Computer Animation Arts

A lovely insight into the craft and graft of puppet design and making at Laika.

In Laika's Stop-Motion Feature "ParaNorman" thousands of 3D printed faces were use in the process known as replacement animation. In order for this to work, they animate all of the speech in Autodesk Maya first using 3D characters to the exact specifications as their real puppets, then print the faces out and swap them around on the puppet for each frame. I mention this because the computer segment is one of the many things you'll learn on the course.

My first time posting on the group blog. I've started by sharing this clip from the making of Paranorman, which is a stop-motion animated picture by Laika. They are famous for also creating Coraline and The Boxtrolls. I feel that Paranorman is a hugely under-rated film, and would recommend anyone to see it.  

I was very happy to see an upcoming animated film trailer promoting all types of families. "We know that TV shows and films can both influence and reflect the changing tide of public opinion on controversial issues. So, a trailer showing all different types of families as totally acceptable? Win. By the way, the progressive, times-they-are-a-changin' bit occurs in the first 30 seconds."  Link here

From the people who brought you Coraline ...