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[Simon Edmondson]

 

 

I saw this for the first time tonight. Its beautifully done.

It may interest some ?

simon

[Darkwing]

I wonder if that was CG or actual claymation?

[robcat2075]

That looks great.

 

My first guess is CG just because there's so much going on, but I have no idea. Perhaps a composite of CG characters with real sets?

 

What little credit info i can find on it says variously "model animation" or "CG"

 

Only one "lead animator" is mentioned.

 

I dunno, a ton of work either way.

 

Geez, i could barely understand the woman at the end the first time I heard it. It must have been the shift from John Denver to her accent that threw me.

[Darkwing]

Man, I'd like to get back into stop motion animation. I always found it fun

[Simon Edmondson]

Man, I'd like to get back into stop motion animation. I always found it fun

 

I'm trying to develop an idea that combines CG and stop motion to do next year but it may take some time...

 

I haven't done much stop motion work but loved it when I did. I think part of it was that you got to touch things rather than the mouse or stylus and the look of it when its done is so very unlike cg. I hope to do some in the next few weeks ( while the renders go through ! ) and will post them hee if theres any interest.

Just watched the advert again. It is Fab !

simon

[Darkwing]

It would actually be kinda cool to make a very short Christmas stop motion endeavour. I always associate Christmas and stop motion together (most likely thanks to Rankin and Bass )

[NancyGormezano]

Oooo...nice! I love this stuff.

 

I haven't done much stop motion work but loved it when I did. I think part of it was that you got to touch things rather than the mouse or stylus and the look of it when its done is so very unlike cg.

 

I haven't done any stop motion. I absolutely love the look (big fan of Aardman especially), and I am in complete awe of the process. Seems even more labor intensive, and demanding than CG. Blows me away.

 

And now about me me me: The best complements that I have gotten for my CG work have come from people who know nothing about CG, and they look at my A:M characters, and ask "Do you sell these?" Many think they are real. Makes me beam blushy all over.

[robcat2075]

The best complements that I have gotten for my CG work have come from people who know nothing about CG, and they look at my A:M characters, and ask "Do you sell these?" Many think they are real. Makes me beam blushy all over.

 

 

I like that!

 

If only there were a 3D printer that did feathers and cat hair!

[Gerry]

I dabbled with clay animation for about fifteen minutes as a teenager and completed maybe five seconds before I just got exhausted by it! But then I got the film back from processing and it looked pretty good! But by then of course I'd moved on.

 

My uneducated guess about this ad is that it's CG designed to look like clay, only because, as Robert said, there's so much going on, but it could be a combination. But one thing I like about the trends in CG especially for commercials is making it look like something other than CG, thereby getting away with less-than-realistic character animation and adding charm at the same time. That's what this looks like to me.

[Simon Edmondson]

And now about me me me: The best complements that I have gotten for my CG work have come from people who know nothing about CG, and they look at my A:M characters, and ask "Do you sell these?" Many think they are real. Makes me beam blushy all over.

 

Nancy

 

I can understand such comments because, as I've said before, you work has a very tactile sensibility and colour sense to it. I would imagine that you would enjoy stop frame work if you tried it. Theres a very simple technique for making an armature if you'd like to try ?

 

You use aluminium or copper wire and cut a length for the whole arm, glue it into a block for the shoulders. Get a piece of rigid tubing, ( can be anything from a biro pen body to a wall plug ) cut that into two, to coincide with upper and lower arm Glue at 'Elbow, leave small section ope,. glue next just below elbow and again at 'wrist' then into a small block for the hand. Glue thinner diameter wire into that block for the fingers.

 

Heres a very rough outline

 

Once you've got the armature you can pad it out in foam rubber, or anything you choose really, then clothe it afterwards. When you make the feet its best to do them so you can put pins through to hold it to the ground but there are all sorts of other ways...

 

There used to be some stuff called "Super elasticlay" ( or similar ) which was like a normal modelling clay but, when styled, was then baked in an oven, and could then be bent into position and it would hold that shape while taking the shot. If its still available ( and I don't know ? ) you might like to try it ? it only came in small packets and was fairly inexpensive.

 

I bought a package called "Istop motion" for the Mac ( about $30 I recall ) which I've used with local students using a $10 HD web cam, but I'm sure there are similar packages on the PC ?

 

Have you ever seen the work of Pes on you tube ? I love his work. The spaghetti one is particularly inventive.

 

 

regards

Simon

[Simon Edmondson]

My uneducated guess about this ad is that it's CG designed to look like clay, only because, as Robert said, there's so much going on, but it could be a combination. But one thing I like about the trends in CG especially for commercials is making it look like something other than CG, thereby getting away with less-than-realistic character animation and adding charm at the same time. That's what this looks like to me.

 

 

 

Gerry

I don't know but my guess would agree with that. Its the quality of the sets as much as the action that does it. They look like the sort of thing aardmann make. This is a guess but I wondered if it was animated on two's as well for that stop mo feel ? However it was done I thought it was a beautiful piece of work...

simon

[itsjustme]

Here are a couple of links that I thought might be helpful for stop motion stuff:

 

Armaverse

 

How to make your own bal and socket joints

 

Here is an overview of software and tools for stop motion.

 

 

Hope that helps.

[NancyGormezano]

Simon -

 

Thanks for the quick armature how-to! I may have to try this at some point. Loved the Pes video. I believe I had seen some of his stuff some time ago. Very creative, whimsical, fantasical sense.

 

I'm going on vacation for pretty much the month of October (Bhutan!), so anything I do will have to be sometime after that. Coincidently, I've also gotten a new camera (Nikon D7000) for the trip, so I actually might be able to use it for capturing images direct to computer (not sure if it's possible, as I'm still reading up on it)

 

David - those are great links! Thanks for posting.

[Roger]

I imagine if it it's actual stop motion, it was animated on 2s just to save labor. If it is CG, they probably animated on 2s to replicate the look.

 

Don't people use Sculpy for making stop motion puppets? That's the only brand-name I know of. I think you can bake it as well.

 

I've been trying to come up with ways to make my chars look less CG, I don't want to do something that looks like this, it isn't my taste but there is a kids' show called Pocoyo I stumbled across, it is CG but limited animation with a certain charm to it.

[Simon Edmondson]

I imagine if it it's actual stop motion, it was animated on 2s just to save labor. If it is CG, they probably animated on 2s to replicate the look.

 

Don't people use Sculpy for making stop motion puppets? That's the only brand-name I know of. I think you can bake it as well.

 

I've been trying to come up with ways to make my chars look less CG, I don't want to do something that looks like this, it isn't my taste but there is a kids' show called Pocoyo I stumbled across, it is CG but limited animation with a certain charm to it.

 

Roger

 

You may be right about Sculpy, I have a vague recollection that it might be another name for the one I mentioned but could be wrong there. The traditional method is to make the model in clay, cast it, then make a foam rubber 'print' of that cast and fit it around a ball and socket armature such as the one David linked to above..

 

I've read a few books and watched video's of Aardmann's process and its changed over the years as they make bigger longer form films. The earlier Wallace and Gromit's were all done with plasticene clay for the figures but, from what I gather, they only use that for the face and hands now and the bodies are made from plasticised rubber. I haven't got it yet but, their recent production of "Pirates, and adventure with Scientists" was apparently filmed on Two's even for the cg bits, as was "Flushed Away" a few years back.

 

On an anecdotal level Nick Park, in a recent radio show, explained that when he was making "A Grand Day out" as a student, he wrote to ask the makers of Plasticene if they could offer him a deal on it to make the film. They offered him as much as he could take, so he turned up with a van and filled it up. He said he was still using some of it now, 20 years later !

regards

simon

[Simon Edmondson]

Simon -

 

Thanks for the quick armature how-to! I may have to try this at some point. Loved the Pes video. I believe I had seen some of his stuff some time ago. Very creative, whimsical, fantasical sense.

 

I'm going on vacation for pretty much the month of October (Bhutan!), so anything I do will have to be sometime after that. Coincidently, I've also gotten a new camera (Nikon D7000) for the trip, so I actually might be able to use it for capturing images direct to computer (not sure if it's possible, as I'm still reading up on it)

 

David - those are great links! Thanks for posting.

 

Nancy

 

There's a Pes one done with just a peanut shell and ( I think) peanut Butter that looks like some one drowning that I found rather moving. Theres one " done with arm chairs and furnishings which almost had me falling on the floor laughing. He did some commercials for Bacardi the drinks company too and there one with engineering tools that evokes the deep sea. The sound is obviously a key part to them but the thinking and the production is first rate.

 

The local animation school to here uses a program called Dragon for some of its stop motion work. It works with a range of still cameras and stores two resolutions of each frame for the working process and the later compositing phase. Its a bit expensive for me at the moment but thinking about it later , if I get anywhere with Istop motion.

 

simon

[robcat2075]

I briefly tried some stop motion when i was doing AnimationMentor:

 

http://www.brilliantisland.com/stopmo/bounce01small.mov

 

 

http://www.brilliantisland.com/stopmo/stop...taclesmall.mov

 

 

The problem with stop mo is you have to know what your doing before you do it.

[Gerry]

On the subject of stop motion I got a crash course on the Quay brothers, who I had never even heard of before last week. A friend of mine took me to a show currently at MOMA of their work, with videos, stills, some of the sets they've built, student work, etc.

 

Very extremely strange work. My friend said he's never seen a review of their work that didn't use the word "disturbing" and I can see why.

 

Beautiful but creepy, heavily influenced by an eastern European sensibility, the problem I had with it is that you *expect* there to be some sort of narrative or story, but there isn't, just weird imagery hidden in shadow. Overall impressive, but something missing at its center when you see a lot of it all at once.

 

Here's one from YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNyU5HASSSY

[Gerry]

I briefly tried some stop motion when i was doing AnimationMentor:

 

http://www.brilliantisland.com/stopmo/bounce01small.mov

 

 

http://www.brilliantisland.com/stopmo/stop...taclessmall.mov

 

 

The problem with stop mo is you have to know what your doing before you do it.

Hey Robert, that second link seems to be broken. Liked the first one though!

[robcat2075]

Hey Robert, that second link seems to be broken.

 

fixed now, thanks!

[NancyGormezano]

but something missing at its center when you see a lot of it all at once.

 

Even when you just see a small dose. I couldn't handle watching it now, maybe because I'm in a rush, or maybe I just wasn't in the mood.

 

I use to love doing/viewing eye candy, arty pieces, but ultimately I have realized, the best, most memorable pieces, have a story, and they can be executed in a style ugly, crude and still sustain.

 

Robert - cute!

[robcat2075]

Most painful 90 minutes at an animation festival was watching a program of eastern European shorts. It's as if they were paid to make them long and slow.

[Simon Edmondson]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqyc37aOqT0

 

I would guess that most people have seen this (?) but, if not, it is worth a look.

It was done back in 1986 under the direction of Peter Gabriel and went out to accompany his song of "Sledgehammer". It was done by nearly all the name stop motion people working in the UK art that time including the brothers Quay, a large chunk of it was done by Aardmann. It references a lot of art movements and styles, both historic and contemporary 20th C, and uses nearly every stop mo technique known to man. A real tour de force...

 

simon

[Gerry]

Yep, one of my all-time faves Simon. Thanks for posting! This got HUGE airplay on MTV back then and it's even better than I remember.

 

And, most notable I would think, is it was done without computers? Not sure, any guesses?

[robcat2075]

And, most notable I would think, is it was done without computers? Not sure, any guesses?

 

The always-reliable Wikipedia says it was all traditionally done with Quay and Aardman contributing footage.

[Roger]

Wow, that was a blast from the past. Peter Gabriel always did have such trippy videos.

[Simon Edmondson]

Wow, that was a blast from the past. Peter Gabriel always did have such trippy videos.

 

 

He and David Byrne of Talking Heads were very aware of the use of video. I saw an interview with Byrne once were he explained that a section of the "Roads to Nowhere" video had a small section in the bottom right corner with an animation of him running. It went through various styles and one of them was a stencil, done with peanut butter on bread... Interesting idea that you do the animation and get to eat it later !

 

Coincidentally, one of the artists referenced in the sledgehammer video was Arcimboldo, who was a renaissance period painter specialising in portraits using vegetables. The style has been used in many adverts the past 30 years put worth looking at ?

 

Simon

 

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=arcimbold...mp;ved=0CDQQsAQ