Oscar Ballot Guide: ‘The Boxtrolls’ Acting and Performance Analysis
Analyzing the performance and acting in the Academy Award-nominated film “The Boxtrolls.”
Stop Motion
Animator Dillon Markey Transformed A Nintendo Power Glove Into An Essential Animation Tool
Stop motion animator Dillon Markey explains how he transformed the long-forgotten 1980s Power Glove Nintendo controller into an essential—and aesthetically splendid—tool for animating in stop motion.
Want to Own Coraline? Laika to Auction 250 Pieces From Its Films
For the first time in its history, Laika will auction puppets, models and props from its stop motion films “Coraline,” “ParaNorman,” and “The Boxtrolls.”
Laika Announces Next Feature ‘Kubo and the Two Strings’
Laika’s next film, “Kubo and the Two Strings,” will mark the directorial debut of animator Travis Knight.
‘Submarine Sandwich’ by PES
PES makes a submarine sandwich.
‘Wurst’ by Carlo Vogele
Featuring organic, grassfed, local meat from San Francisco butcheries…
Spanish Stop Motion Horror Feature ‘The Apostle’ Now Online
Spanish director Fernando Cortizo is doing something rare: making his animated feature easy to see.
The Making of ‘The Bigger Picture’ with Animator Chris Wilder
We go behind-the-scenes of the Oscar-shortlisted “The Bigger Picture” with animator Chris Wilder.
Screen Novelties Creates ‘Elf’ X-Mas Special For NBC
The funny stop motion specialists at Los Angeles-based Screen Novelties have created a new hour-long holiday special “Elf: Buddy’s Musical Christmas.”
‘Gravity Falls’ Does Stop Motion Ray Harryhausen Tribute
The latest episode of Gravity Falls, which is done in an anthology format a la The Simpsons’ “Treehouse of Horror,” includes an ambitious …
The Challenges of Designing Tiny Costumes for “The Boxtrolls”
Costume designer Deborah Cook talks about the challenges of designing tiny costumes for the characters of Laika’s “The Boxtrolls.”
A ‘Usagi Yojimbo’ Stop Motion Short Film—And Possibly A Feature
Stan Sakai’s much-admired comic book “Usagi Yojimbo” is being developed as a feature film.
Venice Film Festival Selects ‘Boxtrolls’ And Two Animated Shorts
The Venice Film Festival, which is the world’s oldest film festival, announced the line-up today for their 71st edition. The festival is known for not giving much consideration to animated cinema, but they always throw in a few animated films.
Sony Announces ‘Superbago’, A Stop Motion/Live-Action Hybrid Film
Sony Pictures Animation is exploring new directions with the announcement of the stop motion/live-action hybrid feature “Superbago.” The superhero-themed film will be directed by John Harvatine and Eric Towner, both veterans of “Robot Chicken” among other animated TV shows.
Meet Tobias Stretch And His Life-Size Stop Motion Creatures
There are many ways to create animation, and most of them are tedious and life draining. It’s pretty common to find animators incorporating some combination of chair and desk as a prison of their practice, where they trudge through their work while simultaneously wasting away. Tobias Stretch has no appetite for that lifestyle, and uses the world as his stop motion playground.
How The ‘Jurassic Park’ Dinosaurs Switched From Stop Motion To CGI
Steven Spielberg’s “Jurassic Park,” along with other early-to-mid-Nineties films like “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” and “Toy Story,” were all part of a breakthrough era in CGI filmmaking. What many people may not realize, however, is that the decision to create computer-animated dinosaurs wasn’t made until the film was well into production.
A Filmmaker Tests Out The NFB’s $1 Animation App, StopMo Studio
The NFB StopMo Studio app for the iPad provides essentially everything you need to jump into creating an animated film. You won’t have any issues getting comfortable with the user interface if you’ve worked with animation programs before, and it seems more than approachable for newcomers young and old. Once you open up the program, you’re welcomed with a short and succinct tutorial that covers the basic tools, and then opens up to allow you to explore the rest of the options available.
A Major Stop Motion Exhibit in Barcelona Explores Starewitch, Švankmajer and Brothers Quay
“Animated cinema is the demiurgic art par excellence: matter comes to life and is transformed in the hands and imaginations of the creators. They, more than anybody, know about the secret life of objects.” This description, comes from the exhibition “Metamorphosis: Fantasy Visions in Starewitch, Švankmajer and the Quay Brothers,” now playing at the Centre de Cultura Contemporanea (CCCB) in Barcelona, Spain, and it’s a good summary of the work of these four visionary animators.
Teaser Trailer for Aardman’s ‘Shaun the Sheep Movie’
Starting out as a side character in the Wallace and Gromit short “A Close Shave” (1995), Shaun the Sheep became an unlikely franchise star. After getting his own line of merchandise and a spin-off television series (which was popular enough to spawn its own spin-off, “Timmy Time”) Shaun is set to become the subject of Aardman’s next feature in spring 2015. The film currently doesn’t appear to have a U.S. distributor.
Joshua Mosley’s ‘Jeu de Paume’ Makes The 2014 Whitney Biennial
The Whitney Biennial is one of the most anticipated events in the world of art museums. Begun as an annual survey of American art in 1932, it became a biennial in 1973. Its overall purpose is to show a snapshot of the contemporary art world, often focusing on very recent works. For the art intelligentsia, it is often an excuse to complain about a) the state of contemporary art, and b) the curatorial choices made, or both—with occasional exceptions, such as the 2012 Biennial, which was met with overwhelming praise.
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