Animator is a resource for budding animators, be it with a pencil, plasticine/clay, puppets or computer. Animator has two main sections; a blog with information that we hope is useful to animation enthusiasts and an archive of articles originally published in a magazine called Animator’s newsletter.
A collection of 13 short films from the Aardman Animations studio have been added to a film site called Indie Movies Online. The movies are free to watch although you do have to sit through a 30 second advert before the movie plays.
Among the movies on offer are Peter Lord’s Oscar-nominated Adam in which God is attempting to lay down some rules to the first man on Earth – while Adam himself is longing for somebody to keep him company. Plasticine animation.
Will Becher’s Boxed In centres on an old man, living alone in a sparse room. But when a mouse incurs into his tiny world, he rediscovers some purpose and vigor. Puppet animation.
Creature Comfortsis the Oscar-winning short from Wallace and Gromit creator Nick Park, in which interviews with the public are used to put words in animal mouths. Plasticine animation.
Adam, Boxed In and Creature Comforts from Aardman Animations studio.
Let us know your favourite out of this Aardman collection in a comment to this post.
If you are an aspiring puppet animator you can now learn from the master of fantasy animation in a series of movies on YouTube. Some of Harryhausen’s most notable works have included his animation on Mighty Joe Young made with pioneer Willis O’Brien, which won the Academy Award for special effects in 1949, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad and Jason and the Argonauts, featuring a famous sword fight against six skeleton warriors.
The Harryhausen Chronicles documentary, narrated by Leonard Nimoy, covers much of his work with some great close-ups of his puppets and lots of advice from the master himself. In the introduction Ray Harryhausen says: “Fantasy is a dream world and I don’t think you want it quite real. You want an interpretation and stop motion gives it an added value that you can’t catch if you try to make it too real.”
The Harryhausen Chronicles are split into six parts. The links are below:
If you are a professional or student animator looking for a list of forthcoming animation festivals then the Animation Festivals Directory may be the answer. Their website is run by a small, but dedicated team, who aim to provide the International animation community with a constantly updated directory of festival listings. The website is completely free to use; their only request is that if you see a listing that is either out of date or incorrect, you let them know. That way the community constantly benefits.
Unless you have been in the animation industry for a number of years and built up your own database of festivals, there are very few places, if any, where you can find up to date festival listings all year round. The Animation Festivals Directory was born out of this need for a comprehensive directory of animation festivals around the world.
Whereas there are many film festivals out there, and it is not difficult to obtain a listing of these, it is a time consuming task finding out which ones accept animation. Students, producers, directors and others do not have the time or resources to search for the relevant festivals amongst all the others. Animation-festivals.com is a very specific online resource which aims to take this headache away.
Paddington Bear in episode 1 of the original TV series.
Paddington Bear was featured in Animator’s newsletter issue 3, winter 1982 when we interviewed director of animation Barry Leith at FilmFair Animation Studios. At the time Barry was working on the Paddington Bear TV series. In that series Paddington was a puppet and the humans drawn animation, cut-out and mounted on card so that they could be integrated on the same set as the puppet.
Now Paddington Bear is to take to the big screen in a production that is to be a mixture of live action and computer animation. The film is being produced by David Heyman, the man behind the Harry Potter films. The Sun newspaper reports Mighty Boosh star Noel Fielding has been signed up to play Paddington Bear’s cousin – a half man, half beast who, like Paddington, comes from Darkest Peru.
The original TV stories were written by Michael Bond with puppet and drawn animation by Ivor Wood. In the first episode the bear is spotted by the Brown family on Paddington station where he had arrived from Darkest Peru as a stowaway. He had a label round his neck that read “Please look after this bear, thank you”. In no time at all Mrs Brown named him after the station and he became part of their family.
It is understood the new film will be based on an original screenplay inspired by the various characters and episodes in Paddington’s life as told through Bond’s books. It is being co-written by The Mighty Boosh director Paul King and Hamish McColl, co-writer of 2007 comedy film Mr Bean’s Holiday. Paddington Bear has much in common with Mr Bean; both are very polite and very accident-prone.
“The early part of Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall’s story reminds me of two other animators, Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. As two students Brian and Mark met at Art College, and their paths were to cross again some years later when they both joined Granada Televisions’ Graphics Department”, writes Frank Baker in his article about Cosgrove-Hall Productions.
“No survey of British animation would be complete without a mention of the many small studios who survived the war and continued to produce films well into the peace that followed: Diagram Films, Science Films, Worldwide Films, Basic Films, G.B. Instructional, Publicity Pictures/National Interest, not forgetting Francis Rodker’s work for Shell Film Unit and Bill Palmer’s diagrammatic work for British Transport. These and others like them produced miles of top quality technical, educational and advertising material”, writes Ken Clark in The Shadows Move – the 1950s.
“When Bugs Bunny first hit the screen, in 1938, he was, as one might expect, totally different from the Warner Brothers character that we know today. In Porky’s Hare Hunt, the unofficial debut of the first prototype rabbit, Porky Pig goes hunting with his dog and before long they come across the abject of their expedition: rabbits. Unfortunately for Porky, however, the rabbit he and his dog choose as the victim of their sport turns out to be a totally obnoxious and completely insane creature who proceeds to drive the two as batty as he is”, writes Chris Pearson in his history of the famous carrot-chewing wabbit.
“Previously, if you had suggested to me that a nineteenth century photographer could be of help to me in animating I would have been rather dubious about it. But Eadweard Muybridge was more than a photographer, he was an innovator and a student of motion, the first man able to prove that he had made accurate assertions about how animals moved”, writes Morris Lakin in his review of two books of photographs.
“After three years at Liverpool Polytechnic under the guidance of Ray Fields, I feel I am only now beginning to benefit from his seemingly unique philosophy concerning the development of a young film maker”, writes Mark Fuller in an article about his film “Gallery”. He continues: “In short the sort of teaching that encourages students to expand as artists with a critical eye, by avoiding the more academic approach of ordinary conformist teaching.”
The short film “Skywhales”, was featured in Animator’s newsletter issue 7, winter 1983. It was written and directed by Derek Hayes and Phil Austin at Animation City. Skywhales has been discovered by a new generation, thanks to its appearance on YouTube, and has become a cult classic on the Internet.
Derek Hayes and Phil Austin met as students at Sheffield Hallam University where they were on a diploma course for Art and Design (1971 – 1974). Whilst at university they collaborated on several animation projects using a clockwork Bolex camera and an old enlarger stand. That lead to a life in film and was the start of a creative partnership that lasted 18 years.
After graduating they were offered places as the first animation students at the National Film and Television School (NFTS) where they made a 20 minute film, “Max Beeza and the City in the Sky”, as well as working on live-action films with other students.
After the NFTS Derek made a short film for BBC Bristol called “Albion”, which was part of the “Animated Conversations” series. Then in 1979 he got a call from Julian Temple, a fellow ex-student of the NFTS, to say he was directing a feature film with the Sex Pistols called “The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle”. He asked if they would do some animation for it. Derek Hayes and Phil Austin joined forces again and promptly launched an animation company, called Animation City, to do the cartoon inserts, graphics and titles for the film.
Animation City was based in Soho, London for 14 years, making commercials, TV graphics, pop videos and short films. Among the short films was “Skywhales” made for Channel 4 TV. The studio won various awards including a BAFTA for the titles of “Jeeves and Wooster”.
Phil Austin sadly died in 1990. In 1993 Derek closed Animation City to become a freelance director and since then he has directed two short films and two cinema features:
“The Miracle Maker” (1999), was an award winning animated life of Christ and featured the voices of Ralph Fiennes, William Hurt, Julie Christie and Miranda Richardson. It used model animation, 2D animation and computer graphics.
“Otherworld” (2002), with Ioan Gruffydd, Daniel Evans, Matthew Rhys and Philip Madoc. It mixed 2D animation, computer graphics and live-action to retell a series of ancient Celtic legends of love, magic and war.
In 2003 – 2004 he worked with Aardman Animation developing a feature film project called the “Tortoise v Hare”. He was engaged as Director but the film was a casualty of the collapse of the relationship between Aardman and DreamWorks.
From 2005 to the present Derek has produced storyboards for Cartwn Cymru, Cardiff, “Friends and Heroes”; CharacterShop, “Haven”, “DU”, “Knight Rider” and Bristol Zoo. He has also worked as a storyboard supervisor and consultant for various film companies including Dramatico Entertainment and Ragdoll Ltd.
Derek has been External Examiner for various animation courses, including the RCA and the London Institute and is a lecturer at University College Falmouth on the Digital Animation BA course.
Since my “Computer modelled cat” post describing how I created the model using Animation:Master I have decided to do a short animation based on “The Owl And The Pussy-Cat” by Edward Lear. This is the poem that starts: “The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to sea in a beautiful pea green boat”.
I have now upgraded to the current version of Animation:Master. My favourite part of the computer program is creating models. There is a line in the poem that goes: “They sailed away, for a year and a day, to the land where the Bong-tree grows”. The Bong-tree is mythical so is open to interpretation. I thought it would be fun if the Bong-tree made a bong noise whilst bouncing like a spring.
Wireframe of the Bong-tree
The first step was to build the tree. The tree trunk was done by drawing one side of the outline in the modelling window of Animation:Master and using the lathe tool create a 3D tube. For the palm leaves I drew the complete outline and then filled it in with a network of four-point patches. The leaf was then copied eight times and positioned near the top of the tree trunk. Bones were added to the trunk and leaves to aid the animation.
The tree was animated with a combination of muscle and bone movements. If you are unfamiliar with the way this works there are some excellent video tutorials on the Animation:Master website that show the process in detail.
Select an area and move it down to start the bounce.
Having got the tree to bounce the way I wanted, I decided to place it on a desert island surrounded by sea. The island is the top part of a ball shape, coloured yellow and given some roughness to look like sand. The sea is a flat patch of blue that was given some roughness and sparkle to look like water. I animated the sea patch across the set to give the sea some movement. The sky is a picture of clouds on a vertical patch.
Once my test scene was rendered I imported it into Windows Movie Maker and added a bong sound using the technique described in my “Using Windows Movie Maker to assemble your animation” article. I also added a sound effect called “forest” either side of the bong sound.
If you are considering having a go at Plasticine animation then an easy way to start is with a “my own Morph” kit from Flair Create.
The Plasticine stop-motion character Morph first appeared on a children’s TV art show called “Take Hart” in 1977. He interacted with the shows presenter Tony Hart, providing short humorous sequences. Much of the action consisted of Morph changing shape, such as rolling into a ball. Or he would disappear into the table top as if sinking into water. These kind of actions suit the medium of Plasticine as it is infinitely changeable.
Morph was created by Peter Lord of Aardman animation. The studio went on to produce the “Wallace and Gromit” movies, so from small acorns great oak trees grow.
The kit contains three blocks of Plasticine; a large terracotta block for Morph’s body, and small blocks of white and black for the eyes. There are some suitably sized plastic props including a skate board and a cricket bat. There is a leaflet with diagrams on modelling Morph and the best bit of all; a “How to model Morph” DVD. The DVD has Peter Lord modelling Morph from a block of modelling clay, or Plasticine, as we call it in England. As he models he gives tips on how to go about it. For example the legs and arms are pulled out of the ball of Plasticine rather than being added on. This gives them more strength. The DVD also includes 15 Morph episodes.
There is also a “my own Chas” kit that enables you to create your own cheeky Chas out of Plasticine. This also has an instructional DVD that includes 10 bumper length episodes plus an introduction to Chas from Peter Lord.
“Forget about modern technology, forget about film and projectors: go back to the last century and build yourself a device on which you can view a sequence of animated drawings as soon as you have drawn them, at any speed you like, and in full colour” writes J.M. Coleman in his article about building a Zoetrope.
Doreen Wood was idly looking at the display of cards draped above the fireplace and wondered what would happen if the Three Wise Men on their camels found themselves on the wrong Christmas card; if, for example, they were to stroll down a Victorian Street complete with stagecoach and snow. Before long, several bizarre ideas had formed, all of which seemed to be possibilities for an animated film. She tells how cut-out animation brought her ideas to life.
There is background information on “Skywhales”, an animated fantasy film about aliens who live on islands of vegetation that float in the sky. The story concerns one family of these creatures who take part in the annual hunt for the Skywhales. These are huge graceful creatures that swoop past the island on their seasonal migration. A series of strange events after the hunt show us how the islanders’ lives are inextricably linked to those of the whales in an ending with an unexpected twist.
In an article about the 1983 Annecy Animation Festival Chris Krupa observes that the main feature of most of the films shown at Annecy festivals is their very personal nature. Few have straight forward narrative story lines in the manner of TV animation and most contain a political social or personal statement, sometimes obscure, sometimes clearly expressed. The overall approach is that of animation as an art form primarily and as a viable commercial product second.
The 1983 Cambridge Animation Festival is reviewed in an article by David Jefferson who observes that the shows were held in the Arts Cinema which is in the centre of Cambridge, near the market square. It is a small cinema, one might say intimate, because it is possible to look round and see everyone who is there at a glance. There is no balcony and the projection is done through a system of mirrors so that the projection box is actually on the floor above the cinema auditorium. The 16mm films were shown on a couple of projectors set up at the back of the cinema in with the audience.
Kitten model sheet from "The Shadows Move" article.
“The best way to see the works of our fellow film makers is to attend one of the international festivals devoted to animation. The five main festivals are Cambridge, Annecy and Varna which are held on odd years, with Zagreb and Ottawa held on even years. A consensus of opinion states that Annecy is probably the most enjoyable” writes Chris Krupa in his article about the Annecy Animation Festival in Animator’s newsletter Autumn 1983.
In “The Shadows Move” part 3 Ken Clark talks about the emergence of a remarkable animator called Norman McLaren, “a young Scot. When he was 21 he made his first animated film Camera Makes Whoppee. Two years later, in 1937, he made several films for the G.P.O. Film Unit, which included Love on the Wing.”
Labour saving animation with lip-sync is the title of an article by David Jefferson who tells how he made a two minute cartoon with just fifty-four drawings spread over one thousand seven hundred frames of film.
In the run up to the 1983 Cambridge Animation Festival with the theme of Animation and Persuasion Antoinette Moses writes about the second war programme Bugs Bunny Signs Up. This includes many of the most tasteless animated films ever made. These are the anti-German and anti-Japanese films made in the American studios during the Second World War.
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