Thread: Darkmatters' Puppet Theatre

Thanks O! I honestly don't have any problem with CG itself at all... in fact when it's well done I love it and consider it an art form all its own. What does annoy me though is how much total crap CG is pumped out all the time in the lower-budget films (sci-fi channel, I'm lookin at YOU! ). On the stopmo message board where I hang out there's a strong core group of CG haters, mostly guys who lost their jobs in the industry when it took over in the monster movie business, though there are also quite a few stopmo animators who made the transition - case in point Phil Tippett.

But for me personally, I was already hooked on stopmo before CGI even existed, and it's largely due to the same reasons I love dreams. There's a certain intense surrealism just in the way the puppets move... even in the shows I loved as a kid like Gumby (very surreal actually!) and Davey and Goliath. Just something about the sculptural/textural qualities, and the stylized movement, that when I got a bit older drew me to the amazing creature films of Ray Harryhausen, and to King Kong etc. Those movies are like some bizarre dream creatures emerging into the normal human world and wreaking havoc.

But I had an epiphany in the early 90's when I discovered the magical and fantastic world of Eastern European Puppetfilm - in particular the films of the Brothers Quay (not officially Eastern Euro, but they do it better then the Europeans themselves do!) and Jan Svankmajer and the Tool music videos, which are very similar to the work of the Quays. Heh, I'd post some videos of some of it here but it would just make my work look bad! I might make a thread about it somewhere though. This purely miniature world that's obviously created by artists and populated entirely by living puppets is what captivates me the most... to me it's more like actually being totally immersed in a dream.

Oh my god, HOW did I not notice this before? Yay, another animator on DV!! I myself am trying to get into the industry as a CG character animator (but I really want to be an auteur filmmaker, kind of like what you're doing). From what I've seen on this thread, you are seriously talented, as well as skilled, which makes it even better.

Originally Posted by Darkmatters

But for me personally, I was already hooked on stopmo before CGI even existed, and it's largely due to the same reasons I love dreams. There's a certain intense surrealism just in the way the puppets move... even in the shows I loved as a kid like Gumby (very surreal actually!) and Davey and Goliath. Just something about the sculptural/textural qualities, and the stylized movement, that when I got a bit older drew me to the amazing creature films of Ray Harryhausen, and to King Kong etc. Those movies are like some bizarre dream creatures emerging into the normal human world and wreaking havoc.

That's interesting. I was also very into stop motion animation, mainly when I was a kid, and was at one point convinced that the stop motion medium would be my future career (around the time when Chicken Run came out)... until I tried a CG program, and instantly fell head over heels in love with the CG world, and it's infinite mathematical possibilities. I feel like CGI aptly represents my dreams, even my weirdest childhood dreams from as far back as I can remember. Even if CG wasn't the big kid on the playground that it is today, I think I'd still be crazy about it. So don't let me near your hater friends, because that stuff makes me livid, like I'm defending a boyfriend, haha.

Granted, I still love stop motion a great deal and want to try it again, but I want the movements to be smooth, 24 frames a second, which is obviously harder, but the results to me are mind blowing.

Anyway, good luck with your project. Do you have any animation up yet to see?