CG was used sparingly – mainly to erase removable parts needed to make the puppets appear to speak, to remove rigs and to add certain visual effects. The heads of the puppets had separate upper and lower sections that were combined to create over 200,000 different facial expressions for the characters.Ĭoraline was created primarily with traditional stop-motion techniques.
Almost every facial expression in the movie was tediously done by hand. There have been a number of shorts since then, but surprisingly it was seventy years before the first full-length all stop-motion 3D feature – Henry Selick’s Coraline in 2009.Ĭoraline opened that 3D box of worms, and the process has already evolved. The earliest known 3D stop-motion animation is the short In Tune With Tomorrow (aka Motor Rhythm) in 1939. It was the first theatrically released 3D motion picture. Sadly, the footage is apparently lost forever.Īnother first is The Power of Love (1922), a live-action silent film. Smith and James Stuart Blackton used the revolutionary technique to bring a toy circus of animals and acrobats to life.
The short The Humpty Dumpty Circus (1898) was the first known use of cinematic stop-motion.
Stop-motion animation is almost as old as motion pictures themselves. It is fascinating to watch the characters come to life and be just as engrossed in their story as I would any live-action feature. My first stop-motion animation movie was The Nightmare Before Christmas – still one of my favorites! I have seen every release, including most recently, The Boxtrolls. Bill on SNL, all the great Christmas specials… and I wouldn’t get up for a snack whenever the California Raisins commercial ran. Ever since I was a kid I have loved stop-motion animation.