U33 Stop - Motion Techniques LO1
Task 3) Case Studies of Stop Motion Animators
By Kirsty Richardson
Tim Burton (Corpse Bride)
Tim Burton is a memorable stop motion animator, director, producer, artist and writer that has inspired many other filmmakers with his unique style of work. He has created many well known films such as Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands and has also made many Stop - Motion shorts and feature films. One of his most famous Stop - Motion animation feature length films is Corpse Bride (or known as Tim Burton's Corpse Bride).
Corpse Bride is a feature length stop - motion animation film that was released in 2005 and dedicated to Joe Ranft (Executive Producer of Corpse Bride) who died during the production. It is a British/American fantasy film that was directed by Tim Burton and Mike Johnson. Corpse Bride was the first feature stop - motion film that was directed by him (his other 2 stop motion feature films were produced by him, not directed). Warner Brothers distributed the film and was Burton's first stop - motion feature film that had been distributed by them. Like many of Burton's films, Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter were featured in this film and voiced the main characters Emily and Victor.
Burton oversaw the production and had a final say of the overall look as he wanted to be in control of the production. After shooting The Nightmare Before Christmas, he wanted to do something along the same medium of Stop Motion as 'he loves it' and TNBC was a big success. The original idea came around as his friend gave him a short story from an old folk tale and this is what inspired him.
Corpse Bride is a feature length stop - motion animation film that was released in 2005 and dedicated to Joe Ranft (Executive Producer of Corpse Bride) who died during the production. It is a British/American fantasy film that was directed by Tim Burton and Mike Johnson. Corpse Bride was the first feature stop - motion film that was directed by him (his other 2 stop motion feature films were produced by him, not directed). Warner Brothers distributed the film and was Burton's first stop - motion feature film that had been distributed by them. Like many of Burton's films, Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter were featured in this film and voiced the main characters Emily and Victor.
Burton oversaw the production and had a final say of the overall look as he wanted to be in control of the production. After shooting The Nightmare Before Christmas, he wanted to do something along the same medium of Stop Motion as 'he loves it' and TNBC was a big success. The original idea came around as his friend gave him a short story from an old folk tale and this is what inspired him.
This film was shot on DSLRs rather than the 35mm film cameras (previously used on other stop - motion features) as they gave a better and higher quality and was also edited on Final Cut Pro. It was originally meant to be shot on film, but a quick last minute change saw the film to try and introduce a new technology and filmed it with SLR's instead. The Visual Effects Supervisor Pete Kozachik had previously tried to look for a different way of film stop motion characters and tested many cameras and theories. The studio were prepping for this film to be shot on film and were not interested in trying to invest in digitally capture. However, 2 weeks before filming was due to begin, Pete Kozachik and another member of his team came up with a solution using digital still camera that Warner Brothers agreed with and the production then became digital.
After many trial and error tests, the Canon EOS - 1D Mark ll was decided as the best camera to use for this shoot. This is one of the only Canon models that are fitted with adapters to allow the use of Nikon prime lenses to be attached (14mm - 105mm). They chose this camera because the image chip was the same size as the 35mm film they were originally using, therefore could use the Nikon lenses to get the same effect and could treat them like the cine film lenses.
The number of animators and puppeteers grew during production and by the end, they had near triple amount of people working on the film than they had to start with. A lot of time was invested in creating and developing each puppets characteristics that made it unique. The puppets were built by Mackinnon and Saunders and on average about 17 inches tall. They were animated on the sets and trap doors were made 4 feet on the ground so animators had access to manipulate the puppets. The 3 main characters (Victor, Victoria and Corpse Bride) had heads the size of golf balls engineered with special gearing inside so it gave the animators the opportunity to work on different parts of their face. Overall, there were roughly 300 puppets made for the 30 featured characters (rumour has it that they cost as much as $30,000 each). The production crew experience many problems with these puppets, one being the Corpse Brides' veil as it needed to be transparent, but this proved difficult to get movement in each frame as it wouldn't have looked real. They ended up putting tiny rods to control it after a lot of trial and error practises.
Roughly 32 cameras were used on the film, with 25 - 30 setups and stages having a camera each. They had a 'grabber' system where animators could capture frames and instantly download them to a computer to check their work and see how they sequence would turn out. There were 8 camera teams which has a lighting cameraman, assistant, lighting electrician and a set dresser.
They didn't have any time for reshoots so shot practically a 1:1 film ratio in relation to the storyboard. They made sure that the story and the way they wanted the scene to look was perfect in the storyboard sequence as they didn't have time to start messing in the production stage. They used a 'dope sheet' where each shot was broken down into a frame by frame sequence to get the main sequence of events that they wanted.
After many trial and error tests, the Canon EOS - 1D Mark ll was decided as the best camera to use for this shoot. This is one of the only Canon models that are fitted with adapters to allow the use of Nikon prime lenses to be attached (14mm - 105mm). They chose this camera because the image chip was the same size as the 35mm film they were originally using, therefore could use the Nikon lenses to get the same effect and could treat them like the cine film lenses.
The number of animators and puppeteers grew during production and by the end, they had near triple amount of people working on the film than they had to start with. A lot of time was invested in creating and developing each puppets characteristics that made it unique. The puppets were built by Mackinnon and Saunders and on average about 17 inches tall. They were animated on the sets and trap doors were made 4 feet on the ground so animators had access to manipulate the puppets. The 3 main characters (Victor, Victoria and Corpse Bride) had heads the size of golf balls engineered with special gearing inside so it gave the animators the opportunity to work on different parts of their face. Overall, there were roughly 300 puppets made for the 30 featured characters (rumour has it that they cost as much as $30,000 each). The production crew experience many problems with these puppets, one being the Corpse Brides' veil as it needed to be transparent, but this proved difficult to get movement in each frame as it wouldn't have looked real. They ended up putting tiny rods to control it after a lot of trial and error practises.Roughly 32 cameras were used on the film, with 25 - 30 setups and stages having a camera each. They had a 'grabber' system where animators could capture frames and instantly download them to a computer to check their work and see how they sequence would turn out. There were 8 camera teams which has a lighting cameraman, assistant, lighting electrician and a set dresser.They didn't have any time for reshoots so shot practically a 1:1 film ratio in relation to the storyboard. They made sure that the story and the way they wanted the scene to look was perfect in the storyboard sequence as they didn't have time to start messing in the production stage. They used a 'dope sheet' where each shot was broken down into a frame by frame sequence to get the main sequence of events that they wanted.
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