“Interviewer: Welcome to the show Nick.

Nick: Ah, great to be here.

Interviewer: For the audience and everyone in the studio can you give us a bit of insight about what it’s about?

Nick: Well, it’s um, we thought we’d really write a kind of romance really. This time what’s original about it is it’s now a romance for the dogs as well – Gromit’s actually got a girlfriend as well.

Interviewer: Wow, well actually, we’ve been joined by some of the cast.

Nick: We have, yes.

I: Can you introduce us?

N: Yeah, well, you probably know these two guys – this is Wallace and Gromit. And this is Wallace’s new love interest Paealla Bakewell, but she also has a little pooch, the lovely Fluffels.

Person Number 3: The thing that I loved about the Matter of Loaf and Death which has been, the case of all of the Wallace and Gromit stuff, it’s incredibly cinematic. You make these animations look like properly lived big screen films.

N: Yeah, I mean, it was a new thing for us to shoot on digital stills cameras this time., and the SLR cameras so you get a really big high-quality digital quality, especially for cinema projection. The great thing about working with little puppets like this, as opposed to, you know, drawings or have you, it’s that you can think around the characters. You can light them cinematically.

Person Number 3: The other thing that’s lovely, you know, along with the characters, you know, who are fantastic and timeless, there are for the film buffs loads and loads of sort of movie references. Just seeing it the first time I spotted the poster for _______ Canine, there’s a gag about aliens. You love loading all that stuff into it, don’t you?

Nick: Um, yeah, I mean, a lot of it isn’t, it’s not always that subconscious really. It’s you know, like, I have kind of a love of movies anyways, that’s what I like doing. And I think I’m quite happy for people just to spot – I don’t like to say what they are.

Person Number 3: So I just didn’t spot it, sorry mate.

*Nick laughs*

PN3: One of the things I got a real sense of watching this is that it’s you back on home territory, on the territory that you love the most. Now, of course everybody knows that you were famously sought after Dreamworks, and famous Jeffrey Katzenberg, who always worried about how much money everything made and, uh, he once told me I was a fool for loving Marry Poppins – I’ve never forgiven him for that.

*Nick laughs*

PN3: Um, do you feel like you’ve got the creative freedom back that perhaps was kind of being wrestled during that Dreamworks period.

Nick: Um, yeah, I mean we are actually still doing feature films. You know, Pete ____ is about to direct another one. And we’re working with Sony now, by the way, rather than Dreamworks but, yeah I mean it was exciting making feature films. And I personally just wanted to take a break really and in a way get back in the saddle on a short subject that I foolishly thought would be easier to do than a feature film but actually it wasn’t.

PN3: You see thumb prints on Wallace and Gromit, you don’t get in digital animation. You see actual fingerprints, it looks like somebody’s grabbed the mouth and moved it around and I’ve always found that a really attractive quality of Wallace and Gromit.

N: Yeah, I mean, I very much wanted to not apologize that it’s plasticine in fact –

I2: They’re plasticine?

N: Yeah they are plasticine, they’re made with plasticine. *Laughs* In a way the digital camera that we used actually show the finger prints more in a way so it’s, you know, technology is actually showing off the fact that it’s handmade even more.

I1: Are they, is it just that regular plasticine from the toy shop, the stuff that you know – I mean do you get it specially sent it from France or anything really glamorous?

Nick: I don’t, I think it’s pretty much from the packet – yeah, yeah, yeah. It is, it is. We have mixed our own. We’ve actually found out the secret formula.

I1: Really? You’ve gone into production.

N: *Laughs*

I1: I’m imagining in my head quite a Wallace and Gromit stuffed factory with lots of whirring things, colorful tubes of plasticine squirting out. Yeah.

N: That’s exactly what it is like.

*Both laugh*

I2: Now, Matter of Loaf and Death, we’re going to see it at Christmas. Of course, no Wallace and Gromit will be complete without an ace chase sequence which I think really shows how cinematic it is. Let’s have a look. Now midnight is pretty much upon us, and a little birdy told me that as we tip over into Saturday, you hit the big 5-0. So, specially for you, a surprise.

I1: Ohhhh, what’s this? A bit of birthday cake action.

*Nick laughs*

I1: It’s a special day.

I2: From all of the culture show, having created some of the greatest animations, this country has scene: Happy Birthday.

Nick: This is a complete surprise…

*Audience Laughs*

Nick: I really didn’t know this was happening. Well, it’s been a great first fifty years. *Audience laughs* Thanks very much.

I2: Ladies and gentlemen, Nick Park.”

Interview Copyright of G4TV

“Kevin: Now stay tuned because when we come back we’ll have an exclusive look at Robot Chicken with the head writers Douglas Goldstein and Tom Root. Robot Chicken is the newest member of the Cartoon Network’s adult swim cult series. It uses stop motion animation and well, as you can see toys. It’s full of random pop culture digs and is one of the funniest things that we’ve all seen in a while. In the studio today we are proud to have the head writers of Robot Chicken; Douglas Goldstein and Tom Root. Hey guys!

Tom: Hey

Douglas: Hey

Kevin: Thanks for coming on the show, I have to say I’ve watched all the clips and they were hilarious! Awesome stuff, where did you guys come up with the idea? Take me from the beginning, how did you put this all together?

Douglas: Well, a long time ago, Tom and I worked for a magazine company that produced many general entertainment things about toys and comics and Seth Green was a huge fan and he asked all of us, Tom and I and executive producer Matt Seritch if we wanted to do a stop motion skit of him and Conan O’Brien hanging out for when he was going to go on Conan O’Brien

Kevin: Oh Nice

Douglas: That eventually got around that we were doing that so when he said ‘hey produce some episodes for an upcoming website’ we did that, next thing you know, we’re on adult swim.

Kevin: Cool, so how did you guys come up with the name Robot Chicken, it’s kind of an obscure name.

Tom: Well, originally the name we came up with was ‘Junk in the Trunk’ which we thought was pretty appropriate but it turned out to belong to a series of porno films. So we had to come up with something else, so we went through hundreds of show titles and we were eating every day that we were brain storming ideas. We were eating at a Chinese restaurant up in the valley and they had a dish called Robot Chicken.

Kevin: Nice! So you’re like ‘if I can’t come up with any more names I’m going to call it Robot Chicken!’

Tom: Right and it ended up being called Robot Chicken.

Douglas: Always have a Chinese menu around when you’re trying to brain storm.

Kevin: Nice! No Seth got involved, is he actually producing the show with you or does he actually come in and help you brain storm ideas?

Douglas: He’s running his self ragged, he’s doing everything on the show, we’re all chipping in doing directing, producing, looking over the toys and he’s so passionate about the show that he’s working longer than anyone else. Every once in a while he’s like ‘I would like a nap’.

Tom: Seth’s killing himself.

Kevin: When you guys put this together you guys kind of all get together and is it like… what are some of the limitations with the toys, do you just get off the shelf type toys, do you buy them off eBay, old collectables that you’re using?

Tom: A lot of our action figures are right out the package you can find in the toy stores now or on eBay or you know just old stuff you have in your closet and sometimes that has to be modified so it’s more articulatable. But a lot of what we call the puppets because the animators prefer to call them puppets, see there’s a puppet right now, getting his nuts squashed!

Douglas: And a lot of the times, like the toys you see there are really foam bodies with wires inside and we just use the heads and the arms of the toys because action figures can’t do anything and it needs to hold in place for the people to take the photos for the stop motion animation and off the shelf toys can rarely hold that well.

Kevin: Now this isn’t stuff that you guys are doing, obviously the sets look very professional do you have a team or crew of guys that puts these things together?

Douglas: Yeah, there’s about a dozen set builders, 10 or so puppet makers and these are the guys that have worked on everything from PJ’s to…

Tom: Some of our set guys worked on the Star Wars prequels making miniatures.

Kevin: Oh nice!

Tom: So it’s really quality stuff.

Kevin: That’s awesome, so you get the sets all built, you’re doing the stop motion, what about the actors who did you bring on to do some of the voice acting for you?

Tom: Well, because Seth has worked on so many big projects he knows a lot of big names so he’s brought in everybody from Burt Reynolds and Dom Dewyze to Scarlett Johansson to Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jnr. And he’s got them in our booth and they’ve done voices.

Kevin: That must have been a lot of fun to meet all those guys.

Douglas: I think our best experience wasn’t any named famous actor but we did a parody of the movie Seven using the smurfs because they’re all like gluttony smurf and they already exist so the original actor that played brainy smurf came in and did brainy smurf.

Kevin: So you actually got brainy smurf on your show that’s cool! So now we also have a clip of Rachael Leigh Cook actually came on, you want to set this one up?

Tom: Sure, Rachael Leigh Cook started her career an anti heroin PSA and it was all over the place 4 or 5 years ago, 6 years ago and so she came into our studio and a voice sort of poking fun at that commercial.

Kevin: Alright…

(Watch the clip here )

Kevin: That’s awesome that she came on the show and was cool enough to make fun of herself at the same time. So there has to be some limitations that you guys run into though. I mean is there anything that you really wanted to do but the network was like ‘no, no can’t push it that far’?

Douglas: Well the only two areas that they have comments on really is A) if they think it’s too obscure or really it’s not to their personal sense of humour they ask us to change it or not do it but that rarely happens. But they have standards and practices that we have to obey, we can’t get too violent, we can get pretty violent because they’re toys not people there’s a certain line we can’t cross. And we can’t be too sexual, we do a parody take off of the whole Paris Hilton sex tape using Beastman and Tila from the He-Man Universe and they said ‘you know what, when you record this we’ll let you do little grunts like ‘uh, uh’ but it can’t be like..’ (thrusting) it’s really just got to be a suggestion of that you can’t make toys…

Kevin: You could still shoot that though and put it on the DVD though right, later on?

Tom: We’re going to have a killer DVD because we’ve got tons of stuff that’s been cut for content and cut for length; it’s going to be something once it’s out.

Kevin: Awesome! Well thanks guys for coming on the show we really appreciate it. No Robot Chicken the show that everyone’s talking about, it’s going to premiere on the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim on February 20^th. Be sure to check out the Adult Swim website for more information on Robot Chicken, you can find that of course on adultswim.com. Now stick around because Douglas and Tom are going to be taking your calls a little bit later in the show.

Kevin: That’s so awesome. I’m back with Douglas Goldstein and Tom Root, the head writers for Cartoon Network’s brand new series Robot Chicken, and we’re going to be taking some of your live calls. So we have some, are you guys ready?

Both: Sure!

Kevin: Alright, Philip joins us on the phone from Auburn California. Hey Philip!

Philip: Hey how you guys doing?

Kevin: Doing pretty great.

Tom: Not bad

Philip: I’ve been a big fan of the show since the San Francisco days.

Kevin: Oh excellent.

Philip: Yeah, so I’ve got a couple of questions.

Kevin: Shoot

Philip: I’m wondering, how long it takes to make a 5 minute show, and also how many times do they have to move the characters to make that happen.

Kevin: Ah, so from the second you guys get started and you come up with an idea and you’re like ‘ok let’s do this’ how long are we talking?

Douglas: We’re producing most of the episodes in the same times as a 20 episode season and we started writing it in May and we literally just finished doing the sound for episode 1 the other week. So if I had to say that we’re doing one episode and that’s it, how long would it take all I can say is one animator can do 12 seconds of animation in a day?

Tom: As far as shots go there’s 30 frames per second so that’s how many times they have to move the toys.

Kevin: So it’s only 12 second though?

Tom: Per day, per animator.

Kevin: Wow!

Douglas: It’s a very patient line of work.

Kevin: Do you guys ever consider taking this thing digital and moving it into something where….

Douglas: It loses a lot of its charm that way

Kevin: I like those little stick guys

Douglas: Yeah.

Kevin: Cool, ok so we got one more call for you guys. Jason joins us on the phone from St Louis, Missouri. Hey Jason.

Jason: Hey how you doing?

Kevin: Doing pretty good. You have a question for us?

Jason: Yeah I sure do, my question was more or less related to the technology side. Once you get your characters together and you get your sets all set up, you start taking pictures with a camera and then you put it in the computer, how exactly does the process work?

Kevin: I had a feeling someone was going to ask this because the second they see this they’re like ‘I can do this at home too’.

Tom: It has a very homemade feel to it, the whole show. We use digital camera and we shoot frame by frame and sort of capture them as JPEG and sew them all together.

Kevin: These are computer controlled digital cameras though you can look at the previous frame and the next frame right?

Tom: Right, there a device called the lunchbox

Kevin: Right I’ve heard of the lunchbox

Tom: Each animator has their lunchbox and they take the digital imagine onto the lunch box and they can sort of toggle back and forth and make sure they’ve got the right increments of motion.

Kevin: Yeah I was checking out those lunchboxes, there pretty affordable, they’re not that expensive.

Tom: I would have no idea.

Douglas: We get paid to write.

Kevin: Yeah like we don’t animate that stuff! It’s cool though it’s very cool. So you could do this at home potentially if you wanted to?

Tom: You definitely could and the computers we use to edit on are just Macintosh G4’s most of the time.

Kevin: Nice, Mac guys, like to hear that, well thanks for coming on the show guys, appreciate it , thanks for your calls, do not miss Robot Chicken it is a.. I can’t even say enough good things about it, it’s an awesome show, it’s going to premiere February 20^th at 11.30pm eastern on the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim

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.

“Despicable Me” is the first but will not even be the last animated film this year to place a super villain in the lead. Later this year Will Ferrell will voice headline another evil-doer story, “Megamind.” But to call these characters really is a farce when you get down to it.

In “Despicable Me” Steve Carrell voices Gru who has the physicality of a James Bond villain from the Sean Connery era but seems to be as threatening as a kitten when it comes to personality. To further humanize Gru three orphan girls are placed in his care as part of an evil scheme. The interaction between Gru Margot, Edith and Agnes achieves this in terms of character and is also satisfying in terms of entertainment.

That being said, however, Gru’s minions are what every kid, and even most of the parents, will be talking about after they see this film. I would say that they are what everyone will be quoting but they speak their own sped up minion language that is difficult to understand, let alone translate.

But you do not have to understand the minions to get the full effect. Think three stooges, only there are hundreds of them, they’re the size of a two year old and are the color of yellow plastic kitchen gloves.

Probably 95 percent of the film’s humor comes from the minions as the rest of the story lacks anything else worthy of quoting. Gru’s rival Vector, voiced by Jason Segel, occasionally draws laughs but not as much as an important character like that should. The bland comic nature of the film really does not matter because the minions truly are funny enough to carry the movie.

Turning “Despicable Me’ into a franchise may be difficult, because of a lackluster story to start off with, but studios have turned much worse into long-running franchises before.

And the 3D only really comes into play during one scene where Gru and the girls visit an amusement park. Other than that it is an excuse for the filmmakers to think up different spear-like objects that they can have stick out at the audience.

But does the 3D add to the story, make the minions even funnier or the interaction between Gru and the girls more heart-warming? Yes it does…it brings the characters to life even more than they are in 2D in my opinion. Making them more appealing and full of life!

For younger readers of this blog why not try the Despicable Me Minions site!

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?

Twilight: Eclipse, the multi-million dollar vampire franchise, hits Cinemas.

And its first appearance in Carlisle, Cumbria will be accompanied by another premiere – Vampy’s Choice, the latest animation from Cumbrian multi-media artist Louise Kneath and screenwriter partner Ian Gilbertson.

Louise, 24, created a series of ghoulish characters called The Creeps to urge learners to overcome obstacles on their way to getting a valuable higher education.

“We’re really excited about this new short film as it takes the Vampy character in another direction,” said Louise.

“It pokes fun at the rivalry in Twilight: Eclipse between Jacob the werewolf and Edward the vampire for the hand of a girl called Bella.

“I’ve given it an unexpected twist which is a bit of a shock for Vampy who is the ‘Bella’ of my film.”

The film – and a second one by Ian parodying the horror hit film  ”Paranormal Activity” – were commissioned by Cumbria Higher Learning after the the success of five shorter cartoons which Louise created in 2009.

Louise, a local graduate in multimedia design and digital animation, created five 30-second animations that will be on YouTube from October 31. Vampy’s Choice adds a new addition to the series.

Louise added: “After launching them on the internet at Halloween the feedback was incredible.”

“A school’s drama students even used the characters in a live play for their exams.”

Helen Gudgeon, of Cumbria Higher Learning, said Louise and Ian’s animations have breathed new life into higher education campaigns.

“So much traditional marketing materials can be very dated and off-putting,” she said.

“These animations are fun, lively, quirky and likely to appeal to a young audience.”

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.”

Dear Animators,

In celebration of the launch of our new stop-motion animated film, A Town Called Panic, Zeitgeist Films is holding a stop-motion video contest open to beginners and experts alike! The winning film will be included as a special feature on all A Town Called Panic DVDs released in the U.S., as well as on the film’s website. Videos must be loosely created around the theme of “panic”, and should be a maximum of three minutes. They will be judged mainly on creativity and content, but craft will certainly not be disregarded. This contest is a great way for you to have a chance to be exposed and critiqued by the widely acclaimed animators of A Town Called Panic, Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar!

Full details on entry requirements, prizes, and submission dates are available via the film’s website http://www.atowncalledpanic.com, on our fan Page http://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Town-Called-Panic/171898410739 or by following twitter.com/panicthemovie.

A Town Called Panic is opening at Film Forum in New York on December 16 for two weeks only before opening around the country. See http://www.atowncalledpanic.com for other playdates around the country in 2010, and for updates as more dates are announced.

We look forward to seeing your ideas come to life!

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?

Nathan Wells is a well respected brickfilmer. I would say if I have a favourite walk cycle it would be his one.

MagicofLego ( MOL Productions ) has a step by step version with text for both running and walking at 12 and 15 fps.

xxxFancyPantsxxx gives an excellent tutorial here on running (rather than walking ) and also talks about the importance of “ease in and ease out” as he calls it in stop motion. It’s well worth checking out this one.

BlobstudioALT does not make the minifigure arms move in this stop motion tutorial but the result is still reasonably good. His channel also has some other useful tutorials for those starting out.

Kevin Macleod aka Rsteenoven has a very excellent tutorial on running here at 15 fps.

I would advise you to try a few of the different exercises shown above and find one that suits your needs. Nathan’s version is in my opinion the best one to aspire to however some say his running cycle looks a little bit like skiing. I wouldn’t agree but it’s up to you.