Ken A. Priebe
Foreword by Henry Selick
Course Technology, a part of Cengage Learning
20 Channel Center Street
Boston, MA 02210
USA
20 Channel Center Street
Boston, MA 02210
USA
 |
| The Advanced Art of Stop-Motion Animation |
Once again, going through another several months of late nights and
caffeinated beverages working on another book, I could not possibly
have conceived it without the generous help and support of so many
people, who deserve all the thanks in the world. First and foremost, thanks to
my Lord and God Jesus Christ for “animating” the whole process, sustaining
me, and making all the connections to bring it together in one piece. Extraspecial
thanks to my amazing wife, Janet, for her assistance, patience, and
encouragement, and to our little ones, Ariel and Xander, who rock my world
and keep making me smile. Special thanks to my extended family in the U.S.
and Canada and my church family at Cedar Park for their encouragement,
prayer, and support. Thanks also to the students and staff of VanArts and
Academy of Art University, to my friends from the Vancouver chapter of the
Association for Computing Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Graphics
and Interactive Techniques (ACM SIGGRAPH), and to my friend Steve
Stanchfield for his continued support after initially getting me started and
hooked on animation many years ago.
Extra thanks to my special interview subjects—Seamus Walsh, Mark Caballero,
and Chris Finnegan at Screen Novelties, Pete Kozachik, Trey Thomas,
Bronwen Kyffin, Larry Bafia, Webster Colcord, Marc Spess, Ryan McCulloch,
and Justin and Shel Rasch—for the gift of their time and wisdom, and the
images they shared to complement their words. Also, a second helping of
thanks to Justin, Shel, and Bronwen for the extensive contributions they made
in other parts of this book, in particular the sections on puppets and stereoscopic
photography. This book is that much richer with your contributions,
and I definitely could not have written these sections without your generous assistance!
The first chapter on the history of stop-motion features alone has a huge list
of people to thank for providing permission and access to images, research,
and detailed information about the films: L.B. Martin-Starewitch, Dan
Goodsell, Jerry Beck, Rick Catizone, Michael Sporn, Rick Goldschmidt, Mark
and Seamus at Screen Novelties, Yoram Gross and Mimi Intal at Yoram Gross
Films, Mario Caprino at Caprino Studios, Will Vinton and Gillian Frances at
Freewill Entertainment, Barry Purves, Jurgen Kling, Mike Belzer, Derek
Hayes, Naomi Jones, Christiane Cegavske, Brian Demoskoff, Marjolaine
Parot, Dean English, Marc Stephenson, Tatia Rosenthal, Jason Vanderhill,
Adam Elliot and Samantha Fitzgerald at Adam Elliot Pictures, Adriana
Piasek-Wanski at La Parti Productions, Carrie Filler and Chris Woolston at
Premavision Studios, Mark Shapiro and Maggie Begley with Laika, Howard
Cohen at Animaking Studios, and Emily Harris, Heidi Leigh, and Whitney
Morris at the Animazing Gallery. Extra special thanks to Stephen Chiodo,
Richard Kent Burton, and John Ellis for the extensive information and photo
archives from I Go Pogo, and to the extensive chain of e-mail connections that
unraveled the obscure history behind Bino Fabule, which began with Jason
Vanderhill and led me to the kind assistance of Tamu Townsend, Erik Goulet,
Denis Roy, Andre A. Belanger, Louis-Philippe Rondeau, and Elaine Bigras at
CinéGroupe. Thank you all for this unique documentation of stop-motion history!
For their contributions, assistance, advice, support, and sharing of images for
chapters and sections on puppets, digital cinematography, visual effects, education,
and animation festivals, I would also like to extend special thanks to
Melanie Vachon, Don Carlson, Dave Hettmer, Ron Cole, Frida Ramirez, Emi
Gonzalez, Lucas Wareing, Chayse Irvin, Henrique Moser, Gary Welch, Shawn
Tilling, Brett Foxwell, Anthony Scott and K Ishibashi, Patrick Boivin, Steve
Stanchfield, Nick Hilligoss, Rich Johnson, Richard Svensson, Carlo Vogele,
Gautam Modkar, Jason Walker, Pete and Sue Tait, Talon Toth at Protodemon
Studios, Roni Lubliner at Universal, Patricia Dillon and Sophie Quevillon at
the National Film Board of Canada, Chris Walsh at Sheridan College, Stephen
Chiodo and Max Winston at CalArts, Beth Sousa and Matt Ellsworth at
Academy of Art University, Jurgen Kling of Weirdoughmationfilms, Elizabeth
Seavey at Bendle High School, Lee Skinner of Little Scholar Productions, Peter
Lord and Amy Wood at Aardman, Galen Fott of Bigfott Studios, Erik Goulet
of the Montreal Stop-Motion Film Festival, and Jeff Bell, James Emler, and
Christa LeCraw from the VanArts Digital Photography Department. Thank you all!
And to all who contributed to the appendix on the stop-motion community,
(on the companion CD), this book is a gift to all of you for the way you
encourage and support all of us in pursuing this mysterious craft: Marc Spess,
Mike Brent, Shelley Noble, Yasemin Sayibas Akyez, Ron Cole, Santino Vitale,
Season Mustful, Jeffrey Roche, Sven Bonnichsen, Don Carlson, Jeremy Spake,
Jesse Broadkey, Chuck Duke, John Ikuma, Ethan Marak, John Hankins,
Emily Baxter, Rich Johnson, Chris Walsh, Paul McConnochie, Ceri Watling,
Ben Whitehouse, Guillaume Lenel, Richard Svensson, Adrian Encinas
Salamanca, Julie Pitts, Miles Blow, and Nick Hilligoss.
If this was like a verbal acceptance speech, I’m sure the band leader would be
starting the music and rushing me off the stage by now, so last but not least,
I have to say an extra-special thanks to Colin Gray, David Bowes, and Paul
Moldovanos for helping me honor the memory of Lisa Jane Gray in this book,
Anthony Scott for his kind assistance, Henry Selick for the gift of his amazing
foreword, the entire staff of Course Technology, editors Dan Foster and
Lionel I. Orozco, and especially Heather Hurley for initially asking me to write another book!
Thank you all…and to Ray Harryhausen, Happy 90th Birthday!
See you in the movies!
Introduction
Stop-motion animation is in the hands of the people. I say this as a pun.
As a craft, the act of animating in stop-motion requires a person to
literally place a puppet in their hands and bring it to life, frame by frame.
The other meaning is that in the past few years, the art of stop-motion has
experienced a renaissance that has not only brought it more prominently into
the big film studios, but also brought it into the hands of regular people
worldwide. It is happening in cramped suburban garages and spacious studio
soundstages. It is also making its way to more homes, schools, websites, and
mobile devices in a manner that is unprecedented in our time.
When stop-motion first started as an art form, it seemed to be kept as a
mysterious and closely guarded magic trick. The publicity of the time behind
films like King Kong (1933) and the feature film Hansel and Gretel: An Opera
Fantasy (1954) revealed false information to the masses about just how stopmotion
was really done. For decades following, fans of stop-motion films had
to rely on stamp-sized photographs in science-fiction magazines to try and
guess how they were made, and then take a stab at it with a Super 8 camera.
Once they had completed their films, there were very limited venues for showing
them to anyone other than themselves. It’s a different world now, and the
secret is out, so today’s filmmakers are gladly faced more with questions about
how to tell a captivating story than about with the technique itself. In addition
to the tools becoming more accessible, the Internet now provides a free platform
for everything from simple experiments to full-fledged films. In the online
universe, artists not only can share their films, but also can connect with other
artists who can offer advice and support to make them even better.
What is also amazing about this growth for stop-motion animation is how fast
it has recently happened. In 2006, I wrote my first book, The Art of Stop-
Motion Animation (Figure I.1), as a practical guide for how stop-motion films were made.
At that time, we were just starting to see the advent of digital SLR cameras
and their use for stop-motion photography, both in feature films and independent
projects. Blogs and online journals for documenting productions had
been around for a few years, but they were really just beginning to become
more popular. Facebook, Twitter, and Livestream did not exist, and YouTube
was brand new—no one was really sure how long it would last. And now, look
at what has happened. Just a few years later, and stop-motion is everywhere—
online, on television, and in theaters. People still love it as much today as they
did when Kong first emerged from behind the trees on Skull Island. At its
heart, the basic techniques behind stop-motion have not changed, but we now
have the capacity to present it in the sharpest resolution possible, combine it
seamlessly with computer graphics, and even shoot it in 3D. Just imagine what
the next 4 years could bring!
My own experiences with stop-motion animation and other life adventures
have also evolved since I last published my first book. A month after the book
was released, my daughter Ariel was born, so the summer of 2006 kind of felt
like having two babies at once. That fall, my friend Leslie Bishko, who was
involved with the Vancouver chapter for the Association for Computing
Machinery’s Special Interest Group on Graphics and Interactive Techniques
(ACM SIGGRAPH), asked if I would be interested in being part of a stop-
motion event to help promote my book. I was delighted for the opportunity
and was able to participate in an evening of presentations and panel discussion
with none other than Anthony Scott (animation supervisor, Corpse Bride),
Peter Muyzers (visual effects artist, Corpse Bride), and Larry Bafia (animator
from Will Vinton Studios and PDI). I was asked back to speak for various
Vancouver SIGGRAPH events related to stop-motion, and became an active
member and volunteer with the chapter, helping to organize their annual
Spark FX and Spark Animation festivals and bring inspiration and innovation
to the community (http://www.siggraph.ca).
Another opportunity that came my way was being asked to develop an online
stop-motion course for the Academy of Art University’s Cyber Campus, an
online version of the degree programs offered through their school in San
Francisco. Using my book as a required text, I got the chance to expand on the
instructional sections through two online courses, ANM 380 (Stop Motion
Animation 1) and ANM 382 (Stop Motion Animation 2). Subsequently, I have
taught these courses online and helped more students improve their skills in the
stop-motion craft. The process of building these courses also involved flying
down to San Francisco to shoot animation and puppet-building demos in their
production studio, which was hard work but a great deal of fun. On one of these
visits, I had the opportunity to meet in person the technical editor for my first
book (and this one), Lionel I. Orozco of Stop Motion Works (Figure I.2).
As 2009 dawned, I continued my work as a mild-mannered admissions advisor
for VanArts (Vancouver Institute of Media Arts) by day and a crime-fighting
stop-motion instructor by night, both for students at VanArts and online for
the Academy of Art University. Another addition to my family was also preparing
for his debut; my son Xander was born that summer. Meanwhile, the stopmotion
universe was generating a lot of buzz from the release of the feature
film Coraline, which had advanced the art form into new territories of innovative
storytelling, and many other independent films were being noticed as
well. Riding the crest of this wave, I was approached by Course Technology
with the idea of writing another book that would go into more up-to-date
detail on the art form. Several months later, you are holding that book in your hands.
My first book, The Art of Stop-Motion Animation, was written as a practical
guide to the basic principles of stop-motion filmmaking, providing a solid
introduction for anyone new to the medium. The focus of this new volume is
to take a closer look at the techniques of stop-motion that were touched on
only briefly in the first book and to cover some advances in the art form that
have only come into fruition since 2006. You will find new techniques for
building puppets, including the technology behind rapid prototyping of computer
models for stop-motion production. You will read more detailed information
on camera rigs, effects, and shooting stop-motion with a digital SLR
camera, including stereoscopic photography (to make your films in eye-popping
3D). The basic principles of animation covered in the first volume are expanded
into specific applications for character performance, and there is more material
covered on visual effect compositing techniques. The history of the medium,
this time around, puts more focus on stop-motion films made in feature-length
format, including several obscure films that have never been documented to
this extent. Also, whereas the first volume featured six interviews with other
stop-motion artists, this new book presents eight new interviews with some
of the best and brightest in the field, spanning everything from big studio
productions to low-budget indie filmmaking.
If you are a fan of stop-motion or any other kind of animation, I trust you will
find plenty of good reading material in this book. However, because it’s an
advanced volume, if you are new to learning animation and want a book for
guidance on how stop-motion is done, I would recommend my first book.
The basic principles covered in The Art of Stop-Motion Animation are important
to grasp before moving on to the more advanced techniques covered in
this book. All things considered, there is only so much a book can accomplish
in covering the vast array of skills required for stop-motion, but my hope is
that both volumes together will provide you with a good launching pad for
your own creations. The vast resources for stop-motion available online and
the help of other enthusiasts should also be continually tapped so that we can
all continue to find new ways for telling stories in this medium.
Tools and technology will always continue to change and become more
advanced. However, in his essay “What Is Cinema?” the noted French film
critic Andre Bazin reminds us, “The dream of creating a living human being
by means other than natural reproduction has been a preoccupation of man
from time immemorial: hence such myths as Pygmalion and Galatea.” We may
be able to digitally remove the strings and rigs from our modern-day puppets,
but deep inside ourselves we are simply fulfilling the dreams of those who
graced the Greek amphitheaters and medieval marionette stages with that
simple vision: to create the illusion of life.
Welcome, read on, and enjoy this magic between the frames.
Screenshot
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Product details
Price
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|---|---|
File Size
| 22,399 KB |
Pages
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353 p |
File Type
|
PDF format |
ISBN-13
ISBN-10 eISBN-10 | 978-1-4354-5613-6 1-4354-5613-0 1-4354-5704-8 |
Copyright
| 2011 Course Technology, a part of Cengage Learning |
Table of Contents
Foreword ................................................................................ix
Acknowledgments.................................................................xiii
Introduction ........................................................................xvii
Chapter 1 History of Stop-Motion Feature Films.................1
Chapter 2 An Interview with Screen Novelties..................61
Chapter 3 Building Puppets............................................75
Plug-In Wire and Sockets ......................................................77
Hands and Feet .....................................................................88
Puppet Anatomy....................................................................96
Silicone................................................................................106
Casting a Silicone Puppet................................................108
Making a Silicone Mold..................................................114
Plastic Casting .....................................................................121
Face Armatures ....................................................................124
Replacement Faces and Rapid Prototyping ..........................138
Replacement Animation Puppets.........................................145
Chapter 4 Digital Cinematography.................................151
Digital Camera Basics..........................................................157
ISO.................................................................................159
Aperture and Shutter Speed ............................................159
Depth of Field ................................................................160
White Balance.................................................................163
Camera Effects ...................................................................165
Rack Focus......................................................................165
Blurring Effects ...............................................................168
Camera Moves ................................................................171
Stereoscopic Photography ...............................................179
Chapter 5 An Interview with Pete Kozachik, ASC ............187
Chapter 6 An Interview with Trey Thomas ......................195
Chapter 7 Character Animation .....................................204
Animation Technique ..........................................................204
Timing............................................................................205
Arcs.................................................................................208
Overlapping Action.........................................................211
Anticipation....................................................................215
Performance ........................................................................216
Two-Character Dialogue .................................................218
Lip Sync..........................................................................224
Chapter 8 An Interview with Bronwen Kyffin .................229
Chapter 9 Visual Effects...............................................237
Film Compositing ...............................................................238
Digital Compositing............................................................244
Split-Screen and Masks ...................................................244
Blue/Green Screen ..........................................................249
Front Light/Back Light ...................................................255
Advanced Compositing for Ava.......................................258
Effects .............................................................................263
Rig and Shadow Removal ....................................................266
Motion Blur ........................................................................269
Eye Compositing Effects for Madame Tutli-Putli .................272
Chapter 10 An Interview with Larry Bafia and
Webster Colcord ...........................................277
Chapter 11 An Interview with Marc Spess ........................289
Chapter 12 An Interview with Ryan McCulloch .................297
Chapter 13 An Interview with Justin and Shel Rasch ........305
Bibliography and Further Reading.....................................319
Books, Articles, and Publications on
Stop-Motion Animation ......................................................319
Other Useful Books about Animation and Puppetry............320
Online Resources Cited for the History of
Stop-Motion Animation ......................................................322
Index ......................................................................323
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