Monday, February 18, 2008

The Movieum

Opening in County Hall, London on Feb 22nd is the Movieum. A potential replacement for the sadly demised Momi. This new Film Museum takes many of the ideas from Momi and other Movie Museums and brings them bang upto date with Animatronics, Sets, Models and a unique look at the British Film industry.



For the animator there should be plenty to see, there promises to be a section of British Animation including origional artwork, limited editions, Beatrix Potter, Dangermouse, Bagpuss, Mr Benn and Peppa Pig. Chapman Entertainment provide details of how they use Stop Motion Animation to produce Fifi and the Flowertots.



The museum has been produced by the same people who put together the Starwars Exhibition last year in Country Hall, Wierd and Wonderful

Monday, February 11, 2008

Animation Bafta Winners 2008

The Bafta winner of the Best Animated Film was as predicted, Ratatouille. I'm glad but not surprised that this film was recognised for it's brilliance. The Golden Compass beat it to the post for Visual Effects.

Aardman's "The Pearce Sisters" recieved Best Short Animation award, I'm not sure that I could have predicted that one as Crumble Giant was also excellent. I thought Osbert Parker's Head over Heels was disapointing but I suspected he had some good contacts in the industry to lobby for him. So overall I would not have been able to choose between the three but again I'm glad Aardman was recognised for its new animation techniques used in this film.

Thursday, February 07, 2008

The Making of Nightmare before Christmas

Although Tim Burton has been on the TV a lot for his Sweeny Todd claiming that it's his first musical, I'll always think of his classic stop motion animation Nightmare before Christmas as being his first.

I've recently discovered that there is a 3 part series of the making of available on Anima8.com



Part 1 Introduction by Tim Burton, Script, Music, Characters, Storyboards, Design
Part 2 Set Making, Lighting, Motion Control, Model Making, Acting / Animating
Part 3 Facial animation by head replacement, Lipsync, Special Effects, Compositing