PURSUIT : Stop-Motion and Live-Action

[Vortex42]

Hi everyone - I may put together a tutorial. But, just as a pointer... We use frontlight/backlight matting (I believe Isomer has a tutorial about this on his youtube channel... Also Nick Hilligoss has a tutorial about this somewhere on youtube), and to be fair the rest is just "good stop-motion animation" & "good compositing"... Depending on the shot you may have to animate your lights as well as your puppet.... Ron had to animate lights in this shot... I added some digital light in post too.

[delaneypratt]

@Vortex42 Please make one i am very interested in doing this kinda of thing for a project i am working on..

[equilibriumFilms100]

thats cool.. how did u make the actor and model interact i need to know for my film.

[ar4216]

@equilibriumFilms100

Yeah, I wish they would have provided some kind of tutorial. This is really cool and I also would like to do something like this.

[Mr128k]

you need to post a tutorial

please

[Roncace]

I'd like to try this although I wish I knew how

[foghornfilms]

friggin awesome!

[Vortex42]

Thanks, Colin!

[corruptframe]

This is really great. Did you use the Go-Motion technique for the motion-blur or did you add blur digitally?

One more thing, your video says "dedicated to the memory of Ray Harryhausen" But Ray is still alive...

[Vortex42]

Nope - not go-motion...

Ray is most definately still alive - The video says "Dedicated to Ray Harryhausen" rather than "Dedicated to the memory of Ray Harryhausen" as you believed.

Really glad you like it! :o)

More to come!

[corruptframe]

@Vortex42

Sorry I'm mildly retarded.

[gatometalico]

m_) Can someone explain me how do you do that?

m_) ..Ron that is a puppet, I get that, but...he moves so...person to be frame by frame..plus m_) looks so part of the scene than walking in m_) a green screen...I am just totally shocked, that's all!!

M_) Good Mouthful of a Hecky JOB!!!

[Dinoslay]

To me it appears that you somehow matched the turning axis of the camera work in the live footage to that of the composited Stop Motion character. Did you use digital tracking of some kind as well?

Astounding. You totally have my respect as an artist and this is how it should be done, to enhance something real instead of making it a video game.

[partier13]

A good title for this might have been "I can't believe it's not CG." Excellent work! It's too bad you don't see stop motion in live action features anymore.  You guys practically proved it could be done. You're my new hero! :-)

[andymation]

amazing work. nicely done

[NobleDesignMedia]

Congratulations to all involved. This is thrilling on a lot of levels. One of the most exciting is that it's the first stop motion global collaboration I've ever heard of. Truly superb.

[filmfanman]

Totally excellent!!!! This looks so much better than most of those fuzzy looking CGI creature effects that infest modern movies!!!

[dryad5801]

Great!!!

[domingomamin]

Powerful and amazing piece of animation with wonderful composition!. You have proved that it can be done, congratulations.

Fabuloso, magnifico, fantástico! Gracias Ron, Paul , Nick y Lionel.

[Vortex42]

Many Thanks Folks!

[cornflakeclusters]

Cool.

[weirdoughmation]

congrats on this great test !

[Gragorathegiantsnowb]

holy crap! that animation was fantastic! i also loved the demon creature!!

[Vortex42]

Thanks for all the cool comments guys!

[kuhnigget]

Nice. Very nice.

Next shot....get a fan and blow some air on those plants, timed to the creature running past.

But still...nice. Very nice! :)

[Vortex42]

Yep - We need some live-effects to complement the creature on future work. We knew that was the case, but our plan here was to get SOMETHING out there to show we could do this. But yeah - Don't worry - we have the whole lot up our sleeves!

[kuhnigget]

I figured that! :)

Good luck with the producers. I've been following the saga on the SMA boards.

[dubblestein]

omg, the options this gives is unbelievable, you nailed it.

[macfadyan]

superb, guys...really looking forward to more :)

[Chisnet2k4]

Wow, that's pretty amazing, can't wait to see the movie.

[LeroyBinks]

I love this and I keep watching it over and over. I can't get over the part where he slams into the wall. The sound, the shadow, Thats a great screen shot.

[cartoonmarc]

wow, very impressive!

getting the stop motion to match with the handeld camera move must a have been a challenge

[Dragonlordmike]

i agree this is the way forward for creature effects, and i will be following alongside these guys into the future of creature stop-motion effects! Ray will be proud of all of us!

[DanielQkillerD]

wow! wow! is that really stop motion? its so smooth? how the hell did you do that? amazing!

[animatorIsomer]

Already the requests begin for us to give up our super stupendous secrets for doing HyperHarryhausen© stop motion? We made a puppet and moved it a little bit each time we took a picture, there now the secret is out! ;) For all the rest of the details, you'll need to wait for the movie and all the behind the scenes stuff. Thanks!

[HeyMykee]

This is incredible!!!

I've never seen stopmotion composited into a shaky, handheld camera shot like this before!!! Completely successful as a test of the process!!!!

[animateclay]

It's been done, do a search for The Golden Child [9 Of 9] on YouTube. But it hasn't been done using digital equipment.

I think it looks great, I really hope that everyone involved gets the job that this test was done as a proof of process for. It would definitely make Ray Harryhausen proud, especially given that the subject matter treads on his past work ;)

[Vortex42]

Nope - Never been done before this... Golden child used a motion control rig to capture the live-action plate, and then used motion-control rig to capture the stop-motion... This test we did actually involved REAL human hand-held camera work with a stop-motion puppet inserted into the shot... Afraid even ILM can't claim that particular first... Only members of the ISMC can claim that particular crown.