Barry Purves gives some bits of wisdom...

I got this link off of Marc's AnimateClay.com and decided it was so good I wanted to spread the word.

Barry Purves is a seasoned stop-motion animator that I'm sure most of you have heard of. If not- do a quick web search to find out about his long and impressive career. He shares some of his great tips on his web site (See link below). This will be of particular interest to students or people who are just starting out in animation. Thanks for sharing your knowledge Barry!

Barry Purves Stop-motion tips

I particularly liked tip #36- it ties in nicely with my post from a few weeks back talking about the stuff that goes on between frames and how it influences the performance.

"36 - Enjoy it - because someone else would love to animate even if you don't. Remember that every mood, even your hangover, gets passed onto your puppet, and that film will be there as a constant reminder of any lapse. "

Earning the day rate.

Posts about my project will slow for a little while as I head back to work on Robot Chicken season two this week. I'll continue to post stop-motion related info as it comes to me, but I will be back to the one day a week schedule on my film until the end of November. I have time off strategically planned throughout the run of RC2, so if all goes well I will build things on weekends and have scenes ready to shoot during down time.

There are also some fun things coming soon... the bones of other Angry Puppet characters are taking shape!

Hauntington

I got the okay to post a few behind the scenes shots from the Hallmark commercials I worked on recently at Screen Novelties. The sets and puppets were beautifully crafted by an amazing crew of stopmo artisans. The characters and buildings are based on small scale Halloween ornaments that Hallmark is selling.

View tiny versions here!

More Stopmo Joy!

I just got back from seeing the new Wallace and Grommit flick! SO MUCH FUN! It's a great contrast to Corpse Bride. Super-loose and cartoony, with wonderful action sequences and a gag-a-minute script. The two films show the full range of what is possible with stopmotion.....anything! Congratulations to all the amazing artists and animators at Aardman who brought this film to life! Everyone needs to get out there and see it!

Other puppet actors.

These guys stopped by the studio the other day looking for work. They pitched me a couple of ideas, pretty funny stuff. The big one doesn't say much but as you can see the camera loves him. I told them I didn't see any roles for them in my current project, but that I'd love to work with them sometime in the future. They insisted on leaving me their headshots and contact info.