Saturday, April 30, 2016

The original StopMotionAnimation.Com is back online!!!


I'm stunned!! It's been so long since I heard any news about this, I had pretty much given up hope of it ever happening. But I just checked in at SMA and discovered the announcement. Here's a direct link to the archive for anybody who remembers it or who might be interested to see where it all began:

StopMotionAnimation.Com Archive

Of course I'll add it to the sidebar as well for permanent linkage.

A million thanks to Paul McConnochie, who has faithfully stored it all on a hard drive all this time and apparently has put in a lot of work creating the archive version. I have no idea what kind of work is involved in doing something like that, but I do know how much material he had to sort through, being personally responsible for a vast amount of it. And of course another million thanks to the site's creator and owner Anthony Scott, without whom it never would have existed at all!

I must admit, due to the silence on the issue I as well as many other members lost hope and assumed nothing was being done, and I grumbled a few times that we'd never see it again. I honestly believed all those posts were gone forever, and I felt it as a devastating blow. That site had become a home to me, and a source of neverending inspiration and knowledge about the artform I had come to love so much.

It was much more than that though - it also served as a repository for arcane knowledge and information that quite possibly does not exist anywhere else - from professionals who worked in the stopmotion industry when the giant creatures still roamed their stomping grounds at 24 frames per second, before the specter of CGI replaced them with sleek computer generated ones. The threads there contain incredible amounts of information on everything from tips and tricks to help people make their own stopmotion films at home to mind blowing facts and trivia concerning many of the classic films and animators. Especially with regards to King Kong (the one and only original) - that subject would bring in people who didn't participate on any other subject and who had an encyclopedic knowledge about the film.

Well ok, I better stop before the tears start to flow. I've been extremely busy lately - often too busy to even check in at the new SMA board, which is why I didn't see the announcement until now (need to check and see when it went up). But now I can see I'm going to be spending some reminiscing time browsing the old memories..

Friday, April 15, 2016

Sending Love Around the World




For many years now I've had a link for Jessica Koppe's website in my sidebar, and I kept it there even when she decided to start making her posts entirely in German language. That's because her art speaks the international language - you can 'get it' even if you can't read the words underneath. Visual art crosses the language barrier (which is exactly why I've always loved the European Puppetfilm so much even though often I have no idea what's being said in them!)

What else speaks the international language?

Love, of course!!

And that happens to be the subject of her latest endeavor, an animated film called Liebe (which is German for -  well, I think you already know, right? If not then I've failed miserably!)

Here's the link to her Indiegogo project:  Leibe

Yes, most of the text is in German, as is the video (at least the one I looked at), but she at least listed the perks in English as well, so if you decide to support her you can choose what level you want. I'm assuming that most of my core audience, the ones who go back to when I used to post about the Eastern Euro puppetfilm stuff, aren't overly concerned with needing to read the words, and are primarily visual people like I am. That's why many of us are artists after all, right? Because we have something to say that can't be said in normal everyday speech, or maybe not in words at all.



Jessica, if you see this, I apologize for not making the post sooner - I really wanted to, but suffered a debilitating computer virus that wiped out my internet connection and is still playing havoc with me. I'm only just now starting to be able to get back online, and limping along on this notebook PC that I have a lot of trouble using. Even the simplest things are extremely difficult. But enough complaining!

She explained it to me in an email, but right now I don't have access to my email account, so I'll try to reconstruct this from memory as well as I can. Hope I don't mess it up too much! I believe she said she asked people in her social media network to tell her their most powerful stories about love and what it means to them, and she's taking their responses and turning them into an animated film, I'm assuming in a style like her drawing/painting style. She likes to work on paper, often (always?) on paper that's already been used for something else, so it already has a certain 'lived-in' feel to it. I really enjoy her unusual quirky style and approach.

Let's send some Love across the Atlantic to Jessica, shall we? I for one really want to see the finished film!! I'll definitely be donating to help her complete it. I hope a few of you do as well.