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Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Boxtrolls and its amazing miniatures







By chance, I ran across videos produced by the creators of Boxtroll, a stop motion animation movie. The enormous talent and artistry that went into creating the film's beautiful and intricate miniature characters, props, scenery, and costumes is mind boggling.











According to the producers:

One week was the average amount of time for an animator to complete 3.7 seconds of footage

Each animator had a goal of creating four scenes per week

24 kinds of weeds were created for backgrounds by the greens department

55 different sculpts of prop cheeses were made; different scale sizes were needed for wide, medium and close shots

20,000+ props were handmade for the film

55,000 facial expression pieces were 3-D printed, with the potential for approximately 1 million combinations

And

125,280 individual character poses were needed to create the 87-minute film.
































What did the costumers state was their most important inspiration? This painting:



Check out the magic for yourself:

Let's Dance

The challenge of designing tiny costumes ;
http://youtu.be/Q2dFVnp5K0o ;
http://youtu.be/o4dYsR4xNRk ;
http://youtu.be/Di_w1K5fEMg ;
http://youtu.be/j1El1xVRrkA

Check out my Giveaway

To celebrate three years of blogging, I am giving away books having to do with miniatures. There are seven books and there will be seven winners. To be a part of the giveaway, please leave a comment here, or on any of my posts before March 31st, letting me know which book you want, plus two alternatives. Click here to learn more.


Wishing you only good things, Neen

Photos from http://www.animationmagazine.net/features/behind-the-scenes-with-boxtrolls/ and wired.com



12 comments:

  1. I looked at the video in amazement! Movement goes so slowly it looks like a regular animation. I had no idea it would take so much to produce so little at a time.
    Thanks for sharing that...I enjoyed it!

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    1. Thank you grandmommy, it really is amazing how much work goes into every stop motion animation, but in the BoxTrolls the work was especially amazing!

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  2. I will definitely be checking out those links - very intriguing. Love the props and characters. Thank you for bringing them to our attention.

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    1. Thank you, Sharee, I wish I had the time to create miniatures as beautiful as these!

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  3. Replies
    1. Bienvenue, Dominique! (Please excuse my rusty French. Thank you for your comment, I appreciate it!)

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  4. Hi Neen! This blog post is absolutely fantastic: I love these boxtrolls characters, they are gorgeous and unknown, at least for me.....
    I especially liked the second and the third video, but the others are also very good and so inspirational, they are: WOW :D!!! Thanks for sharing, you gave me lots of inspirations for creating miniature characters by these videos!!
    The above pictures seem a bit blurry to me, but I discovered already that I had to click on the pictures, then I could see them much better :)!
    Great blog post :D!!
    Ilona

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    1. Thank you Ilona! The BoxTrolls settings and costumes are a visual feast, I love the colors, textures and design. I look forward to seeing your work! I apologize for the blurry photos, I think the problem maybe Apple's blog software. I may try another app.

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  5. My dream job would be to work on set design for something like this. It's fantastic to watch. Thank you for all of the links =0)

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    1. Thank you Pepper for your comment, as usual it was supportive, and I appreciate it. I was thinking along the same lines, except I don't have your mad skills. With me, it's a nice thought, with you, it's a real possibility. My favorite link is the "Let's Dance" one. The song is an old Davie Bowie's, and the rendition is magical (I think better than Bowie's).

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  6. Wow, I recently watched the trailer links your provided and I am totally obsessed with the characters and props in this movie, even though I haven't watched the movie yet. I have a desire to do something based on this movie. I just love them. Thank you for the links. I think I might find some time tonight to watch the movie and the making of. I am sure I will become even more obsessed.

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    1. Sharee, I can't wait to see what you create!

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