Corpse bride and other stop motion animation movies

For stop-motion, if you're going to edit the film on a computer anyway, there's no advantage to using a video camera with single-frame advance over a digital camera. I believe it's also a bit iffy talking about frames with respect to video cameras, but I don't know much about this subject. I'm waiting for nitrate to come back.

According to the Cinefex article, the only modification they made to the still cameras was to adapt a Nikon film lens to fit. The stock Canon lenses had minor variations in exposure from frame to frame. Not a problem if you're shooting stills, but if those stills are all moving...

I like the bronze statue even better than the skeletons. I also really like the Mother Goose animations he did.

Just picked up a $1 DVD with most of them on it. Very cool stuff.

George Pal was also a great stop-motion animator. Unfortunately, his Puppetoons are rarely seen today.

Rarely seen, but very much available. And I agree; Pal's work was terrific.

I appreciated the appeal of stop-motion. Then I animated. Now I'm stunned by it.

Amen, SL. Stop motion is by far the most difficult, time-consuming, and least forgiving type of animation. The people who work in it are to be admired.

I love stop motion and even though I've never tried it myself I can well imagine how difficult it must be, and how much animation talent it must require. I'm sure I'd feel pretty lost if I had to animate in a way that, lacking experience, I can only describe as 3D-straight-ahead-no-erasers.

3D-straight-ahead-no-erasers.

That about sums it up, except for the addition that it's one of the few styles of animation that is inherently destructive of what came before the current frame. Once that puppet's moved, the last pose is gone forever.

Stop motion is probably my favorite style of animation next to traditional.

I really liked the Wallace and Gromit shorts and the W&G movie. Never saw Corpse Bride but the animation looked really good in that one. Chicken Run was good too :)

James :cool:

Definately Aardman's Animation ,i love their stuff! Have you guys seen the recent "Creature Comforts" dvd's that originally aired on the BBC. The behind the scenes footage of the animators acting out the scenes is hilarious! Someone told me there is another set coming out of the second series soon. And does anyone know if it was Aardman who did those Chevron Gasoline commercials with the talking cars a while back?

To me, stop motion's the one kind of effect that actually becomes more incredible when you know how it was done. Of course, these days it's different. I heard Corpse Bride was shot using still digital cameras, so they could flip constantly. I still need to catch that one-- I really liked Nightmare Before Chrismas and need to own it, though.

Jason and the Argonauts is my favorite Harryhausen, and one of my favorite fantasy movies from the olden days. I believe Harryhausen said it took something sixteen hours straight to do the skeleton fight. Yikes!

To me, stop motion's the one kind of effect that actually becomes more incredible when you know how it was done. Of course, these days it's different. I heard Corpse Bride was shot using still digital cameras, so they could flip constantly.

Video taps have been around for 10+ years, but for me the ability to see where you've been doesn't make stop mo any less amazing. You still have to know where you're going and how long you have to get there, and do it straight ahead.

Yes, Corpse Bride was shot on digital still Canons, with adapted Nikon lenses. There's a short article about it in the current issue of Cinefex.