The Great Hat Heist - Lewimations

This is about a video that I found by Lewimations that was completed over a year ago now. I remember when the film was still in production and getting hyped to see the final product after watching a short trailer. Since then, I lost track of the film, the website that was once up also seemed to stop being hosted, and the film only became a distant memory. Something jogged my memory today, however, and I went and decided to search for the site again to see if it was up. Instead of finding the site, which is still gone, I found the completed video on YouTube. What's neat about the video is that it's really well done and also that it's all done by a 15 year old. Although the animation isn't the most advanced(it's still very good) in the video, Lewi conquered the most important parts of a film. He created a great story, gave it style, mood, and atmosphere, and completed it. Those were the things that mattered. He succeeded in where many have failed, and best yet, he's got it all figured out at a young age. Aardman has realized this as well as different film festivals. When Lewi sent in some of his work to Aardman without actually giving them his name, they were interested in hiring him, at the time he was only 14. He's also won a variety of awards for different shorts he's completed, but I don't know if they are available to the public anywhere.

Well, here's the video. I encourage you to enjoy it the first time around, and then watch it again and study it. Try to find out what makes it good. Then look at the flaws and imperfections. Look at the lighting, animation, set, special effects, camera angles, ect. Hopefully this will make you realize that stop-motion animation doesn't have to be perfect, and that you very possibly have the ability to make something great as well. It takes work and time, but it's possible.



Here are some of the articles I found about him:
Teenager Turns Down Animation Job
Success at Film Festival

If anybody finds out or knows of a website or anything new that Lewi is working on, please post it in a comment or email it to me. I'd like to keep updated with his stuff.

From Clay to Computer

Here's an article I found on TIME about Aardman's flushed away and the transition from clay to computer. Just thought that I'd share it.

From Clay to Computer

Best of Aardman

Like the stuff that you've seen from Aardman? Well, I found out that you can see a bunch of their stuff on AtomFilms. There's a collection there called the Best of Aardman and features a lot of the stuff they've made. I think there are around 45 right now (The number may change if more are added or some are taken away from some reason.). Here's the description of it given on the site:

From the Oscar-winning creators of Wallace & Gromit, Creature Comforts and the Angry Kid series, here's a library of top shelf Aardman classics.

So, if you want to sit back and watch some good animation, go check it out.

AtomFilms: The Best of Aardman

Nick Park & Aardman Documentary

I found this on Youtube by mistake, and seeing that it was a documentary about Nick Park and Aardman, I had to watch it. It's a pretty interesting documentary, some of the stuff in it was old to me(I've read too many books and articles/watched too many clips I guess), but there still was quite a bit of fresh stuff. It was just a way to learn a little bit more about Nick Park and behind his success and Walace and Gromit. I suggest you watch if if you have the time. It comes in 5 parts, each is about 10 minutes long. I'll embed the first video, but I'll link to the rest. Embedding too many videos on one post makes the page lag a little when loading. Enjoy!



Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

Book Suggestion - Creating 3-D Animation

If you have been paying attention to my blog posts, not too long ago I purchased the book Creating 3D Animation. It's a book done by Peter Lord and Brian Sibley about exactly what the title implies. The book is mainly done by an Aardman(The folks who brought us Wallace and Gromit) point of view, but it does show a couple of other examples of stop motion when it is explaining the history aspect of the subject.

Overall, I think that this book is one of the best claymation books out there(I haven't read very many, but this one I'd think is near the top of the list). It is very nicely made, well designed, has nice and large pictures to show the reader, and comes in a nice length of 224 pages. The book covers a number of different topics relating to 3D animation. If you take a look at the table of contents some of the topics you'll see are basic needs, simple techniques, models and model making set, design and making, animation and performance, making a film, and more.

So, why would you want to read this book? Well, I think that this book would be good for anybody who is remotely interested in stop motion animation whether you purchase it or get it from a local Library. It tells about some of the techniques and processes that go into making an animation. If you know nothing about the topic, this would be a very good place to start.

If you would like to view more reviews or maybe even purchase the book, go visit Amazon.com, where I purchased mine used(almost perfect condition, a lot cheaper). I've placed a link below for easy access.

Creating 3D Animation Amazon.com

Aardman Morph

Have you ever watched any of the Morph shows? They're a show done by Aardman about a little blob character that pretty much lives on a desk and goes through different things. Although it seems to be more of a children's show, it's still interesting to watch at an animator's point of view. If you would like to read a bit more up on Morph, click here. I'm posting one of the many shows below, if you would like to see a search on You Tube to see if you can find any more, click here.

Aardman Ident

Here's an interesting animation done by Aardman called Ident. It's more of an animation that makes you think rather than for comedy purposes. Check it out below. If you want to learn a tiny but more about it, click here.

Aardman Commercials

Think you've seen all the Wallace and Gromit there is to see? Well, you may have missed some Wallace and Gromit commercials that Aardman has done for different companies. You can view those below. Also, even further down, you'll find some other commercials Aardman has done, but not with Wallace and Gromit as spokespeople. These are some ways to see how stop motion is used in advertising as well as some more great animation.





Other Aardman Commercials





I've actually seen that last commercial on cable, in Taiwan, but it was translated into Chinese so that the people there could understand it. I had wondered if Aardman actually had made that or not after seeing it a couple times.

New Books and Tutorial Update

Yesterday I ordered two books from Amazon.com. I've read or flipped through both before because I've checked them out at the library, but they were nice and cheap and they're the kind of books you like to go back and look at from time to time. The books I got were Creating 3-D Animation and Chicken Run: Hatching the Movie. If I were to get only one, I'd definitely get the first one, but Chicken Run: Hatching the Movie has some good information in it as well. The books were both under $2 used, the main cost was shipping, but since I got a free $10 gift card from doing a survey online, I only paid about 46 cents for both books. It was a pretty good deal, especially since they're both hard cover. I'll be reviewing these books later on the blog.

As for the video tutorial, I haven't done any more work on it. I really should start thinking about trying to work on it again sometime, but we'll see how things go.

Until next time.

Wallace and Gromit Website

After the last post, think I'll stay on the theme of Wallace and Gromit for at least a couple more blog posts. Hopefully you won't mind.

If you want to learn about Wallace and Gromit, the best place to probably go is to the official website. Over the past few months (perhaps longer), the site has gotten a redesign and new elements have been added to it. They've created more of a community atmosphere by adding a forum, a gallery, and contests, as well as other things to the site. Of course there's some clips from some of the Wallace and Gromit shorts and the movie as well as a little info about it. So if you want to soak up some information about Wallace and Gromit or just join in a chat on the forums, go visit the site.

Wallace and Gromit Official Website

The Wallace and Gromit stuff, by the way, I think would probably be my favorite in terms of animated films(The movie ranks pretty high in favorite movies as well). The stories are great and funny, the animation is superb, the character design is original and unique, and the set work is awesome. If you want to learn a little about claymation, just watch some of the stuff Nick Park along with Aardman have created. You can even see how they've improved over the years with quality. If you've never watched any of them, you definitely should get your hands on a copy of some of their work or check out their stuff on the web site.

How to Build a Bunny

Ever wanted to know how to make one of those bunnies that appear on the Wallace and Gromit movie? Well, now you can learn how to. Watch the video below to let Harriet Thomas from Aardaman teach you.

Purple and Brown

Here is some awesome animation done by Aardman. It's simple, well done, short, and funny animation done about two clay characters called Purple and Brown, hence the show name. You can view some of them in the video below. If you want to see more, just go search Youtube.