Stop Motion
December 10, 2013 5:50 AM Subscribe
Making Of The Bear and The Hare - For the John Lewis Christmas advert Hornet/Blinkink directors Elliot Dear and Yves Geleyn took the two most traditional and time-honored animation processes – stop-motion and traditional hand-drawn 2D animation – and combined them to create something innovative and unique.
Didn't honestly think the results were all that extraordinary, but perhaps it had been over-sold to me before I saw it.
posted by Segundus at 6:42 AM on December 10, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Segundus at 6:42 AM on December 10, 2013 [1 favorite]
This is great, I love stop motion and seeing how other people do it. All the behind the scenes stuff is always awesome.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:46 AM on December 10, 2013
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:46 AM on December 10, 2013
Still think it looks like Watership Down. Which is a weird association to have. Mefi's Own flashboy cut them together (warning, cartoon rabbit death).
posted by Happy Dave at 7:01 AM on December 10, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by Happy Dave at 7:01 AM on December 10, 2013 [1 favorite]
I thought it was pretty adorable and I liked watching the craft behind it.
posted by Mister_A at 7:34 AM on December 10, 2013
posted by Mister_A at 7:34 AM on December 10, 2013
Explains why it cost £1m to make (the reported £7m figure includes their media buy - if you want to buy the breaks around The X Factor, Downton Abbey and IACGMOOH, it adds up!)
posted by mippy at 9:51 AM on December 10, 2013
posted by mippy at 9:51 AM on December 10, 2013
It's pretty, but I'll try asking again: why stop-motion? Why was this not simply cel-animated?
posted by progosk at 9:57 AM on December 10, 2013
posted by progosk at 9:57 AM on December 10, 2013
As someone learning stop motion, heres why: Neither is particularly better, but it comes down to a personal choice, IMO. I hate the idea of doing cell animation, it seems very boring. But building a set, setting up lighting and designing and creating actual physical characters and then bringing them to life? Oh man, that sounds like a marvelous challenge.
Visually, I think stop motion imparts a very concrete sense of a physical place and people that 2d animation can't quite match, though of course it has other strengths.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 10:22 AM on December 10, 2013
Visually, I think stop motion imparts a very concrete sense of a physical place and people that 2d animation can't quite match, though of course it has other strengths.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 10:22 AM on December 10, 2013
In this particular instance, though, the outcome doesn't seem all that different from the cel approach, the whole thing hardly takes advantage of the things that only stop-motion allows - unless I'm failing to appreciate some specifics. Dunno, it just seemed a somewhat arbitrary choice, judging by the result.
posted by progosk at 10:37 AM on December 10, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by progosk at 10:37 AM on December 10, 2013 [1 favorite]
Well, that brought me to helpless tears, but it's partially because I couldn't help but link it with Martin Bell's Christmas story Barrington Bunny.
posted by jocelmeow at 12:12 PM on December 10, 2013
posted by jocelmeow at 12:12 PM on December 10, 2013
I could easily see someone shooting background plates with a model and then digitally compositing the character animation into the shot, and that would be closer in some ways to the Fleischer Studios' process, where they are cells on pegs.
That they put the animated characters right into the set means they light everything together, and that gets a slightly different aesthetic. You get little shadows from the moving characters and whatever else helps them feel in place.
And the piece goes all out with the camera movement to never let you forget the locations are 3-dimensional. You could maybe get the same look with a computer model but I'm not sure you'd save any money without cheaping out in ways that make it look very computery. Or you could do paintings that are animated as multiple planes, which can look very good, but you have some elements in terms of parallax which gives this its own aesthetic.
posted by RobotHero at 7:25 PM on December 10, 2013
That they put the animated characters right into the set means they light everything together, and that gets a slightly different aesthetic. You get little shadows from the moving characters and whatever else helps them feel in place.
And the piece goes all out with the camera movement to never let you forget the locations are 3-dimensional. You could maybe get the same look with a computer model but I'm not sure you'd save any money without cheaping out in ways that make it look very computery. Or you could do paintings that are animated as multiple planes, which can look very good, but you have some elements in terms of parallax which gives this its own aesthetic.
posted by RobotHero at 7:25 PM on December 10, 2013
Dunno, to me the delight of viewing the models and little dollhouse-like props in the making of video was lost in the finished product, a result I'm sure they creators did not intend!
See, for instance, the first test footage of the bear walking in the woods: to me the woods looked flatter and more cartoon-like in coloration (the tree trunk lines), less 3-D like.
I did love seeing all those little hand-finished pressies for the woodland creatures.
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 7:56 PM on December 10, 2013
See, for instance, the first test footage of the bear walking in the woods: to me the woods looked flatter and more cartoon-like in coloration (the tree trunk lines), less 3-D like.
I did love seeing all those little hand-finished pressies for the woodland creatures.
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 7:56 PM on December 10, 2013
See, for instance, the first test footage of the bear walking in the woods: to me the woods looked flatter and more cartoon-like in coloration (the tree trunk lines), less 3-D like.
I think that was very intentional, as it gave visual flair to the background, while the simplistically of the characters gave focus to the eyes.
In this particular instance, though, the outcome doesn't seem all that different from the cel approach, the whole thing hardly takes advantage of the things that only stop-motion allows - unless I'm failing to appreciate some specifics.
The 3D elements gives rich textural quality which would be very hard or impossible to achieve in two animation. Their solution for bridging the two is brilliant, because they aren't overlaying 2D elements to hand painted backgrounds, but putting both in the same space which allows a more seamless appearance when it coms to lighting.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 11:04 PM on December 10, 2013
I think that was very intentional, as it gave visual flair to the background, while the simplistically of the characters gave focus to the eyes.
In this particular instance, though, the outcome doesn't seem all that different from the cel approach, the whole thing hardly takes advantage of the things that only stop-motion allows - unless I'm failing to appreciate some specifics.
The 3D elements gives rich textural quality which would be very hard or impossible to achieve in two animation. Their solution for bridging the two is brilliant, because they aren't overlaying 2D elements to hand painted backgrounds, but putting both in the same space which allows a more seamless appearance when it coms to lighting.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 11:04 PM on December 10, 2013
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