How Laika Used 3D Color Printers To Create The Stop-Motion Animated Movie ‘ParaNorman’ and 50 Other Things We Learned On The Set

Below is one of the behind the scenes ParaNorman photos (inprogress armature construction). As a BONUS to the worldwide followers of Stop Motion Works, let’s see how good I am in analyzing this one picture . There are a variety of methods used in the construction of the jointed stop motion skeletal metal armatures so that it will precisely fit inside the puppet. One of techniques and the one that myself & likely, most Armaturists prefer … you FIRST design & create hard-copy blueprints/designs of the armatures that corresponds to the Concept Illustration design of the puppet characters. Then you construct the armatures from those blueprints. After armature is fabricated, it is turned over to the sculptor, who will clay sculpt OVER the ARMATURE. The sculpture is then molded, opened, all clay removed and you have an armature that fits EXACTLY in the MOLD.

The other technique which I have mostly encountered and not to my liking: A production is many times in a rush and they want to immediately SEE the puppet character illustrations and/or concept maquettes of the puppet. They are impatient and cannot ‘wait’ for the stop motion amatures to be completed (so that the sculptor can then sculpt over it). In the picture above, it appears , before the stop motion armature was even designed or constructed, the puppet character was sculpted FIRST, without any jointed skeletal armature. The sculpture then silicone molded, and all the clay pulled out. You now have an EMPTY MOLD with NO ARMATURE. What the Armaturist does, is construct & assemble an armature to FIT inside the MOLD. It sounds simple, but IMO much more time & labor intensive. The picture above shows what looks like orange colored plasticine clay. I am guessing they are using the plasticene to temporarily hold & position the armature pieces & components within the mold cavity. The Armaturist proceeds to fit & assemble the armature Piece by Piece (to fit the mold). This requires repetitive times removing and inserting armature back in the mold (pieces held by plasticene), until the armature is fully assembled (soldered) & completed. Ouch … like I said before, not the ideal way to create these jointed metal skeletal wonderments.

I do not know if this makes any sense to ‘you all’, but perhaps the more ‘technically’ inclined out there can somewhat grasps what I’m trying to keyboard (so much easier to do a video & demonstrate). Okay, that is one of my dark secret technical revelations about the nitty gritty work of Stop Motion Armature construction …. it’s not all that glamorous

LINKS: ParaNorman website – ParaNorman Youtube – Laika Studio

Richard’s work reminds me of the Czech film director, artist, animator, Karel Zeman; a stylized, kind of surreal look that is not suppose to be literal reality, but instead, very dream-like and propels you into a fantasy other world. Below is an example of Richard’s work, ‘The Shadow Out of Time‘ an independent short (15 minutes), being newly released. This is not for ADD type audiences who overdose on Transformers/The Avengers calorie heavy eye candy type movies . Here, you need to be in calm state of mind and actually use your intellect to actually comprehend & follow a story. Turn down the room lights, raise the volume, and enjoy … a collaboration between Richard Svensson, Daniel Lennéer and Christopher Johansson ….

Below some links – Richard also generously shares his stop motion puppet construction techniques through his very easy to comprehend video tutorials.Check out his earlier blog posts in which he comments on behind the scenes about his other works. Also look at his Youtube channel …. his tutorials are rich information in making puppets & props

LINKS:  Lone Animator blog – SMW News: Stop Mo puppet construction - Lone Animator Youtube – Karel Zeman

The special edition Dvd does have the infamous ‘deleted’ Stop Motion Blair-monster. Animation executed by Randall W. Cook, and of course with contributions from other’s on the stop motion crew.  Bottin’s recollection that John Carpenter “could see” that it was “animation” so he cut it. In other past articles though, I kind of got the feeling that Carpenter just had a general prejudice against creature type Harryhausen-esque stop motion effects. Also, my understanding from published articles/stories,  there were problems in the production which including ‘communication’.  The Blair monster design supposedly did not match the Bottin full size version, so maybe another undeserved excuse to blame Stop Motion and not others higher up in the production.

Below is the stop motion animation scene that was deleted. Unfortunately, the person who did the upload to Youtube, the  resulting scenes have darkened too much and difficult to see. Would be best if you turn off your room lights and watch several times. Whenever you see the long shots, that is Stop Motion Blair creature, which quickly cuts back & forth to the close-up full size Bottin Blair. I do not know why John Carpenter got his ‘Underwears in a Bunch’ … the Stop Motion scenes were so short anyway. Oh well … he was the boss at the time, but that does not mean ‘Directors’ always make the supposedly right decisions, choices, etc. ….

I Have not followed what John Carpenter has been doing these days, whether or not he is retired, semi-retired, or what. There is some information from the ‘all knowing’ Wikipedia Gods. I just wonder if he got an opportunity today to direct some BIG film, whether he would go for ol’ school practical effects or more likely, I’m guessing he would drink the tantalizing Elixer of CGI Nirvana … or maybe use a mixture of special effects methods, classic FX & techy FX.

LINKS:  Trailer - The Thing (1982) – John Carpenter – Outpost #31

It is my understanding now that the ‘Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan’ documentary is going to be re-edited without the benefit of example effects & animation scenes created by Ray Harryhausen. Even though the Youtube postings of the Special Effects Titans trailers have been removed, here is one that I found on Vimeo ….

Another lesser known documentary that was going to be made, was a tribute to Willis O’Brien who inspired Ray Harryhausen as a young boy, when he first saw the original King Kong (1933). This O’Brien documentary was also slammed shut around Peter Jackson’s, 2005 King Kong CGI remake. Steven L. Austin was the director/producer of the Willis O’brien documentary. He says that he has plenty of filmed/recorded footage ‘in the can’ but it seems that ‘we the audience’ will never have an opportunity to see a completed version of this documentary. Here is a summary from Steve himself when he posted at the stop motion forum … you can read for yourself … Willis O’Brien, spider pit, documentary, etc This is an example teaser for O’Brien documentary ….

This other teaser is better but has heavy watermarking on the screen … you can watch at Vimeo … The Lost Worlds of Willis O’Brien

What can I say? … fuming pissed and strongly controlling what I’m writing here! With both of the above documentaries, the obstacles are apparently from Warner Brothers. Listen up ‘Suits’ …. Special Effects content movie products are usually the cash cow that brings in your box office sales. Do you not have any respect for the Heritage of Cinema which includes the contributions of individual pioneers such as Ray Harryhausen and Willis O’Brien?? These TRIBUTE documentaries would have NO impact on your current Mega-Multi Hundred Million Dollar products. Warner Brothers where is your ‘drop’ of generosity, charity & altruism? Again, I am censoring myself!

LINKS: IMDb – Facebook – Ray Harryhausen site – Warner Brothers Corp

… okay, continuing  with my little tirade … my observations … you cannot compare Sinbad – The 5th Voyage to ANY of today’s over saturated CGI special effects movie products. It’s like comparing Apples (CGI) to Oranges (stop mo, classic Fx) … they are DIFFERENT. I know the CGI addicted drones will do comparisons of 5th Voyage to the CGI special effects mega budgeted features. I cannot help these myopic mentally lost souls who are CGI brainwashed as they cannot appreciate other styles of visual aesthetics … so SCREW YOU .  Any negative criticisms you keyboard-spew in your blogs about 5th Voyage will only help in its viral marketing.

If some of you are not aware of it yet, Sinbad – The 5th Voyage will be employing classic Stop Motion Animation Special Effects but using much more modern advanced techniques. It is an homage to Ray Harryhausen’s Dynamation features of the past. Cinema micro-history lesson: In USA, the mainstream movie industry has usually rejected stop motion animation effects methods … even in Ray Harryhausen’s day, he had difficulty selling it to the ‘Suits’.

The only 5th Voyage teaser released, was back around July 2010. I wish there were more but I can possibly understand the producer’s thinking, following the “Do not Blow your WAD too early” strategy. However, as the 5th Voyage premier date gets closer, perhaps, periodically releasing ‘Teaser Photos’ might be good marketing to keep 5th Voyage in the public consciousness. Teaser photos used for TEASING (don’t reveal too much) … to wet the appetite.

The release date has been changed a few times but I believe it’s definitely going to be sometime in 2012 … Sinbad – The 5th Voyage …. in Retro Classic Dynamation, and proudly … NO 3D Stereo (zero, zilch, nada).

LINKS: Sinbad 5th Voyage Facebook – Movie IMDb – Past SMW News 5th Voyage, July ‘10 – Ray Harryhausen – Dynamation – This is Dynamation, 1958

Ladies & Gentlemen of the jury … Harryhausen-esque Stop Motion NEEDS to desperately experience a renaissance and enter into the consciousness of the public. The above fantastic work was created by Stephen Chiodo, Todd Laturno, and animated by the veteran stop motion animator, Kent Burton.

I know, the CGI addicted drones will say, “But it does not look real”. I say, what the hell is the definition of ‘real’ in the realm of the other-worldly and/or fantasy?? Actually, my observation, when you look at the above stop motion creature character, you know it is not ‘literally real’ and that it may have some puppet looking characteristics, but YOU DO NOT CARE. You allow yourself to enter the directors/filmmaker’s interpretation & vision of Fantasy and the Surreal. This is what Ray Harryhausen did. He was not obsessed with copying every minutia of ‘reality’.

If the above were done CGI, the mouse-clickers would likely overload it with internal jello-like blubbery motion and ‘flapping in the wind excess’ jiggly skin, and also superfluous internal muscle movement & twitching. IMO, it is actually refreshing not seeing all that extraneous CGI additions. Today’s audiences have been so indoctrinated to the CGI aesthetics. The above stop motion creation, to me, looks just as fantastical surreal but using a different aesthetic style (stop motion) compared to something done using typical formulaic CGI. Kudos to Stephen Chiodo & crew. We need to see more of this from the Stop Motion creators out there … come out of your closets!

LINKS: Chiodo Bros Productions – Kent Burton & 2 – Other Harryhausen-esque experiments from Peter Montgomery

This is not a Ray Harryhausen-esque action packed adventure, but instead, a light fantasy tale that is soft & heart warming, which I think kids would maybe enjoy on a Sunday evening. Also, do not forget this was made about 18 years ago, before CGI special effects worldwide domination.

A generous & sharing Youtuber uploaded the movie in seven chapters (separate videos). I created a playlist which will play all 7 chapters automatically, in sequence ….

LINKS: If you prefer to just watch the individual chapters Stop Motion Works Youtube – Jim Danforth – IMDb Dragonworld

This new film/video of Nick appears to be more recent, but I am not sure and only guessing because Nick’s hair color now appears to be in the Gandalf/Obi-wan/Santa Claus, Ultra-White stage

LINKS: Nick Hilligoss – Stop Motion in the Land of OZ – Wiki Info – YouTube Channel – Gallery/Portfolio site

PART 1

PART 2

PART 3

LINKS: Misfits movie Website – Aardman Studios

I am again pleased, that the ‘powers that be’ chose to go with real hand made stop motion, even though it possibly was more labor intensive. This is similar advertising philosophy as the earlier UPS ‘My Choice ad’ posted here at SMW News which also used REAL Stop Motion. I can take a guess; if these ads were done CGI, they would NOT be as interesting or popular. Advertisers & agencies perhaps seeing that people/audiences are getting CGI over-saturated (too much, no variety) and some ’suits’ recognizing the public are intelligent and maybe unconsciously can sense between something that is handmade vs. all computer CGI-faked. Also, another COOL FACTOR that Cgi cannot compete with …. is the making-of behind the scenes when using hand-made Stop Motion or the use of practical, classic & other traditional (no Cgi) special effects techniques. Here is an edifying & informative ‘making of’ the Chipotle ad, in other words, a lot more FUN watching the behind the scenes (compared to mouse-clicking CGI making-ofs) ….

One thing I did not have time to look-up is … WHO were the specific artists, crafts-people, technicians, studio, etc, that did the actual hand-making creation of this stop motion piece. I see the obvious credits to the director, producers, ad agency & so forth, but the names of the Artists & Creatives on the ‘frontline’ in bringing this animation to life, it seems more difficult to find and they deserve proper credit.

LINKS: Nexus Productions – Chipotle Mexican Grill