The Art & Craft of Stop Motion Animation, from historical to current modern use ... including Retro & Classic Special FX ... miniatures, models, matte paintings, forced perspective tricks, in-camera effects, etc.
I imagine many of you have seen much internet media throughout the all these past years about the iconic classic, The Nightmare Before Christmas. Here are a few more recent one's that I have not watched yet. The youtube channel or brand name is 'Cinema Relics'. I believe they are an indie production company. You can check their bio on their channel.The host seems to primarily post snippets of interviews or teasers. They are not lengthy. Anywy, the videos are short but maybe some interesting cinema trivia for you. One of the vids, it is at Henry Selick's home and you can get a glimpse of his props & puppet collection. In another interview, you will see → Martin Meunier, a special effects artist. I think many years ago we worked on some projects in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Stop Motion Works SEAL—REAL Hand-Made Certified™ ( A.I.)
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Since Coraline's original release in theaters in February 2009, I lost count how many times it was re-released thereafter to theaters again! The most recent ones, was the Re-mastered version this summer of August 2024 (a limited theater run), and now a newer 3D Re-mastered Coraline, again, to be re-released to theaters, October 31 & November 2024. As far as I know, there are no new scenes. (link below)
Below ... a revisit of a few behind the scenes. This is 15 year old tech & methods but still cool for us stop motion nerd heads. Today, in high end stop motion features, the production pipeline is still basically the same with the continued emphasis on the "hand-made". In addition, currently there some more refined methods of printing puppet anatomical parts and also, there is much post production digital cgi combined with the stop motion.
Hand-Making Coraline - Laika Studio first Feature
The Stop Motion Puppets
Animator Eric Leighton's physical contortions doing Stop Motion
Hand Made in Stereo 3D
Henry Selick explains deleted scenes -Extra Features on Dvd (July, 2009)
BONUS
BONUS - BONUS
You can stream watch the original Coraline at the listed links below. Keep in mind that it may not be highest definition as in the re-mastered versions at theaters and you will not have the 3D immersion visual effect. Also, you willnothave the experience of viewing movies in an actual theater with a live audience. Or what about missing the enjoyment of getting your tubs of heavily buttered popcorn and sugar-high soda pops?😁
Nooooo! This October 2023, will be the 30th Year Anniversary of The Nightmare Before Christmas. It feels like, it was only recently that I attended the 25th anniversary year reunion (that was 5 years ago). This is like the Twilight Zone, an altered state of time, another dimension, transporting us into the future at warp speed. I do not like 😕 ... but ... I digress!
2018 Reunion, 25 Year NMBC Anniversary - Mike Belzer, Lionel Orozco, & Anthony Scott
SF Studios was a general commercial studio for many years. Later it became the studio for Nightmare Before Christmas and renamed Skellington Productions. This building, including the pink one next to it, no longer exists. That location is now an elementary school.
In the past years, there has been a variety of books about Nightmare B4 Xmas. Just released in August, is a fresh NEW book. The Nightmare Before Christmas - Beyond Halloween Town: The Story, Characters, & Legacy ... EMILY ZEMLER is the Author.
This is not exactly a behind the scenes about the technical stop motion effects, but more about the production process from the beginning incentive of the story and interviews with some of the original crew & key players involved. Also it goes into the enduring impact & cultural phenomenon
that it still has, even in 2023, in spite of the current mind-numbing
excess of CGI movies and its onslaught & bombardment on the
audience, perhaps getting weary of it. Maybe that is why the Guillermo del Toro Pinocchio was a refreshing change.
Since we are on the topic of The Nightmare Before Christmas, I am going to briefly and shamelessly promote myself. I just have a sense that Youtube's Search Algorithms seems to have been suppressing my channel for a long time. After over 5 years since I posted the above video ....it has only received 64 Likes. I say What the F'k? If I was of the opposite gender and showed some 'skin' ... the videos would get a plethora of Likes & thousands of views in a very short time. This Social Media Game is insanity & illogical 😡
We now return to the BOOK 😁 I do not always like to refer people to the corporate empire entity known as Amazon ... but ... they have a good descriptive page about this new Nightmare book ... also some free preview pages and the price for a hardcover copy is reasonable. As of this posting, it is under $27. (USD), it is about 168 pages. The link is here ....
A.I.)
