 About | FAQ | Gallery | Library | Links | Store | Contact |
On New
Years Day, after you recover from the hangover
and you want to kick back ..... here is a forum's thread
titled, Computer Animation vs Traditional ....it is pretty long but
interesting reading. Again it's mostly Cel/Drawn
animation that's mentioned as "traditional" but
it could be applied to Stop Motion. Just a side note and
only my opinion.....Stop Motion's history is like that of
the "black out-cast sheep" in the animation
"family". Stop Mo has to struggle even more to
get any minor recognition or respect. Of course there are
those exceptions or positive accidents, like Ray
Harryhausen's career/success & a few others, and then
Nightmare Before Christmas somehow got made &
survived the Hollywood system, and maybe Chicken Run was
moderately successful (stop mo done in England) 12-30-02: Remember Vinton Studios
was kind of sinking and then was just recently bought-out
by Nike, to rescue them? Well, there is
a well known independent studio in Canada by the name of Cuppa
Coffee Studios. They do lots of Stop Motion but
also other kinds of animation. Click on this Cuppa Coffee Not for Sale......apparently,
Cuppa Coffee is surviving in this CGI glut &
recessionary times. They have signed a deal with Disney
to produce a 52 episode Stop Motion series for
pre-schoolers. That's a hell of a lot of shows! Why can't
Vinton swing a deal like that? Maybe Cuppa Coffee is more
"cost-effective"? I am not dissing Vinton
Studios but just making observations to hopefully see a
comeback from our once, big USA based Stop Mo studio. I
do like Vinton Studios and I did work for them ! 12-25-02: Stop Motion Works News
will be on vacation until Monday or maybe I will return
after New Years.... I cannot decide. Hey ..... I am
suppose to be an Arteest and I have no
fences and free as the wind and
I will not be bound by this "thing" called a calendar? 12-24-02: Can
someone explain to me why it cost $140 million
to make what is essentially a cel animated feature
with some basic CGI backgrounds? Disney's Treasure
Planet (96 minutes long) was released this past
month ... it then BOMBED at the box office .... a
failure. There were no big name actor's voices so we know
Disney didn't have that expense. Like I said, it was cel
animation for the characters and the backgrounds and some
other elements were done CGI-digital but with a
cartoon-cel look (more simpler for computer to render
than photorealistic backgrounds). Were did all the money
go? Why do I bring this up? Check this out ..... The
total budget for The Nightmare Before Christmas
(1993) was about $18 million and for James
and the Giant Peach (1996), about $38
million. Just an example how mainstream studios
somehow screws Stop Motion with minimal budgets
when you compare to other kinds of animation (cel or
cgi). Hollywood never really gave Stop Motion a chance or
respect. Anyway, end of my mini-rant.
Here are some links about the Disney dud and they have no
real idea why it fizzled .... they are just guessing ....
`Treasure Planet' flop is a blow to
Disney's animation unit - Treasure Planet' a Bust for Disney
Animators - Is the Magic Fading at Disney - Moneylosing saga of 'Treasure
Planet' 12-23-02: Jim Danforth nominated for Gordon E. Sawyer Award? This is the special Oscar that Ray Harryhausen got in 1991. I am surprised that this Danforth nomination effort has not been publicized much. This page explains the various Special Awards/Oscars and here is the Jim Danforth Award Lobby Page where it looks like "informed" site visitors can post supporting nomination reasons. Various special FX people have been nominated on this site, but Jim Danforth seems to have the most response. This website does not seem to be officially from the Oscar / Academy but perhaps it looks like an online lobbying effort? I do not know the actual process how people get nominated for Oscars but if there are any working pros in the special FX / CGI movie business, perhaps you know people that can officially nominate Jim? He is truly an eclectic talent probably second to Ray Harryhausen. Jim is known as a master stop motion animator and many other skills .... matte painter, special FX designer/director, sculptor, technician wizard, etc.. Jim's career credits too numerous to mention, including TV work and commercials. Like Ray, Jim was the predecessor to all this CGI & Digital special FX deluge. We should honor & respect those trailblazers ... Jim Danforth .... one of the unsung heros in the biz. Many people in the business know Jim. George Lucas also knows Jim. Spread the word ! I also
heard somewhere that Uncle Ray Harryhausen might be
getting a STAR on the Hollywood Walk of
Fame ? It's about time ! 12-20-02: Mac
users, pay attention! Just announced on some Mac websites, the release of a stop motion
animation software that will allow recording of your
animations using a camcorder. It is in the Beta testing
stage and if you have the time, give it a try (Free) and
offer them your opinions & feedback so that they can
improve newer versions. It is called iStopMotion and has a very important animation feature
called onionskinning .... allows you to see
previous animated frames with the live image. If you want
more info on some other stop motion animation programs
check-out Stop Motion Software Overview. 12-19-02: Should
"it" be called animation? This
word in the history of cinema has been associated with
traditionally & classic animation methods. What am I
talking about? Lord of the Rings 2 has a
CGI character, Gollum. Acting
Performance all done through human body & facial motion
capture (high tech rotoscoping) and seems like
the CGI people mostly filled the role as technicians to
"skin" the human actor. Gollum scenes were
interesting but I still think it is a gray area
to call it "animation". There is a new hi-techy
buzz word called Synthespians. One of
the articles here says, one might refer to this as an
"actor in pixelated prosthetics". Anyway here
are a few links you might find interesting ... Gollum Slinks into Quest, The Rise of 'Synthespians, For Virtual Actors, Putting a Human Face on 'It' 12-18-02: Well,
after hearing buzz & rumors on other forums about the
decline of Will Vinton Studios and also, that studio will
be co-owned by Nike Inc., I decided to check-out www.vintonstudios.com website. It has recently changed,
or maybe a better description, a downsized internet
presence? It says, they are working on a New
Vinton Studios website. If anyone knows what is happening
in the now, quiet Stop Mo ghost town of
Portland .... let us know ! I am sure, we all hopefully
wish some kind of comeback or resurgence of more Stop
Motion up there in Oregon. 12-17-02: From
the Toronto Sun, Toon Boom Gone Bust? A Canadian perspective of the
Animation field and if there is any reason for optimism.
Of course, mostly concerns the mainstream Cel & Cgi,
but Stop Motionists should also know what is happening in
the general animation market. 12-16-02:
A small item here about someone who I briefly lost
contact with. We met around 1985 in San Francisco. His
name, Tom Sullivan ..... a superb artist
/ illustrator and character designer with experience in
good ol' traditional & classic special effects. Way
back in the early days in Michigan, Tom met & worked
with Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell & Rob Tapert ...these
three giving birth to the now cult classic movies, Evil
Dead. The original Super 8 demo, Within
the Woods, the 16mm Evil Dead,
and the remake, Evil Dead 2 used some of
the Stop Motion technique. In ED2, examples such as the
headless dancing corpse lady by Doug Beswick, the decapitated stop mo hand
& Henrietta transformed creature by Rick Catizone. Tom did the very creative stop mo
opening scenes of the animated Book of Dead (see SMA.com forum-thread), the winged flying Deadite
creature and other stop motion shots. Later, Evil
Dead 3 / Army of Darkness also used some Stop
Motion by the veteran animator Pete Kleinow. During ED2 post production in Detroit, I
visited Tom and Larry Larson (another stop mo / artist veteran,
stop mo instructor & fine arts oil painter) during
the Deadite stop motion shoot and even did some minor
assisting. Tom now has a website presence known as Dark Age Productions . Also you can catch some behind
the scenes photos at his Evil Dead 2 Gallery. 12-13-02:
Animation World Network known as, AWN has been online for
a few years which is a long time for internet survival.
Their online Animation World Magazine is still being published and FREE!
AWN is a comprehensive animation informational resource
that is still not too commercialized (good for us!). A
few months ago, they just launched their Animation
Industry Database.
This is basically for people or studios that already
have experience and offering their services. They
have a plethora of listings for Computer
animation & special effects services, however, not
that many for the Traditional Skills areas.
Also, it seems like an oversight that they did not
include a specific Stop Motion Animation
category, but instead, they have puppets, clay,
and object animation (that's odd specialty?).
So, if you have done professional or paid work, offering
some kind of animation service, you can be listed and you
can be in any country (not just USA). For those looking
for work, see the AWN Career Page and you can put your resume
online. In stop motion category, they have lots of
wannabees claiming stop motion as one of their skills,
but they do not give specifics on resume about their
experience or training. Sometimes I just wonder to
myself, the effectiveness of these online resumes. There
are just so many of them. Perhaps there is better luck by
just "knocking on doors"? 12-12-02: I mentioned Wreckless Abandon
before in News and I am not really plugging them as I
don't know much about this studio which is located waaaay
over on the East Coast in the state of Connecticut, but I
just found this brief behind the scenes of the Davey & Goliath Mountain Dew
spot. 12-11-02:
For a more intimate group forum about Stop Motion, don't
forget to check out Neil Hughes' (down under/Australia) Stopmotion
Group at Yahoo Groups . You have to register to be a
general member of Yahoo (Free) and you can always improvise
or fudge the information you give. Neil did have a
website for his studio, Dog House Films but it seems unavailable. 12-08-02:
Just a reminder that two, stop motion animated Robbie
the Reindeers will be broadcast on the CBS
network, this Friday, December 13, at
9:00 pm. To be sure, check your local TV
schedules. Both Robbie animations will be aired (one
hour). Here is a Review of the Robbie animations. Before Robbie's
broadcast, Rankin Bass' 1964 classic, Rudolph the
Red Nosed Reindeer will also be aired. So, that
will be a total of two hours of Stop Motion ! 12-07-02:
This seems to be a new or recent website (I never heard
of it before), Animation Products. Unfortunately, it covers mostly CGI and
Cel Animation and seems to ignore Stop Motion. On their
links page there are some more interesting sites,
including some forums. Again, even though Stop Motion
content is non-existent at this site, at least you can
find out news, rumors, etc. of what is going on in
general animation field. You might want to email them and
inquire about "Lack of Stop Motion?" or suggest
some LINKS about Stop Mo. 12-06-02:
Here is Anthony Scott's (aka Mr. StopMotionAnimation.Com)
page, about the GodFather of Stop Motion,
Mr.Ray Harryhausen, who was in Los Angeles,
California, this past week. |
||
<< BACK Content in
NEWS is gathered from online, public sources, and from
you ! If you have any tips, info, |
||
|