'Alien: Romulus' & Mama Crab

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Below is a behind the scenes of of a special effects sequence that Tippett Studio did for the feature 'Alien: Romulus'. It is somewhat short and some scenes are time-lapsed and speeded-up. Remember this trick ... in the Youtube video players you can change the playback speed. This is a useful tool  if you want to slow down the video speed. You will be able to observe animation or movements in more detail including videos of real animals or people. Click on the gear icon at the bottom of the player. For this video I recommend speed .5,  or you can even go slower at .25. I do this on a laptop computer. I do not know if this works on your mobile phones. First, watch it at regular speed then afterwards you can watch at slower speed.Geez ... I sure went off topic and down a rabbit hole ... LOL!😄

Here you go ....

Befores and Afters is an online special effects focused magazine by subscription service, however many times they provide free teasers & samples of their magazine content. B &A did a very good article about Tippett Studio doing this special effects for this sequence. You old schoolers may remember Cinefex magazine. Well, Befores and Afters has captured that similar vibe. Click the link below to read the article which includes some photos.

BEFORES and AFTERS - Tippett Studio 'Alien: Romulus'

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About a month ago the behind the scenes of the Disney Skeleton Crew series was posted. You can revisit here >> What's a Tet'niss? (Star Wars) . Well, Disney or Tippett Studio posted another follow-up behind the scenes of the Crab Creature. So this could be called a Part 2.  It is short about 2 minutes, and so, do not forget that you have the option to change the speed and watch it in slow motion so that you can carefully study the details.

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The Talents of Eduardo Oropeza: King Kong Reborn

Among the few craftsmen who specialize in classic stop-motion creature and character puppet fabrication, Eduardo Oropeza stands out. Hailing from Mexico, Eduardo brings a unique twist to the tradition. Unlike many of his peers who gravitate towards CGI or digital effects animation, Eduardo has chosen to immerse himself in this hands-on creative niche. By doing so, he continues the legacy of the iconic stop-motion animation master, Ray Harryhausen.

Eduardo has collaborated with the exceptionally talented animator >>> Justin Rasch. I hope they continue to work together, as they would make a formidable team. As an independent production studio, they could offer their services in mixed media and stop-motion animation. Traditional animation will always captivate audiences, despite the prevalence of CGI and the current surge of A.I. generated animations. 

Justin collaborates with various puppet fabricator artists, tailoring each puppet character design to be more stylized or cartoon-esque as needed. Eduardo contributed to the Del Toro / Gustafson, Oscar winning 'Pinocchio', working with the 2nd unit production team in Guadalajara, Mexico. If Eduardo were to come to Portland, Oregon which is currently a hotbed for stop-motion animation, his creative talents would undoubtedly be in high demand!

Eduardo has much social media content and I cannot post the many photos or videos here, but instead, these are the links ... his handle is TRexProduction3190

Click >>> Youtube  -  Instagram  -  Facebook

Take a look at this unique collaboration ...Eduardo Oropeza's detailed realistic stop motion puppets and Justin Rasch's awesome animation ... fabrication & stop motion, all hands-on tactile REAL! 

  

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What's a Tet'niss? (Star Wars)

Being an old schooler neo-luddite, I basically have not paid much attention to the plethora of Star Wars sequels, prequels, spin-offs, different iterations. For me, it's Star Wars (1977), Empire Strikes Back (1980), and Return of the Jedi (1983). THAT'S IT ... no more, no más, nicht mehr, pas plus!!

This series is titled Skeleton Crew under the Star Wars banner. It is not a theatrical movie. Series is online stream available if one is subscribed to Disney+. Since I have been out of touch with all the different incarnations of the Star Wars franchise, this is my first time seeing trailer about this specific series.

  If you cannot hear the audio below, look for speaker icon (lower left) and turn on sound (unmute)

@bigareviews The trash crab is bloody stop motion!!! #starwars #skeletoncrew #stopmotionanimation #philtippet #crab #cinetok #moviemagic #trashcrab @Star Wars ♬ Major Tom (Coming Home) [Single Version] - Peter Schilling

There are only a few behind the scenes.They are more like 'making of' shorts.

This one is moderately longer

At one of the Facebook groups, Webster Colcord who works at Tippett Studio, said, that in post production some motion blur added and also digital tweaking where the stop motion slightly chattered. 

  
Here are some write-ups / articles, click below

Bringing the Towering “Tet’niss” from Star Wars: Skeleton Crew to Life

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew | Stop Motion & Old School Matte Paintings

 

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Japanese 1990 Documentary - AFTER MAN

This obscure Japanese 1990 documentary revolves around Dougal Dixon's, 1981, illustrated book, 'After Man - The Zoology of the Future' The premise being ... After humankind's domain on earth ends ... the speculation of what would the future creatures look like, evolving and interbreeding of different species.

My understanding is, that this was originally produced only for the Japanese market.The full documentary is a substantial 90 minutes in length. Because it is somewhat rare, it appears that only a few online sources are available to watch the full documentary. If you are an old school stop motion or special effects fan of any sort, you might enjoy it. 

The video quality is old style TV low resolution and no subtitles. The beginning scenes of the documentary starts with borrowed very brief shots from Phil Tippett's, Prehistoric Beast (1984)  My micro review: This documentary's special effects work was not as polished compared to the Harryhausen and Phil Tippett signature styles, however, I think they did reasonably good! 👍 They possibly had a limited budget and less experience but they were successful with their creativity efforts in producing this.'After Man' uses stop motion animation and hand operated puppetry effects. To me, it has a little bit of a Karel Zeman (Czech director) style (mid 1950s)

This is a good summary overview explaining the origins of this documentary 

At Youtube, the video below, you can watch the 90 minutes which is in 13 parts/chapters. Each part/chapter will automatically play ... one after the other in sequence. You can always fast forward, as needed. If you only want to see individual video chapters, Go here >> Playlist / After Man (1990)

At Archive.org you can also watch the 90 minutes which is in 5 parts/chapters. The video quality, about the same but the audio sound is very poor, almost muted. The video below, each part/chapter will automatically play ... one after the other in sequence.You can always fast forward, as needed. Here is direct link >> Archive.org / After Man (1990).

If you do not have time to skim through the entire documentary, this Youtube video below claims to just have, all the Stop Motion & Hand Puppetry special effects.

Here >> After Man (1990) IMDb production information

Here >> After Man original illustrated book still available  

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OCTOPUS - AI Generated Stop Motion Armature

 Note - Any photos, 'click twice', then again 'one click', to zoom in or for larger image.

There are many AI generators out there, and now, free one's which I used here. My opinion of it ... "Meh" 😕. To me, it does NOT feel 'creative'  ... you know, just typing 'words'. Like many Artists, Craftspeople, and Makers, we all have the PASSION to WORK with our HANDS to create & build with the Real & Tactile.

Maybe AI ... to spark some ideas but I am not sure. I gave AI something that is 'technical' and of course, 'it' does not understand the actual technical & mechanical workings of a stop motion armature. 

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This is the prompt / text I typed ... "A stop motion jointed armature for an octopus creature".   Apparently, Mr. AI cannot determine how many tentacles to use. See below, photos 1 to 4.

1)

2)

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For Photos 5 to 8 below, this is what I wrote, "A stop motion jointed armature for an octopus creature having 8 tentacles".  I specifically requested eight tentacles but as you can see, in some of the photos, Mr. AI is still confused

5)

6)

7)

8)

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Coming Soon - Ghostbusters 'Terror Dog' Homage

 

 

I cannot keep up with Justin Rasch! Recently, I posted about his behind the scenes He-Man project  ... and now .... he springs this on us 😀

Justin has referred to this as a 'Monster' or 'Creature' but of course it is the Terror Dog that made its appearance in the original Ghostbusters (1984). There were actually two Terror Dogs, a male & female. The shorter horned Terror Dog was the female.Only one stop motion puppet was fabricated ... they just switched the horns and optically cloned the puppet to make it appear that there were 2 Terror Dogs in the same scenes.

This Terror Dog stop motion puppet was constructed by the incredibly talented artist, Eduardo Oropeza who is a resident of the country of Mexico. At Eduardo's Instagram, he has posted additional photos of the Terror Dog puppet. Amazingly, from what I see, Eduardo does most of  his puppet construction using 'build up' method. His Youtube channel demonstrates some of the puppet fabrication technique.

The stop motion puppet has a Ball & Socket armature inside it.* The overall puppet size appears to be about 11 - 12 inches long (28cm - 30cm), head to tail.  The Terror Dog puppet in the original Ghostbusters was much larger and as many of us, may already know, the creature's final design was by Randall W. Cook and he also did the hands on stop motion animation.

*Update / Correction: It was 'planned' to have Ball & Socket armature but later, Justin preferred to have Wire armature in the Terror Dog stop motion puppet. Justin is still able to get smooth animation with wire armatures!

Okay ... here are some Teaser shorts that Justin Rasch has released ....

   

   

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Justin Rasch  >>  INSTAGRAM     YOUTUBE

Eduardo Oropeza  >>  INSTAGRAM    YOUTUBE

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