You
can see a segment of Gulliver's arm & hand
which are image/photocut-outs stuck onto
the glass in front of the rear screen set-up.
Ray then animated it for a few frames. When in
motion, a convincing illusion. Ingenious
& simple and you get lots of special
effects visual impact-mileage. This other pic
shows Gulliver holding a shield. You can just barely see that it
is a miniature shield, and to 'me', it
appears like 2 mini- sculpted hands & shirt
sleeves 'attached' to shield.
I have heard, Jim Danforth also has used
this technique, where, instead of photo cutouts, Jim
would paint on the glass
frame by frame. Here is info about Gulliver-Croc scene. The Croc battle clip link does
not work, however, here is the Gulliver trailer.
* Jack Palance just past away at 87 years .... Our ol' school actors
are leaving us . This SUCKS. Today's
actors ... just not the same. A
quote from Jack, "Most
of what I do is garbage," he told a
reporter once. And as for the directors he worked for, "most of them
shouldn't even be directing traffic". Real men, you
see, don't talk pretty or eloquent. They just say it like
it is." I say, Fricken RIGHT
ON! Today .... all this touchy,
feely sensitive stuff that
modern man should emote & display?
In general, there should be differences
between Women & Men; you
know .... Yin-Yang.
Oscar-Winning Actor Jack Palance
Dies - Jack Palance, Best Of The Bad Guys,
Dies At 87 - "City Slickers Clip". Watch this, how I tie
this to "animation".
Check out this comedic animated short, "Burnout", where they used actual audio
from a voice session where Jack
was apparently, being over-directed and he let
loose! Will miss you Uncle Jack.  Edit 11.12.06
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11.04.06
* New Ray
Harryhausen book in the works & 1997 Stop Mo TV Ad..... I have it from a very
reliable source  about
the book.  The contents was not revealed to me, but I
can take an educated guess of what this book will be
about. That too, I will keep 'confidential' for now. YUJI at SMA forum, just posted a link to a Stop
Motion TV commercial. Uncle Ray was one of the directors & also Mark
Nunnally, but what is kind of weird; all these
years, "we" have not previously
heard about it or seen this piece. From what I
could quickly find, this TV Ad done back in 1997,
through an agency (not really a 'studio') called Bermuda Shorts, in the UK . Take a look at the Ad, Dairylea 'Dino Time'
* MAC users:
New Kid on block ... AnimAide XT
... I usually try to
look at the big picture with regards to
many aspects of 'Life'. I am a PC-Windows
general user for many reasons, and the primary
one;  the
greater availability and variety
choices of aftermarket products and
especially software at more reasonable
costs, compared to Macs. Now, IF
I were a Mac user and also practicing
the Stop Motionist Arts, I would be concerned
that there are less choices when it
comes to Stop Motion Frame Capturing software.
I have nothing negative to say against FrameThief. You should be grateful FrameThief is
out there. Sometimes I detect in the Cyber Virtual
Ether  , occasional
quiet whining (from you) about FT,
not updating their software and other
small issues.
Just a hypothetical scenario: Suppose that Roman
Blok, the author-developer of FrameThief,
just decided to call it Quits. "What
would you do?" You spent thousands of
dollars on your Mac set-up,
Final  Cut Pro, Shake,
After Effects, etc. etc. Also, more
$$$ on your mega-schmega pixel, SLR
digital still cameras. In a way, all
that Stop Motion production investment
is somewhat "dependent" on FrameThief.
Now you are up "shite creek"; no
more FT  . You always have the
option to buy the LunchBox. I also know there is iStopMotion, but it does not seem, you are using that
one. It is mostly FrameThief that I hear
more frequently. At $40.USD for FT,
that is an incredible Fugg'n bargain!
Personally, I would pay more, especially
if you "expect" the software
author (Roman) to do updates
or add features.
Okay,
calm down. Do not get your underwears in a bunch  .
As usual, Papa-Gandalf StopMoWorks is here
(You also, maybe take me for granted?  ), to lessen your paranoia  . We have a new upstart in town: AnimAide  XT for Macs has been
humming along in the background,
I believe less than a year. It looks like this can be a
possible Frame Capturing "option"
for you Mac people. Someone contacted me
and said, "very satisfied with AnimAide
XT". As I stated before, I do not use Macs,
but looking at AnimAide XT features; to
me, it seems similar to FT.
AnimAide XT now has some interface
features with Digital Still Cameras.
Their support link has an online manual for
you to look over, and of course, a Free Trial
Download too. Why don't you test it out?
Give them feedback. Guess how much AnimAide XT
costs? I cannot believe this .... it is only $40.USD!
IMO, almost giving
it away for a professional-type Stop
Motion tool. Go to AnimAide
XT main page. Edit 11.05.06
* Acme Filmworks: 2D &
Stop Motion Rules .... I do not know if you heard about them.
They are in Southern California. What a Cool
online demo reel they have! Mostly 2D
& Stop Motion. We have sooooo much
CGI up the wha-zoo, that seeing very
creative uses of 'Traditional'
forms of animation; it looks
& feels uniquely
original and refreshing. They
also have a specialty known as Sand Painting Animation. I have known of this technique,
but Acme presenting some pretty slick
& eye grabbing sand stuff. All you suits
and ad agencies, check out Acme Filmworks.
* Turner
Entertainment getting into Stop Mo ..... A series of animated shorts
titled R.I.P. .... Kind
of interesting. I am not sure who exactly is doing the
Stop Motion, but I believe this is done in France. Looks
like good quality production values. Read more details, Turner puts R.I.P. on TCM. The studio in France is called Megafilms. They produced a number of Animation &
Stop Mo projects for the childrens market, that in the
USA, we usually never get a chance to see. Check out this
sample clip of R.I.P (French version)
* Popular
Mechanics Behind the scenes with Nightmare 3D .... Just like
the title says ..... a brief overview how NMBC was
transformed to Stereoscopic 3D. I have not seen it yet.
It seems not much feedback at the message board about
it?? I hear, release of 3D Nightmare version for home DVD
viewing, is not in works. I suspect,
that 3D is one of the carrots/baits to
get people out to the theaters.
I am not sure if 3D really brings out the crowds or maybe
for special long term screenings, such as IMAX? Only time
will tell about 3D. I am guessing if 3D were available
for home viewing, it would be cool
seeing it in the comfort of your home. Read New "Nightmare Before
Christmas" & 3-D Movie Revolution
* Animation
Magazine's Toon Saloon ..... I seem to have a love-hate
relationship about Tinsel Town
in Southern California USA. Sometimes I
have had urges to live there, but then, I said, "not
sure". Just the 'Culture' there or 'something' that
maybe grates me the wrong way. If one digs
all the trapppings of La-La Entertainment Land,
then I suppose, Los Angeles area will Float
your Boat. I forgot what I was talking about? Oh
.... Animation Magazine is going to host
a Stop Mo themed event, this Thursday,
November 9 @ 7:30 PM. If you want to attend,
read this link. Geez .... you lucky bastards
that live there
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