My favorite movie, "The Nightmare Before Christmas," is a well-known stop motion animated film. The animation is one of my favorite things about it because I know the patience and care that stop motion animation takes. But I find that it is something I see less and less in film these days, especially in the feature length format. Are filmmakers losing the patience for the execution of it?
Animation : The Lost Art of Stop Motion Animation by Brandy Camille
The Lost Art of Stop Motion Animation
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If anything, the pace of feature-length stop-motion animation feature releases has increased since 1993. Look at the number of films by Laika, Aardman, and auteurs like Guillermo Del Toro, Henry Sellick, and Phil Tippet. If they're not coming out fast enough for you, it's only because it takes years and specialized crews to make a feature.
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I also enjoy stop-motion animation. But it is also a tedious process, and time is money, so I can see why companies don't invest in it as much. You will probably enjoy this short film on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5p4s4k3eB_I . If the link doesn't work it's called GRUFF by Righteous Robot.
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I think stop-motion is fascinating but I know that the work that goes into it is really intense. I knew a guy in film school who spent YEARS working on a stop-motion short film and learning while he went. I was amazed by his dedication to it. I'll have to see if I can unearth the link to it to share.
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I agree Ashley Renee Smith. It takes massive amounts of patience, with just a few moments of footage taking several weeks to film in some cases. I know with "The Nightmare Before Christmas," there was a lot of innovation with building the sets with compartments underneath that the animators would hide in so they didn't have to reach over the entire set, thus greatly decreasing the margin for error.
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Henry Selick is one of my favorite filmmakers. And his films are few and far between and I know it's because of how tedious the process can be, but I also believe that that's what makes watching his films that much more special.
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I have used Stop Motion Animation as tool to introduce kids to the magical art of film making. With a simple set-up, they can see the immediate result of their creative work making puppetry, on a screen.
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That’s fantastic Johan. I’m almost 40 but I could pretend to be a kid for something like that lol
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Alexandra, I agree Gruff is a great short. There’s some interesting behind the scenes videos out there too. Worth watching to see why the short is NOT stop motion. All the puppets are performed live. Crazy, right?
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You don't see that many stopmo movies because the audience for that type of animation isn't big, add a problematic genre to it and you end up with very few investors taking the risk. Also: nowadays it's easy to fake stopmo with 3D animation, with audiences not being able to see the difference. I guess what remains is a deep love for stopmo among those creators who really want to do it.
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Brandy Camille please don’t tell the folks at Aardman that it’s a lost art! ;-)
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Geoff Hall Fortunately not lost, in fact it should be treasured, but maybe only viable/bankable for the very best.
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I don't disagree at all. And I hope the comeback we're seeing with stop motion gets to bloom. It's a wonderful medium make all the more beautiful by how much patience it takes to create.
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Brandy Camille if you like stop motion, then I recommend Stopmotion on Shudder. Unless you don't like horror, in which case avoid it at all costs.
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I think the digital age has made it unnecessary, while I enjoy the art form the economics of time and money with an indistinguishable result from cheaper and faster 3D animation makes it less and less of an attractive choice. I think a project that does something to separate it from 3D would really give the style a resurgence.
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There seems to be only a few large studios that have ever been set up to do it. And I mean Laika studios that puts out great works, seems to take about 3 years or so to film a movie. There has been some technical innovations and maybe some AI removal tools that might make stop motion feasible for smaller teams and more indie production, but economics of scale and the skill behind it probably means it will continue with the same slow spiral.
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