then

THE BEGINNINGS
OF STOP-MOTION

Stop-motion is a type of animation that requires animators to physically manipulate objects and then photograph each change. One of the first stop-motion films to be widely released was Disney’s 1993 classic The Nightmare Before Christmas. The film was directed by Henry Selick and produced by Tim Burton. Due to the labor-intense nature of stop-motion, the project required a production team of over 100 artists.

The Nightmare Before Christmas used replacement animation, which means that a different head had to be sculpted for every possible mouth position and expression of each character. Jack Skeleton alone required over 400 heads!

Since stop-motion animation is so time-consuming, requiring around 24 photos to generate one second of film, animators were only able to produce about 70 seconds of film per week.

PHOTO: © WALT DISNEY STUDIOS

& now

STOP-MOTION
IN ACTION TODAY

Disney’s new stop-motion animated film, Frankenweenie, will be brought to life by some of the same production leaders who worked on The Nightmare Before Christmas, including director Tim Burton and production designer Rick Heinrichs.

Heinrichs says that creating a black and white stop-motion film like Frankenweenie is actually more challenging since there is no color to help bring characters to life. In order to look as realistic and interesting as possible, the puppets have real human hair and incredibly elaborate designs. Each human character has approximately 40-45 moving joints and the dog Sparky has over 300!

Production still takes just about as much time as it used to, but thanks to digital cameras, animators can now use a piece of equipment called a "rig" to make the characters move and then edit out the rig during post-production.

PHOTO: © WALT DISNEY STUDIOS

DESIGN
TOOLS

GAMING
"Art of the Video Game" is featured at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. through Sept. 30.

ART+FILM
Animation: Art Goes to the Movies is on display at the Milwaukee Art Museum through Jan. 6. Learn how art inspires filmmakers and experiment with creating your own animated characters.

ANIMATION
Discover the animation exhibit created by the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry and Cartoon Network. Check out the online activities.

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