Evaluation

For my groups presentation we decided to focus on the animation company Laika, and it’s stages of production. Before we even chose Laika we already had some preconceived ideas of what they were like, for example they’re the forefront of technology, they blend physical stop motion and digital CGI. They’re also artistically driven with story focus. We spilt the presentation into different sections, they were storyboarding, model making, post-production and animation. My job was to focus on model making.

Laika is an American stop-motion animation studio specialising in feature films, commercial content for all media, music videos and short films. They’re best known for films such as Coraline, Paranorman and Boxtrolls. All highly successful. I looked into the model making for all of these films and was blown away by the process, to put it simply. It all starts off with a 2D design that the model makers then have to turn into a 3D model.

During my research process I was able to get in touch with the model maker ‘Helen Duckworth’, we’d previously talked to her about her job. Because of this I felt inspired to learn more about model making, she explained “I was inspired to follow a career in CG when I did work experience at Aardman animations in Bristol when I was 14. As a child, I loved to make things from nothing, I had a keen interest in art but also was very interested in computers. CG was a perfect marriage of both these things. ”

The process continues with an amature being made, along with a mould. The model is painted and dressed. But the process that fascinated me the most is ‘Rapid prototyping’, the process of 3D modelling the puppets faces that has rapidly improved through the years due to Laika’s innovative nature. During Coraline they were able to produce multiple 3D heads by 3D modelling them and using a 3D printer. Laika have made leaps and bounds in rapid prototyping, by being able to colour print faces of their puppets. Coraline’s face had to be carefully hand painted, resulting in the model makers not having such creative freedom to the design of the puppet. Since they couldn't get every face identical, it would make the animation look noisy.

Angry Aggie, a character from Paranorman was another puppet that was fascinating. She was an innocent little girl accused of witchcraft. She was a very complicated looking character, she needed to be constantly rigged as she was able to fly. Her face needed to look like it was tearing and stretching. As if she’s being torn between two realms of existence. It was very tempting to make her CGI, so the animators could play with her. But they wanted to make sure she looked traditional. Although there were parts of her that was impossible to animate. Rapid Prototyping, VFX, puppets, costume, art department all worked on it together.

Laika is a growing company, and if they continue to improve on this old art style which is popular. They seem to be going in the right direction.