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Previous / Archived News
 11.24.07
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New Stranger in Town: Dragon
Stop Motion 1.0 for MACS ..... Move over, iStopmotion (no frame toggling), FrameThief (Abandon-Ware), and Animaide-XT (some missing essentials); and
also, I Can Animate (designed more, for kids), & BTV Pro (same for years, not really Stop Mo
specific). Dragon, a serious
Stop Motion program with the hard core
essential tools to help you create the raw frame by
frame animation performances, which you then import into After
Effects, Final Cut Pro, Shake,
etc., and add any finishing embellishments to your Stop
Motion Masterpiece. Warning: Not a toy for
kids — it's a tool for Filmmakers. Dragon Stop Motion to be released January 30, '08.
Also, announcement & topic at Stop Mo Forum.
I noticed at forum, the, 'I want it NOW &
give me ALL details'. Typical  of Internet-weaned
generation  . So,
you cannot wait and pushing them to blow their wad too soon?
Try to savor
 and immerse
yourself in the anticipation
& suspense. Also, I do
not want to hear the possible whining or
moaning about price. If
Dragon is 'Reasonable' for such an essential
& critical
Stop Motion tool-program (with customer
service support) that serves Mac users, then just pay for it!  EDIT: 11.25.07
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Tim Burton doing Stop Motion FrankenWeenie
& in Stereo 3D ..... For the Disney people. It
may  be awhile because
he is first going to do Alice in
Wonderland (also for Disney) using Performance
Motion Capture. Hmmm, Deja Vu? Here is one of many news soundbytes about it. My penetrating
Gandalfic™ Mind
would like to know : Where will
FrankenWeenie be DONE, geographically
speaking? In England (Corpse Bride shot
there)? In Oregon, USA (Laika & Stop
Mo resurgence there)? San Francisco Bay Area
(Home of NMBC)? Maybe in Tinsel Town
(Los Angeles area, home of Disney)? How about New
York? Tim Burton seems like a Big Apple kind of dude? I can take a good
guesstimation though, where Tim might
likely produce FrankenWeenie.
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11.17.07
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Stop Motion rules the Spirit of the
Holidays
..... Maybe I am overstating it. Looks like Ad Agencies
and maybe a few Suits, finally realize the viability
of the Stop Motion technique in marketing to consumers. A few weeks ago I briefly mentioned the small
chain stores in USA call Big Lots and
that they were using Stop Motion in their nationwide TV
ads. I was informed that the Big Lots Stop
Motion were done by Laika Studios in Oregon USA. I even got a few
names, they were animated by Gabe
Sprenger and Wendy Fuller.
Also, the designer of the puppet characters was Shane Prigmore. These are the Big Lots ads aired so far.
Another  entry in the the Holiday
Stop Motion Spirit are some Ads from Alltel (press release), a Wireless communication company.
Coincidentally, the Stop Motion also done in Oregon USA
but another studio Bent Image Labs. Take a look at Alltel's
first Stop Mo Ad now being shown.
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Oscar™ undecided
what is Animation
(Part 2) .... I do not know why I even started
this topic. This might be my last one on this.
It is starting to hurt my brain  and all this keyboarding ramble will just Fall on Deaf Ears. Apparently, the Academy
of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (Oscars) has included Beowulf
on their list to be considered as one of the nominees
in the Animation category, even though
it does not
qualify, if one follows the Exact Letter
of the Rules, Academy's Animation eligibility.
I hear defenders
of Motion Capture saying that the motion
capture data is
modified or tweaked. I say,
what percentage of motion
capture is re-touched?
So, if a Mo-Capturist tweaks
or adjusts 10,
15 or 20 percent of a given motion
capture data shot, you (mo-capture proponents)
would give IT the Stamp of Approval, as Fully
Animated? Seems most illogical to me, Captain. However, I might cut you some slack,
if the Mo-Capturist makes significant modifications
to, let's say, about 75% of the
motion capture data (in a shot/scene),
then maybe (not sure) I might call it
an Animated shot. I would also apply this criteria
to Rotoscope methods if they make claims as Fully
Animated.
Do you see the confusion
& ambiguity that YOU have created?
There needs to be much clearer
rules & definitions. In a contest
or any kind of competition, there are prerequisites,
requirements, & rules.
This makes the competition somewhat fair
and equal.
In my view, this also should apply
to any Movie that desires the privilege
to be considered for Oscar
nomination. For me, such a simple
solution. The existing Academy requirements
for Animation is:"It
must contain at least 75%
animation
and it must be created using frame
by frame
technique". I would
also add this: "If the
Academy has any doubts, then the studio must produce evidence,
documention or production
logs
to show that it meets the Animation category
rules". Hold the Studios
accountable if they choose to enter in the Animation
category. 
I received this
comment from someone, and to me, it seems to say
it all:
"In my not so humble
opinion, those who use Motion Capture, WISH
to be ANIMATORS, without either doing
or being able to do the work
required to EARN that TITLE.
Plain and simple, it's what happens when jealousy
becomes fraud. I cannot create synthetic
violin music in GarageBand and call
myself a VIOLINIST and anyone who
does, deserves to be shamed."
If you have time to
kick-back; perhaps pull out your baccy pipe or brew
yourself some fresh Java or Tea; here are some sample
discussions & articles about the Beowulf controversy.
Also, I am not the only one suggesting that the Oscar
people should have some NEW categories for
these new forms of synthesized moving
digital imagery: The Rat vs the Dragon Slayer Why Beowulf is Good for Animation The Question of Beowulf Is Beowulf Animation? Beowulf Begs the Question: What is
Animation? Beowulf Animated? I don't get it Wiki's Mo-Cap ramble
Addendum:
I have no idea if the Academy of Motion Picture
Arts & Sciences has any serious concern
about this issue, or just ignoring it. For
whatever it's worth, here is their Contact Info EDIT: 11.18.07
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11.10.07
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' iStopMotion 2'
Falling Short? Missing Feature
..... I
wonder if they are getting real
feedback from the more, experienced Stop
Motion Animators. A topic came up at the Stop
Motion message board, which unbelievably
revealed that iStopmotion (for Macs) only
has Onionskinning feature to measure
the incremental movements
of the animated object. With the recently
released new iStopMotion 2, you DO
NOT have Back & Forth Frame Toggling.
I see this as an astoundingly grave omission
in a Stop Motion Frame capture program,
especially if this feature is not present in
the higher end iStopMotion versions.
From my mingling
& schmoozing with some of the seasoned
Stop Motion Animators, I find that they prefer
to manually flip back
& forth between
the LIVE image and the previous
few recorded frames. I also have preference for frame
toggling (over onionskinning). This is a visual
kinetic method to check & judge the
incremental movements, where the
animator wants to see the JUMP
between previous frame(s) with
'Live' frame. Onionskinning is
a static method of measuring movement.
Also, Strobing Onionskinning is not
the same as Manual Toggling.
I am not
putting down iStopMotion, but just being
straight-up. Anyone who
produces products for consumers should
welcome feedback and try to be objective.
It is just commonsense to give
Stop Motion Animators, selectable CHOICE
whether they want to use Onionskinning or
Frame Toggling-Flipping method for guaging
the animation movements. YOU Mac users
who are still relying on the AbandonWare known
as FrameThief, SPEAK-UP and
give iStopMotion feedback that you
want certain features. If they say, "we
will look at it", then you
have to pin them down (continual follow-ups),
as people and/or companies can be slow or
procrastinate. I strongly urge
the people at iStopmotion
to seriously look at adding,
at least this Frame Toggling feature. If
'they' do not read SMW News,
then some of you lurkers might direct
them here. Also READ: link 1, link 2, link 3, link 4 EDIT: 11.11.07
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Oscar™
undecided what is Animation
(Part 1) .... It is so clear to
me that Motion Capture is NOT
'Animation', but maybe more under Special
Effects category similar to Animatronics (Links 1 2 ) and/or combined with Suits/Make-up (Link 3). I would suggest that Academy
Awards™ consider some new
categories; 'Digital Performance
Animatronics & Digital Make-up FX'.
Motion
Capture: Recorded or Programmed
Motion, from Sources
that are LIVE,
in REAL TIME. This
Motion Data is then applied to the Robotic
Servo-Motor Computer Controlled Skeleton OR the Virtual
DIGITAL SUIT.
Animation: Motion performance
created from the ARTIST's MIND in incremental
stages, FRAME by FRAME, in an Altered State
of TIME (not in real time). Or read this from about 3+ years ago, I rambled about
it.
Do not accuse me of slamming Motion
Capture. This is an undercurrent issue about Animation
in general, ever since the invasion of
these technological toys. As  you read above, I had my definition
of Animation, which to me, is commonsense &
logical. Later, I found another one by 2D Animator Gene Deitch which is similar. Okay, you are
waiting for this good read article from Variety?
Here you go, Academy struggles to define
animation. In the
artcle, it states, "It's the
'frame-by-frame' rule that provides the acid
test".
My Observation: IF the Academy
does not go by that RULE,
then they are caving in &
selling out to Studio Politics &
Hollywood Corporate Power Players. (.... to be
continued) EDIT: 11.12.07
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11.03.07
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German
 Music Video
/ Big Lots Stop Mo Ad / Who Invented Frame-grabbers?
..... Our own Jurgen Kling & crew are currently working on a music
video which will be released in 2008. A trailer with
parts of the video was released . The trailer seems to be
pre-advertising for the album that will be out in 2008
(around febuary) in which the video will be included.The
band is very not mainstream and chances to see
the video on MTV is minimal. So, it will go directly to
CD/DVD. Check it out still photos & music video
teaser. Has a Corpse
Bride feel, look to it. This is English version of Music Video trailer. EDIT: 11.04.07
A small chain of nation wide stores in the USA , called Big
Lots, are  currently running a Stop Motion
mixed with live action TV Ad. The commercial & their web site has strong Rankin Bass'esque retro nostaligic influence. I do not know
who or which studio did the Stop Mo commericials.
A news video clip (WMV player) from Savannah,
Georgia (USA) about an instructor at a College. His name
is Hal Miles, with work credit & titles that is quite lengthy. The news
piece states that he has a 30,000 piece collection
of movie memorabilia and that he would like to open a museum. As Miles
is commenting in the video, he makes a strong
claim or taking credit in stating
that he is the original
innovator of Stop Motion computer
frame-grabbers?? Quote, "Back
in 1988, I came up with the principals for digital
stop-motion animation and perfected the technique and
patented the concept". The story I
heard years ago, that it was Will Vinton Studios
who were one of the first
to use computers & video
cams for frame-grabbing back
around, the mid-1980's. Also, here is an
article written by the college, where he
works.
Actually, I cannot say with certainty, about the beginnings
of computers & video cams used together for Stop
Motion Frame-Grabbing as a previewing tool. Just
a reminder to you about anything
in media & especially the
internet: May not be accurate
and obviously, could be subjective-biased. Even Wiki
is not always the 'Bible of Accuracy'. You have
to research different sources. EDIT: 11.04.07
* High
Resolution Stop Motion Alternative: NO
Digital Still Cams .... This is an update from earlier news. Stop MotionMaker
has just released a Stop Motion capture program,
tentatively called Stop MotionMaker HDMI
(for PCs) that can interface with HDV Camcorders if your computer has an HDMI capture card. Stop MotionMaker HDMI
allows the Stop Motionist to
single frame capture, high resolution 1980
x 1080 uncompressed LIVE
image through the HDV camcorder's,
HDMI video out port (connected to HDMI
capture card). As consumer HDV camcorders
make more inroads in the market, it
looks like Stop MotionMaker is prepared
& ready. Stop MotionMaker HDMI
will also accept standard firewire
DV camcorders and USB Webcams.
More info at this forum topic, What is HDMI?, and direct info from Stop MotionMaker EDIT: 11.04.07
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