I’ve been checking out some stop-motion animation especially stills and vids of behind the scenes because I love looking at that the most. This time is in preparation for the Frame My Future scholarship competition that I’m set on participating in. Yes, that means I plan on going back to college in the Fall, so I need some do-re-mi to keep me secure for the full year. It’s one of the projects I was talking about last time. I’m trying to directly convey exactly what I want to do with my life and especially after college in the art piece for the competition. It’s just been a bit difficult to specifically describe what that is. Right now I know I just aspire to be a filmmaker/animator. I’d like to create stop-motion animation films but also live-action films that are not quite based in reality, kinda in the same vein as Michel Gondry. Actually, his work is what I check out the most when thinking of how I’d do my own stuff. I think that’s what I’ve been doing in my illustrations and yet hadn’t realized I might want to do them in motion.
For the competition piece, I’m trying to figure out how to blend these two aspirations: live action film/stop motion animation, together. I was googling behind the scenes stop-motion animation for inspiration and came across some amazing videos that remind me why I want to pursue this and also that I immediately wanted to share just in case you’re fascinated with how stop-motion animation films or films in general are made too.
First up is the Nightmare Before Christmas. Listen, I’ve never actually seen the Nightmare Before Christmas all the way through so I feel a little weird recommending watching this like I saw the movie or something. Calm down! Stop yelling about how what the hell am I even doing with my life! I don’t have an excuse okay. IT JUST HAPPENED!
Next video is actually the first one that I saw in the search that I was struck by, it’s got work by Joel Fletcher, who incidentally worked on Nightmare Before Christmas:
ANIMATING RALPH S. MOUSE from Joel Fletcher.
Whoa! I had no idea Ralph S. Mouse had even been made let alone that there were three movies. I read the Ralph S. Mouse series when I was little so this is pretty dear to me.
Okay one more from him:
ANIMATING UNCLE ELEPHANT from Joel Fletcher.
I feel like these two films must’ve been underground ones cause I never heard of them, let alone knew they existed. Yes, I’m vain like that. I think what really pulls me in with the Joel Fletcher’s videos is how the music works with it, how calm and attentive I felt it feels, it’s like I’m there looking over their shoulder while they work and lastly how it sequences into the actual scenes from the movies. Also it’s got great voice acting. Like it’s very clear sounding. Check out his site for more stuff especially the animation puppets in the Sculpture section.
Alright, that concludes this post. I’m really hoping today I get an idea of what I want the piece to be because I can’t keep losing these days, the deadline’s pretty near. Once it’s finished I’ll show it on the blog. I thought of updating you as the piece came along but I think I just want to do what I did before where I just did a gif of the process. I don’t really think I like the idea of describing each stage in it’s own post. We’ll see what happens. Maybe I’ll act differently this time.
Happy Thursday.