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The Advanced Art of © 2011 Course Technology, a part of Cengage Learning. Stop-Motion Animation Ken A. Priebe ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work covered by the copyright herein may be reproduced, transmitted, stored, or used in any form or by any means graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including but not limited to Publisher and General Manager, photocopying, recording, scanning, digitizing, taping, Web distribution, Course Technology PTR: information networks, or information storage and retrieval systems, except Stacy L. Hiquet as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Associate Director of Marketing: Sarah Panella For product information and technology assistance, contact us at Cengage Learning Customer & Sales Support, 1-800-354-9706. 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Copy Editor: Chris Small Library of Congress Control Number: 2010922093 Interior Layout Tech: ISBN-13: 978-1-4354-5613-6 Judy Littlefield ISBN-10: 1-4354-5613-0 eISBN-10: 1-4354-5704-8 Cover Designer: Mike Tanamachi Course Technology, a part of Cengage Learning 20 Channel Center Street CD-ROM Producer: Boston, MA 02210 Brandon Penticuff USA Cengage Learning is a leading provider of customized learning solutions Indexer: Sharon Shock with office locations around the globe, including Singapore, the United Kingdom, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, and Japan. Locate your local office at: Proofreader: Gene Redding international.cengage.com/region. Cengage Learning products are represented in Canada by Nelson Education, Ltd. For your lifelong learning solutions, visit courseptr.com. Visit our corporate Web site at cengage.com. Printed in the United States of America 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 12 11 10 This book is dedicated, with much love, to my amazing wife Janet and my children Ariel and Xander. The adventure continues… iv The Advanced Art of Stop-Motion Animation Tribute to Lisa Jane Gray (1959–2009) s an additional dedication for this book on stop-motion animation, I Aam honored to present a photo tribute to Lisa Jane Gray, a very talented artist and contributor to the stop-motion community who passed away very suddenly on July 10, 2009. Lisa Jane was a great talent and a sweet lady whom I had the privilege to meet and talk with on a few occasions, before she left us all too soon. Her career as an animator and director spanned nearly 30 years, including feature films, television series, and commercials. She also taught animation students at the New Brunswick Community College’s Miramichi Campus in Canada, and she worked for Cosgrove Hall in the U.K., Egmont Imagination in Denmark, various studios in New Zealand, and several studios across Canada, including several years as an animator and associate of Bowes Production in Vancouver. She is greatly missed by all who knew and worked with her. (Various production photos courtesy of Bowes Production, Inc. Thanks to Paul Moldovanos and David Bowes for providing these images.) Tribute to Lisa Jane Gray (1959–2009) v This page intentionally left blank Table of Contents Foreword ................................................................................ix Acknowledgments.................................................................xiii Introduction ........................................................................xvii Chapter 1 History of Stop-Motion Feature Films.................1 Chapter 2 An Interview with Screen Novelties..................61 Chapter 3 Building Puppets............................................75 Plug-In Wire and Sockets ......................................................77 Hands and Feet .....................................................................88 Puppet Anatomy....................................................................96 Silicone................................................................................106 Casting a Silicone Puppet................................................108 Making a Silicone Mold..................................................114 Plastic Casting .....................................................................121 Face Armatures....................................................................124 Replacement Faces and Rapid Prototyping ..........................138 Replacement Animation Puppets.........................................145 Chapter 4 Digital Cinematography.................................151 Digital Camera Basics..........................................................157 ISO.................................................................................159 Aperture and Shutter Speed ............................................159 Depth of Field ................................................................160 White Balance.................................................................163 Camera Effects ...................................................................165 Rack Focus......................................................................165 Blurring Effects...............................................................168 Camera Moves ................................................................171 Stereoscopic Photography ...............................................179 Chapter 5 An Interview with Pete Kozachik, ASC ............187 vii viii The Advanced Art of Stop-Motion Animation Chapter 6 An Interview with Trey Thomas ......................195 Chapter 7 Character Animation .....................................204 Animation Technique..........................................................204 Timing............................................................................205 Arcs.................................................................................208 Overlapping Action.........................................................211 Anticipation....................................................................215 Performance ........................................................................216 Two-Character Dialogue .................................................218 Lip Sync..........................................................................224 Chapter 8 An Interview with Bronwen Kyffin .................229 Chapter 9 Visual Effects...............................................237 Film Compositing ...............................................................238 Digital Compositing............................................................244 Split-Screen and Masks ...................................................244 Blue/Green Screen ..........................................................249 Front Light/Back Light ...................................................255 Advanced Compositing for Ava.......................................258 Effects.............................................................................263 Rig and Shadow Removal ....................................................266 Motion Blur ........................................................................269 Eye Compositing Effects for Madame Tutli-Putli .................272 Chapter 10 An Interview with Larry Bafia and Webster Colcord ...........................................277 Chapter 11 An Interview with Marc Spess ........................289 Chapter 12 An Interview with Ryan McCulloch .................297 Chapter 13 An Interview with Justin and Shel Rasch ........305 Bibliography and Further Reading.....................................319 Books, Articles, and Publications on Stop-Motion Animation......................................................319 Other Useful Books about Animation and Puppetry............320 Online Resources Cited for the History of Stop-Motion Animation......................................................322 Index ......................................................................323 Foreword By Henry Selick, director of Coraline, The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach, and Slow Bob in the Lower Dimensions here are many ways to make movies a frame at a time: drawing them by hand like Walt Disney’s Pinocchio and Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away, Tcomputer graphics like Pixar’s Toy Story and The Incredibles, 2D cut-outs like the cult feature Twice Upon a Time, animating sand or paint on glass, scratching film emulsion, moving pins on a screen, slicing wax and clay, and no doubt other techniques I’ve never witnessed. But I happen to love stop- motion best. So much of animation’s history has been about the pursuit of making things move smoothly, to hide the artist’s hand. When CG animation hit the big time, first as special effects and then with the Pixar features, it delivered on this goal in spades. The animation was perfectly smooth, without a single, unintended bump or jerk. It was sexy and shiny, and audiences