If you've got a kid who loves the Legos and the animation, you could do worse than getting him/her one of these lovely lil' Lego Stop-mo cameras. O.k., it's not exactly Dragon software and a Canon SLR (see, I know stuff!) but it is a nice lil' straightforward camera that comes with some basic capture software and two lil' Lego men. Plus it's cute as hell.
Some caveats based on reviews I've read. Image quality is a lil' grainy, but o.k. in a kind of super-8 lo-fi kinda way. See the sample animation below, courtesy of Kid's Tech Review.
The 4-way button on the back is cool, but there's no labeling, so figuring out what does what will require a bit of a read. The software is the same situation, not quite as intuitive as it could be.
It's also a lil' pricey at 100 semolians. A more practical purchase might be a half-decent webcam and a free download of Framethief or AnimatorDV Simple. Still, if you want an all-in-one package for that kid in your life with animation aspirations, it ain't bad.
There were only two films selected in the KAFI 2009 web film category this year...my goofy lil' PSA, and this bit of 1930's flavored botanical violence. Guess which won? Man, if I gotta lose, there's worse films to lose to, believe me. Congrats to Phil Dubrovsky and Dale Hayward...plant abuse never looked so good! More on the upcoming TAIS showcase and Chickenjam tomorry...
Well, TAIS homies and animation fans, we done had our Annual General Meeting, and it's seems this ol' pooch has been doing a passable job as blog-beast, 'cuz I got the board-member nod again. Thanks, y'all, I'll try to keep them blog posts interesting, informative and copious in the future.
To celebrate, here's a big ol' post on books n' DVD's you need to have. First off, Richard William's big book o' knowledge, 'The Animators Survival Kit' is now out in paperback. This is an in-depth book cramming the collected knowledge of some of the greatest animators the world has known into one tome. Along with the techniques and the technical advice, Williams shares his experiences working with industry vets like Milt Kahl and Frank Thomas. Go get it! Below, witness the cover of the book brought to life by the author.
For those of you upstarts what wants the goods without the history lessons or the anectdotes (damn kids) Eric Goldberg's 'Character Animation Crash Course' mebbe just up yer alley.
Goldberg, a Disney vet with animation creds including Alladin and Pocahontas (hell, he's worked WITH Richard Williams, yet!) breaks down the basics and includes great tips on posing, extremes, overlapping actions, animating to music, timing, you know, all that good stuff. Where Williams' book is both a historical and technical document, Goldberg's book is arranged more like a text book, with character examples using two recurring characters, reading and viewing lists, recommended excercises and even a DVD of animated examples. Ya need to get this one, folks. I'll be buying a copy for the TAIS bookshelves, don't you worry.
Finally, Shaun the Sheep, everyone's fave secondary character from Aardman's 'A Close Shave', has had his own series for a while now, but it's only been available across the pond. Now, finally, we have 'Shaun the Sheep: Off the Baa!' This has 8 shorts and interstitials, plus a cute lil' mini-doc with some British kidlings introducing all the characters. Here's one of the eps., 'Timmy in a Tizzy' courtesy of, for some reason, Game Trailers. Apologies to Aardman for using a non-approved embed...I just people to buy lots of Shaun DVD's so I can get the next one soon, and fer some odd reason the GT embed is super-sharp!
Just a note...Timmy, the baby sheepy, is so damn cute that the doods from Aardman buckled and gave him his own series. No word on when or if it'll air in North America, I'll dig up some info. All these are availble at Amazon.ca, but if ya can, drop by yer mom n' pop vid/book store for 'em. If yer in Toronto, I recommend The Beguiling and The Labyrinth for all yer animation shoppin' needs. More to Come!
Stop-mo animator Miles Kalbach just added this to his YouTube page days ago...a puppet animated video for ColdPlay's 'Lost' single, it's beautiful work. Check it out. And more to come!
The art of 'Sweding' was coined by the Jack Black/Mos Def flick "Be Kind, Rewind"...basically it's a lo-fi short form remake of a major motion picture. In this rather brilliant example, we have a stop-mo re-envisioning of the 'light cycle' sequence from the movie Tron. Created by the mysterious Freres Hueon. I'll try n' track down more about this mysterious stop-mo bros and their sweding ways later. Meanwhile, enjoy!
Seems that while Cadbury's stateside office has gone with the tried and true clucking bunny, this year the home bureau (see ol' blighty) has decided to go with a bit racier theme...stop-mo animated shorts featuring suicidal Cadbury Creme Eggs. The campaign, "Here Today, Goo Tomorrow" comes to us courtesy of the merry, merry nutbars at Partizan Labs. Directed by Chris Cairns. Enjoy...and go get yerself a chocky. You've earned it. Just the one, though.
Madi and Bryce have a sweet lil' surprise for us, a stop-mo animated greeting created with cookies from the sultans of sweet Queen of Tarts. Originally this was meant for the ARC Holiday party (going on tonight at the Gladstone!) but they ain't hooked up for the video tonight. No worries, here it is in all its cookie-fied glory. Amazing stuff considering they whipped it up yesterday. Nice work! More holiday goodies to come.
Just had a chance to go through Grant's blog in depth. Besides more lighthearted fare, Grant is also working on an epic. It's an historical piece, telling the tale of the doomed Franklin expedition through the eyes of an Inuit hunter. Damn, this looks ambitious. I'll try n' see if I can't squeeze a few more details about the production out of the good Mr. Dix in the next few days. Meanwhile, here's a sneak peak.
I was doing a search for info on animation grants for an L.A. animator lookin' to hop across the border to work in Toronto, and look what I done found. Grant's Animation. Get it? Man, I love it when Google does that. Grant Dix is a stop-mo animator from right here in T'rawna. His latest appears above...yer gonna love the toilet-cup gag and the sneeze fx. Hell, he even worked some bloopers in there...nice! Hey, Grant, howzabout submitting this film to Frederator, hmm...?
Here's an open invite to drop by TAIS in the new year. I'll keep an eye on Grant's blog, letch'all know when he posts some new stop-mo goodness. More later!
Speakin' of stuff found on MyToons (sorry, no embeds yet), here's a delicious slice of Grand Guignol cake from master animator Nick Hilligoss. His sly take on Adam and Eve is told through some of the smoothest puppet animation this ol' pooch has ever lay his eyes on. When he's not droppin' jaws on video and animation sharing sites, he's busy at the dayjob...workin' for ABC in his native Australia. Current project: A stop-mo animated series called Good Riddance, "which chronicles the exploits of an eco-friendly pest controller and his uninvited house guests, a streetwise gang of rats." I'll see if'n any of it's done. If so, I'll post it tomorrow. Man, they've got some animation chops down under. More later.
