StopMotion

I found a very interesting computer game under development called “Cletus Cay” that uses our favorite form of animation - stop motion.

It’s a very unique approach to gaming using stop motion in this way. The lead artist and designer of Cletus Clay gives some excellent insight in to how this stop motion method was designed in to the game using clay ( Claymation) characters and set props.

I have reproduced his interview below from YouTube.

The InterView - Behind the Scenes - The Making of Cletus Clay

Hi, I am Anthony Flack. I am the lead artist and designer of Cletus Clay.

Why are you making a game out of clay?

I started out making regular stop motion, animation for TV video. When I started making games, it seemed a good way to make sprite games. It was a good method that I had for making 2D sprites. But what we’re doing now is quite lot more complicated than that. And it has become more about the challenge of how close can we get to create a convincing illusion of the stop motion animation, as opposed to using conventional CG methods. I think the in building the models by hand and photographing them in a way that captures the little idiosyncrasies of the model. It gives the whole look of the thing, an intimacy I guess, that people respond to like they respond to a handmade thing.

Claymation-Wagon-Copyright - Anthony Flack

What is the process?

So, this is the process that we go through in order to create our models and composite them together in scenes in the game. Everything starts out as preliminary sketches that I scrawled out at the start of designing the game, which allows us to go through and see all the different elements that we need to build. And, then each one of the models is built individually either by myself in New Zealand or Sarah in the UK. And then the models are photographed, cut out, cleaned up in photoshop. And then we take that image and we sort of extrude it into 3-D by mapping it onto a massive triangle and just sort of pulling out the parts of that shape to create a relief sculpture which looks 3-D from the front. Although we make an essentially a 2-D side scrolling game, we’re using 3-D models to represent everything. So if we going to composed them all together in a way that doesn’t look like a bunch of flair photographs stuck together, then we going to need to account the parallax. We’re not dealing with full 3-D shapes, but as long as the camera keeps pointing forward, then the allusion is maintained.

This is one of my models here, is a little stop motion footage of me actually building a model of barn. It is one of the larger models in the game. Even though we’re assembling everything from pieces, I still wanted to use larger freestanding models as much as I could and really try to make sure that the computer didn’t end up dominating the process too much. But there were still plenty of old professional model ants being used. Okay, so that’s being basically how we take a real models and translate it into Cletus’ virtual world.

Early in July this year ( 2010) , fans of stopmotion action figure animated television programming heard on the grapevine that their favorite show that is to say Robot Chicken!, was finally getting a set of collectible playthings based on the series most popular characters. Likewise, we also hinted at an exclusive “Nerd” figure that would be available at the San Diego Comic-Con, which brings us to the present, and our first look at that mysterious plastic masterpiece.

From the folks at Jazwares and Cartoon Network Enterprises comes the Toys “R” Us exclusive Robot Chicken “Convention Nerd” action figure, available only at Comic-Con and (starting July 21) via toysrus.com’s collectibles store. “Convention Nerd,” (honestly, guys — that’s like calling a figure “Hospital Doctor”) comes complete with a top hat, sandwich, Adult Swim swag bag, a Comic-Con 2010 t-shirt (armpit stains not included) and, of course, a jar of Magical Unicorn Mayonnaise. Fans clamoring for “Convention Nerd” should head over to the Entertainment Earth booth (booth #2343) with $20 in hand, and if you’re really looking to up the eBay value, you can have the figure signed by show creators Seth Green and Matt Senreich, appearing at the Entertainment Earth booth on Friday, July 23 between 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM.

Naturally, the figure will be limited, so true fans will want to hop on this fast because, after all, who wouldn’t want a small, plastic version of their inner-selves as a desk toy?

So you are itching to get your hands on a new Apple iPAD just so you can take to bits..! I don’t think so. But if you are like the guys at TechRestore then they know how to do it and put it back together all in Stop Motion?

A quote from TechRestore

“Ever wonder what it would look like if your consumer electronics could disassemble and reassemble themselves? Well, wonder no more. Because the folks at TechRestore have posted a stop motion video showing an Apple iPad coming out of the box… and then out of its case.”

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Wallace & Gromit, the webmasters over on the W&G website asked members of the website to submit their questions to Nick Park. Twenty of the top questions were selected and put to Nick in a special video interview shot in the new Aardman cinema! Here is a transcript of the questions. Check out the video below for the answers!

What was your inspiration behind creating Wallace and Gromit?

Do any of your characters represent your own personality and if so which one?

What Wallace and Gromit animation is your favourite and why?

Did you think Wallace and Gromit would be so popular and what was it like winning your first Oscar?

I was browsing on the internet and saw a topic about you planning a second movie, is this true?

I have always wondered what age Wallace and Gromit are, do you know yourself , or do you think it is better not to say?

Are there any plans to bring back Fluffles?

How did you get the idea of a penguin being the villain?

What made you decide that Gromit didn’t need a mouth?

Why did you change Gromits appearance after a Grand Day Out?

I always wanted to know how did the cooker get up to the moon, and why it was coin operated?

Are there any new animation techniques you would like to learn and develop?

Did you take any courses or was it just something you just picked up naturally?

What is the greatest advice you have ever received in regards to animation?

Given your existing use of animals in your work what is your favorite animal?

Have you ever thought of giving up animation and moving in to something else?

Before you became an animator did you want to do any other jobs as a child?

Do you dream of Wallace and Gromit and if so what do you dream?

When you worked with Julian Knot on the music for you films, do you give any suggestions to him or do you hand him the script and let him have a go at it himself?

Have you ever wondered what it would be like if Wallace was Prime Minister and what laws would he pass if elected?

Laika, the makers of Stop Motion animation movie Coraline have decided to move away from CGi animation techniques in favor of stop motion going forward. As a result they have laid off 63 staff from their computer animation department in Portland Oregon. They will continue to use some CGI as part of their advertising work and to supplement their future stop motion movies releases.  Phil Knight, (founder of NIKE -one of the rishest men in the world) and Laika’s Owner, while still celebrating the 120 million dollar success with Coraline in the US and overseas has always favored stop motion. He promoted his son Travis ( a stop motion animator) to CEO of Laika in March.

Phil and Travis Knight

Travis started his animating career in Will Vinton Studios in Portland in 2003. The studio was renamed Laika (pronounced LIKE-uh) in 2007.

These recent layoffs reduce Laika’s work force from 243 to 180. Last December, the company laid off 65 after scrapping a computer-generated feature called “Jack and Ben’s Animated Adventure”

Well to answer that question you have to have some faith. Faith in making a dentist funny.

Just Released August 17th 2009 - by Nickelodeon - Glenn Martin D.D.S.

Glenn Martin D.D.S.

Glenn Martin (a dentist), his wife Jackie, children, 11 year old Courtney and teenager Conor and the dog of course “Canine” decide under duress (Dad’ idea) to set off in an RV around the country to reconnect as a family.

Stop Motion is alive and well in this sitcom. It’s placed in Nickelodeon’s “Nick at Nite’’ prime-time block. Aimed at tweens and their parents to enjoy together or so the “blurb goes”.  From my viewing of the previews it looks very good indeed. Nice stop motion animation techniques in full use. If I have any gripe about the technique of stop motion used I would have to say its the replacement mouths. They look too much like they are simply stuck on. I know “they are” stuck on but I think more care could have been taken to blend them in to the features of the claymation characters.

The stop motion animation style comes from the hands of Eric Fogel. Eric is the guy behind MTV’s edgy stop motion “Celebrity Deathmatch” series. I love that scene in that series where the referee holds up claymation character of Sylvester Stallones hand up after it had been blown off and says..”how many fingers am I holding up?”

Celebrity Deathmatch

Anyway back to Glenn Martin. In the first episode Glenn drives the family and their RV to Amish country. Easy targets right?

There are a few good lines which are worthy of a giggle such as Glenn’s first approach to an Amish man “We come in peace”

We come in peace!

In all it’s definitely worth watching even if you are not a fan of stop motion. The sets are quaint and have an old world feel..something akin to “Happy Days” or “That 70’s Show”.

So be sure to tune in at least once.