The Nightmare Before Christmas

One of my favorite animated movies is The Nightmare Before Christmas . I love the dark muted tones in all of the "Halloween" portions and then the way it changes when entering the "Christmas" portions. It is absolutely amazing to think of all that went into making it.

It is a puppet, stop motion animation movie that took over 3 years to complete. I don't remember ever seeing anything quite so complex before. The complexity of the puppets and the space needed to do the puppeteering were also something to take into consideration. The crew were told to try to limit the space for a puppeteer to 3 feet; some couldn't and therefore were built with room below for the puppeteer to move around in. The styles of the different "towns" were also totally different which meant completely different set designs. Per Selick, "When we reach Halloween Town, it's entirely German Expressionism. When Jack enters Christmas Town, it's an outrageous Dr. Seuss-esque setpiece. Finally, when Jack is delivering presents in the 'Real World', everything is plain, simple and perfectly aligned."

Danny Elfman, who voiced two of the characters and was also Jack's singing voice, wrote the music. He said that writing the 10 songs were one of the easiest jobs he'd ever had, because he had a lot in common with Jack.

Their efforts paid off, because the film was nominated for both the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation. It won the Saturn Award for Best Fantasy Film, while Danny Elfman won the Saturn Award for Best Music. Director Henry Selick and the animators were also nominated for their work. Elfman was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score. The American Film Institute nominated The Nightmare Before Christmas for its Top 10 Animated Films list. Here's the original movie trailer.

Upon doing research about the movie I ran across some interesting facts. "The filmmakers constructed 227 puppets to represent the characters in the movie, with Jack Skellington having around four hundred heads, allowing the expression of every possible emotion. Sally's mouth movements were animated through the replacement method. During the animation process, ... only Sally's face 'mask' was removed in order to preserve the order of her long, red hair. Sally had ten types of faces, each made with a series of eleven expressions (e.g. eyes open and closed, and various facial poses) and synchronized mouth movements." I also learned that the figurine for Jack Skellington was reused in James and the Giant Peach as a dead pirate captain.

I'm including the making of videos here, too. After you've watched these I'm sure you'll want to see the movie!

Evian Commercial

This animated commercial is from 2009, but it's pretty darn good. I watch it and think about all the time it would take to make it. The syncing of the music with the animation alone would be so time consuming! I would love to see a behind-the-scenes on how they made it.

Animated Commercials

My Motion Design class has made me much more aware of all the animation we see out there. I couldn't help but to share this animated commercial about using the bus. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Time Warp

After seeing Mark's fabulous snowboarding catalog in GDS222, this time warp video caught my eye. I thought everyone might enjoy it.

3D Design Possibilities

I was searching for commercials with good 3D effects and wasn't having much luck. However, I ran across an ad for the Art Institute. It's just a short little example of some 3D work, but I kind of like it.

Then I ran across this Evian Commercial and it was just too good to pass up. I'm not really sure how they did it, but it is pretty darn funny!

 

3D in Animation

There are so many good animation commercials out there that it's just really hard to choose which ones to share. So, here are a couple to give you a few laughs. The first is for something I've never heard of, but the second is for Power Rangers - everyone's heard of them!

  

Rotoscoping

This week's homework is on Rotoscoping. I found this to be extremely tedious, but the end results were worth it. Personally I can't imagine spending everyday doing something like this, but, it wouldn't be bad to do on occasion.

I found this Awesome compilation video on YouTube and just had to share it with you. This is the Rotoscoping Reel 2013 for the company called RotoFactory. "RotoFactory is a visual effects company located in Northern California. RotoFactory has an extremely innovative and competent artistic team and the reputation of providing the best 2D digital paint and roto anywhere. With quick turnarounds, RotoFactory has always delivered shows on time."