[HN Gopher] Stop-Motion Movies Are Animated at Aardman [video]
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       Stop-Motion Movies Are Animated at Aardman [video]
        
       Author : zdw
       Score  : 40 points
       Date   : 2023-04-03 18:08 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.youtube.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.youtube.com)
        
       | jonhohle wrote:
       | The missing "How" in the title is very strange. Is that an HN-ism
       | (titles shouldn't start with 5w-how?) or did the submitter forget
       | a word?
        
         | CharlesW wrote:
         | It's deleted on submission in (I think) an effort to combat
         | clickbait titles. Submitters can edit and re-add the "How" to
         | titles.
        
       | tpmx wrote:
       | "we didn't want any CG in the film"
       | 
       | The fire/explosion effects look very CG though.
       | 
       | They say they're compositing this through lots of layers of
       | physical objects. Have a look at the fire-shaped cut-outs at
       | around 7m11s. It seems like they are emulating the CG-animated
       | look in a very roundabout way? Cause that's what kids are used to
       | and want, or what?
       | 
       | Edit: Just scrubbed through the actual short movie (Robin Robin;
       | https://www.netflix.com/title/81058433). It has a more typical
       | Aardman-look than what those clips in this video show.
        
         | illiarian wrote:
         | Modern puppetry cannot do away with CGI. The sets and the
         | movement is too complex, the effects are too complex, too.
         | 
         | In the very first seconds of the report you see a complex
         | animatronic cat moving across a blue ackground that will be
         | used to cut away scaffolding, stitch together different parts
         | of the movie etc.
         | 
         | What they mean to say, I believe is "we want to do as much in
         | camera as possible, and use CGI as the last resort". That's why
         | they specifically mention that snowflakes are hand-animated in-
         | camera.
        
           | tpmx wrote:
           | Robotics-driven stop-motion isn't (generally considered?)
           | CGI/Computer Generated Imagery.
        
             | JKCalhoun wrote:
             | Agree, nor do I consider masking/rigging-removal to be
             | "CG". They're subtractive, not additive.
        
           | steve1977 wrote:
           | I wouldn't necessarily call digital compositing, retouching
           | or VFX in general CGI. The result is of course a computer
           | generated image strictly speaking, but the term is usually
           | used for images that are completely computer generated, i.e.
           | have no optical source in the physical worls.
        
         | JKCalhoun wrote:
         | I take their point: all the material used in compositing was
         | filmed/shot. Digital compositing, while it feels a _bit_ like
         | cheating seems like an acceptable nod to modern tech in order
         | to have additional atmosphere (rain, fire, snow) that would be
         | nearly impossible otherwise (or if possible, wildly ballooning
         | the budget).
         | 
         | And other recent films using 3-d printing to create the many
         | varied faces and posed hands of the "puppetoons" is acceptable
         | as well.
         | 
         | When I watch the old "Rudolph" animated films I cringe a bit
         | when they add the rotoscoped snow on top of the otherwise 3D
         | animated figures/sets. Aardman seems to have struck the right
         | balance.
        
           | tpmx wrote:
           | Watching the final product I agree, they balanced it well.
        
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