This time of year is always an exciting one in advertising. For the six weeks in the run-up to Christmas, we see brands launch their (often highly anticipated) seasonal adverts. The adverts set out to capture the festivities, emotions, charm and above all, the magic of the holidays. And there is nothing that captures all these wonderful festive feelings like stop-motion.
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The Turner Prize has landed in Margate. This Saturday the exhibition, showcasing the shows from the four finalists, opened at the Turner Contemporary in our home town of Margate. We couldn’t be more excited. Margate has a long history of attracting artists to its shores. It was Turner himself who sighted that Margate had the loveliest skies in all of Europe. And it’s not just the skies that make Margate irresistible to artists and creative-minded people. This seaside town is brimming with inspiration whether you’re an amateur artist, a sculpting pro or simply just enjoy soaking in the quirky shores of scenery new and old.
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Why do we have seasons? How do volcanoes work? How do rollercoaster’s work? How do planes fly? Season TWO of LEGO’s “Explained with LEGO Bricks” has landed and these are just a handful of the questions they will be answering. This season features the magnificent Maddie Moate and Greg Foot from Cbeebies and BBC who endeavour to answer these questions and more with a mix of live-action and stop-motion animated comedy.
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A+C Studio becomes the latest studio to join forces with Eallin as the International Prague-based animation and creative studio (London, Prague, Tokyo) looks to boost their roster.
Stories have been an integral part of our history and culture with records dating back to cave drawings. Storytelling is a vehicle for information as well as an opportunity for entertainment. Stories inspire emotion, feeling and powerfully engage an audience.
Probably the most prominent aspect of a stop-motion film is the characters. They are the vehicle for story-telling and arguably the element of the film the audience find most memorable.
Over the years, many different puppet making techniques have emerged that have changed the face of stop-motion animation. These changes can be technical, helpful to the animators or they could simply be artistic changes that allow for new and interesting styles to emerge. Leaps in technology have also helped to merge these into one, creating aesthetically pleasing and easily accessible models.
Sunday would have been Ray Harryhausen the father of stop-motion’s 99th Birthday.
Paper-craft animation is loved the world over thanks to its charm, striking aesthetic and accessibility. Cut out animation was one of the earliest forms of stop-motion and is still a firm favourite with audiences today – thanks in no small part to the early seasons of South Park. We love nothing more than using the versatility and adaptability of paper to push the boundaries of stop-motion, creating 3D sculptures, handmade crafted characters and immersive environments.
Being a stop-motion animator is the ultimate job. What could be better than being paid to play around with puppets and make incredible films? But it’s not for the faint-hearted. Beyond the obvious skills of the job, there are less apparent attributes that are essential, paramount even, to being an incredible animator. Here are six of them:
When people think of stop-motion more often than not what springs to mind, after Wallace & Gromit of course, is the craft involved in making it. Not least the time. Oh, the time. Often described as ‘time-consuming’ or ‘painstaking’ stop-motion is by nature, not the quickest process around, but how long does it really take to make?
