New vs. Old Stopmotion
I was watching "Coraline" last night (and stopped immediately after the first three minutes because I was too scared) and something I kept finding myself doing was comparing it to the handmade process of films like "Wallace and Gromit"and "Chicken Run."
The old process has taken a huge leap with animation houses like Laika practicing 3D printing technology to create more expressive characters, but I found the loss of the clay texture to be so distracting. I kept looking for tiny inconsistencies in Coraline and the other characters that appeared often in "Wallace and Gromit" and found the lack of it bothersome.
I think something about seeing the clay move emphasizes the presence of the artist and makes the film more endearing to me, the perfection of films like "Coraline" and "Paranormal" lose that touch in the pursue of advancing expressions.
The old process has taken a huge leap with animation houses like Laika practicing 3D printing technology to create more expressive characters, but I found the loss of the clay texture to be so distracting. I kept looking for tiny inconsistencies in Coraline and the other characters that appeared often in "Wallace and Gromit" and found the lack of it bothersome.
I think something about seeing the clay move emphasizes the presence of the artist and makes the film more endearing to me, the perfection of films like "Coraline" and "Paranormal" lose that touch in the pursue of advancing expressions.
I agree 100% with you on how the art has changed, but I think you can appreciate both styles. I think you can even take this thinking a step further by applying it to hand drawn styles; there's a warmth and purity to something like "Snow White" or even years later with projects such as "Lion King" that you can't find in Pixar's computer animation. But I think to look for that warmth in something that is totally different would be foolish, and we should instead focus on what we appreciate about 3D CG that is unique to that style. For instance, seeing the gorgeously realistic depictions of space in "Wall-E" is truly something to behold, and that's something you could never really capture with traditional hand-drawn animation.
ReplyDeletePerhaps it's just time to accept that claymation has evolved and we won't be seeing projects such as "Wallace and Gromit" anymore. If that's a style you don't want to see disappear, then the best thing to do is to create something of your own. If your passion for that style is captured in what you create, then I'm certain audiences will feel that love and want to see more projects like it, just as you do.