Stop-Motion Fun Stuff: T-Shirt War

While browsing some animation sites I came across an awesome pixelation animation about two guys having a t-shirt war! It was made by the YouTube Entertainer duo

Rhett and Link. It's very creative. You can tell a lot of time and thought went into it. Check it out below.




After you've watch the vid, make sure to check out the behind the scenes here.

Stop-Motion News: Stop motion in the oscars

It seems stop motion has done quite well for itself this year, coming out with two full-length movies (Fantastic Mr. Fox and Coraline) and a multitude of shorts, the most prominent being Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death.

Now that the Oscars have come around again, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Coraline, and A Matter of Loaf and Death have all been nominated! Both Mr. Fox and Coraline were nominated in the Animated Feature Film category. The Fantastic Mr. Fox was also nominated for best music.
A Matter of Loaf and Death was nominated as an Animated Short. It's going to be a hard win for Fantastic Mr. Fox and Coraline, going up against Up and The Princess and the Frog, but I think both have good chances. I have high hopes for A Matter of Loaf and Death. Judging from Wallace and Gromit's past record at the Oscars, I think there's a good chance they might win!

Stop-Motion How-To: Easing In, Easing Out

Easing in and easing out is an essential method for making your puppet's moves look real!
Easing in and out is the technique of moving your puppet less at the beginning and ending of a movement. If you analyze the way people move, you'll notice that they do the same thing. For instance unless your The Flash, you probably don't start running as fast as you possibly can right away. Instead, you start off slowly, then move into full speed. And unless you have gas brakes in your shoes, you won't be making any immediate stops either. The same thing applies when someone picks up an object: he won't jerk forward and grab the object, then jerk back. Instead, his hand will start off slower, go into full speed, then slow down when he reaches its goal.

Marc Spess made a great video showing how easing in and easing out works. Check it out below!

Stop-Motion Fun Stuff: Arthur

The animation below (animated by Guionne Leroy and inspired by the opera King Arthur) has become one of my favorite clay animations on YouTube. The way the character and sets have been sculpted and animated give it a unique and very whimsical feel! It is a truly beautiful piece of animation!

Stop-Motion News: Shaun the Sheep Series 2

Shaun the Sheep, the unlikely hero from A Close Shave has done quite well for himself since then. He got his own show, which won numerous awards, and he's coming back for another round with the second series of his show.

A lot of changes have been made for the new series. The first thing most people will notice is that some of the characters have undergone makeovers, some as big as Bowser's new white splotches and some as small as the farmer's scruffier face.

A cart load of new characters has also been added to the show, and some of the minor characters from the first series have been given bigger parts.

The show is now being shot in HD, and the new crispness is definitely visible!

The show is already being aired in the UK and a few other nations, but I could not find any air dates for the USA.

For more information you can check out the Series 2 Production Blog on the Shaun the Sheep website.

Stop-Motion How-To: Failure

Sooner or later, there's a time in our life when we come across something many people consider a terrible thing. Something they think life would be better without. That thing is failure.

Personally, however, I think failure can be one of the most useful things in life and in animation. A lot of you out there may be thinking I'm absolutely nutty, that failure is what brings us down, not the opposite. And that is true, it can and will bring you down. But it can only do that if you let it.

Failure is a teacher, the best one you'll ever get in this life. But you must learn to listen to it. When you fail at something, don't go into depression because you screwed up. Instead, look for the reason behind your failure, learn from it, and avoid it in the future. Often when someone has failed, he says, "I tried and failed, so now I'm just gonna quit." You can't expect to have success the first time you start something, and you also can't expect not to fail even after you've experienced success.

Trying again is often frightening. You may have put so much effort and heart into your project the last time, only to meet the grim face of failure. But I bet if you find what you did wrong and correct it, you'll do far better the second time!

I guarantee sometime in your animation career, you'll have more than a few failures. Puppet modeling, lighting, animation - none of us succeed at these things the first time. Keep your chin up, and remember that a failure isn't something terrible. It's just a stepping stone too becoming a great animator.

The video below isn't about animation, but everything in it can be applied to our craft.

Stop-Motion Fun Stuff: Wallace and Gromit Tribute

Since this year is Wallace and Gromit's 20th anniversary, I thought I'd post something to do with them and the first thing that came to mind was Andreas Francis's animated tribute. Andreas animated this for his first Stop motion assignment. The assignment was: Have a white clay ball roll in from the side, do something, then roll out again. As you'll see, he went far beyond what was required for this project!

Check it out below!

Stop-Motion News:Stop Motion Magazine!

Finally, someone has stepped up to the bar and brought together something I have only dreamed of coming to life: A stop-motion magazine! That someone is John Ikuma, and he's done a great job putting this magazine together.

There are currently two issues available, both of them containing a truckload of great information. The 1st issue includes four very inspirational interviews, a review of a new animation program, and a tutorial showing how to make a simple animation rig.

The second issue takes you on a in-depth look through the production of Titan Maximum, an interview with Stan Starwn, reviews of the programs Magpie Pro and iStopmotion Pro, and a tutorial on how to build a dolly for your camera.

As you can see, there is no lack of information in these magazines, and believe it or not, the magazine is totally free! You can download both issues here. Also, check out the newly launched Stop-Motion Magazine blog, which shows the behind the scenes and sneak peeks of upcoming issues.

Stop-Motion How-To: The Effect of the Sound Effect

Something you need to seriously consider in the finished product of your animation is sound effects. Some animators may think sound effects are nice but not all that crucial to a finished animation. But in order to bring your animation to life they really are needed.

Sound effects can be just as crucial to telling a story as character voices. For instance, when your puppet sets down an object, the sound effect you choose helps identify what type of object it is. If it's a heavy object, it would probably make a loud clunk, or if it's metal, it would jingle. Portraying that the object is heavy or metal would likely be evident in the animation, but sometimes it's simpler to help the audience know what's going on through a sound effect or two. Our ears help us identify things almost as much as our eyes do.

How do you create these sound effects? Professional studios usually hire a sound-effect team to create custom sounds for the animation. But hiring such a team could get rather pricey, so I would recommend buying a prerecorded soundtrack. There is quite a selection to choose from. The biggest pack of sound effects I've seen is The Sony Pictures Sound Effects Series, which is a box set of 10 CDs with over 2,300 effects in a wide assortment of categories. The downside of the Sound Effects Series is that it costs $300-$400. If you're looking for something a tad cheaper, I highly recommend the 500+ Sound Effects mp3 download, which includes 6 CDs worth of sound effects. As of the date of this post, you can download it from Amazon for $1.99.
If you are using Windows Movie Maker, be aware that since it limits you to one audio track, you won't be able to add any music along with the sound effects.

Since audios and visuals are the only two senses that can be applied to the motion picture, you should not only use sight to it's full extent but sound too.

Stop-Motion Fun Stuff: Human Skateboard

PES Film made a neat commercial, as an advertisement for skateboarding shoes, using pixelation.
check it out below.

Stop-Motion News: Frankenweenie

It seems Tim Burton will be again stepping back into the magical world of stop-motion to make his third full-length stop-motion animated film Frankenweenie.

Frankenweenie will be remake of a live-action film Tim Burton made in 1984. The story, loosely based off the classic tale of Frankenstein, is about a young boy who brings his dog back to life.

Frankenweenie is being made by Disney studios and will be bringing back many of the animators and crew who worked on Corpse Bride.

Frankenweenie is scheduled to be released sometime in 2011

Stop-Motion How to: Taking A Closer Look

Paul from StopMotionPro made a video showing a neat way to zoom up on your capture window using any program on your PC.

Zooming up on your capture window is much more useful than it might sound, especially when it's difficult to see your parts of your puppet, due to your lighting or set.

You can check the video out below.

Stop-Motion Fun Stuff: Legolibrium

Keshen8 from YouTube made a neat animated Lego spoof off a fight scene from the movie Equilibrium. This is probably the best fight scene I've ever seen in stop-motion animation. Check it out below!

Stop Motion News: The Fantastic Mr. Fox

20th Century Fox has announced they will be releasing a new stop-motion animated movie based on the best-selling children's book The Fantastic Mr. Fox by British author Roald Dahl (who also co-wrote the movie script with Noah Baumbach). The movie includes an all-star cast including Owen Wilson, George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, and many more. The movie will be released 13 of November.

In the movie Mr. and Mrs. Fox live an idyllic home life with their son Ash and visiting nephew Kristopherson. But after 12 years, the bucolic existence proves too much for Mr. Fox's wild animal instincts. Soon he slips back into his old ways as a sneaky chicken thief and, in doing so, endangers not only his beloved family, but the whole animal community. Trapped underground and with too little food to go around, the animals band together to fight against the evil Farmers -- Boggis, Bunce, and Bean -- who are determined to capture the audacious, fantastic Mr Fox at any cost.

Check out the trailer below.

Stop-Motion How-To:The Power Of the Unexpected

I'm kind of a dull person to watch movies with, since I really don't get too emotionally drawn into a movie. But I have noticed that the one thing that seem to provoke my feelings the most is the unexpected. When someone in a movie is sick and it's obvious he's going to die sooner or later, I rarely find myself saddened when he dies. But in a movie where the story seems rather predictable, and then suddenly one of the likable characters dies I find myself shocked and saddened by this new turn of events.

Or, to look at it from the other side of the coin, a gag can become much funnier when it's unexpected, such as in Aardman's short Aardman where a guy dressed up as a superhero walks up to what looks like a hole in the ground. He walks over the hole and nothing happens, but when he gets a couple steps past it, he falls through the ground, turning somthing that would have been a cliche into somthing that surpises the audience.

Of course, you can't use the unexpected too much, because it will soon become the expected. For instances, in M. Night Shyamalan's movies, people have come to expect a big twist in the end and often are disappointed because they wanted a epic twist when it was just a good one. Try doing something unexpected in your animations. If you do it right, you'll get some good reactions.



To illustrate my point, check out the video below.

Stop-Motion Fun Stuff: Super Mario World Stop-Motion Japanese Commercial

A couple days ago I stumbled across this rare stop-motion Japanese Commercial for the SNES 1990's Super Mario World. I have been a fan of Nintendo's Mario games for as long as I can remember, and it was cool to see Mario do his stuff as a stop-motion animated figure. You can check it out below.

Stop-Motion News: Aardman Announces Two New Full-Length Animated Movies!

Aardman Studios (the creators of Wallace and Gromit) have announced they will be bringing out two new animated movies. Arthur Christmas which will be done in CG, and Pirates will be shot in stop-motion animation. Arthur Christmas is about how Santa manages to get around the whole world in one night. Pirates is an adaptation of Gideon Defoe's book The Pirates! in which a hapless band of pirates compete for the Pirate of the Year award. Arthur Christmas is scheduled for release some time in 2011 and Pirates in 2012 . Both movies will be distributed by Sony Pictures. For more info about both of these upcoming feature films, check out this post from the official Wallace & Gromit site here

Stop-Motion How To: Making Puppets Talk, Part 2 of 2

In Part 1 of this post we talked about the different ways to create the lip movements for your puppets. You can check that post out here.


Lip sync is the process of making the lip movements you have animated match up with the pre-recorded voice. When I originally started lip syncing, I thought I could just switch the mouths around while animating, and then after I finished try to match my voice to it by adjusting the speed of my speech. That process didn't work at all. It always turned out looking horrible. I later found out that studios record the voices before they do any animation with lip movement in it. Once the studio has the recording, they slow it down to discover how much of the sound takes place in one frame and then note it on x-sheet for the animators to use later.

Thankfully, programs have been created for just this propose. Magpie is probably the most popular lip sync program. It's been used in a number of professional productions, including Corpse Bride and Creature Comforts. It's a great program, stocked with great features. The single license download costs $250 USD, and you can check it out here.

If you're unable to spend that much money, you can download JLipSync, a sweet free lip sync program for the PC and MAC. This program can be really confusing to download (at least it was for me), but luckily Marc Spess made a video tutorial outlining the downloading steps. You can check that out here.


Making your puppets talk can be a long and hard process, but if you're willing to commit your time and effort, I assure you it will be well worth it!

Stop-Motion Fun Stuff: One of my own animations

For this Fun Stuff post, I'm going to post a video I made while messing around with some blobs of clay the other day. Hope you enjoy it!

Stop-Motion News: StopMotionmagic.com's may animation challenge

StopMotionMagic.com has been doing a monthly animation exercise for the past year. The exercises were started to help animators keep their animation skills fresh. Castlegardener (the director of the exercises) noticed that a lot of the people on the site were great animators but were in need of a good puppet. He made a neat alien puppet to be awarded to the best entry in this month's animation exercise. If you're a good animator in need of a little help with puppet making, check out the challenge here.