Drawn

Here’s a nice Christmas present thanks to Neil, Henry, & Co.: A quick sneaky peek at Coraline, the stop-motion animated feature that’s currently in production at LAIKA Entertainment. (And, for the record, I work at LAIKA/house, the commerical division of the same company. In no way does this affect my writing for this post [insert wink here].) Written and directed by Henry Selick, based on the book by Neil Gaiman, Coraline will be the very first stop-motion feature to be shot stereoscopically with a dual digital camera rig for digital 3-D exhibition.

It’s not much, but there’s enough in the clip to get an idea of how intricate the animation is on Coraline herself. Oh, how I wish I could say more about this film (but can’t) — obviously, a short clip doesn’t do this film any justice — but soon they’ll have an official full trailer out sometime before next summer. (There was a 3-D teaser trailer that was shown only in front of 3-D showings of Beowulf.) The film’s slated to open in Feb. of 2009.

This wonderfully Rankin-esque “get a Mac” ad has been making the rounds on animation and Mac geek blogs all week. We would be remiss if we didn’t mention it. Cute overload on this one – I dare you to try and watch it only once.

According to Cartoon Brew, it was directed and animated by Drew Lightfoot (The Corpse Bride), with character design by Shane Prigmore, at LAIKA/house.

Animator Roger Wieland created this music video for the band Trenchcoat using over 10,000 cut-out figures.

Halloween’s approaching. This should help you get in the mood!

A series of brilliant, back-to-basics Nickelodeon bumpers from the geniuses at Aardman.

Not to be missed.

[Link]

Uli Meyer sends in this link to an animated ad by one of his directors. It’s an ad for Guinness called Hands and it’s absolutely brilliant — it was created using a digital still camera, and the animation is entirely photographic pixilation — no post or CG.

Update: The director is Michael Schlingmann.

Here’s a cool website to help you pass the hours today: The Ray Harryhausen Creature List has compiled a list of the massive amount of creature animation work that the legendary animator has created over the course of his career. As an added bonus, you can click on the name of each creature to see a movie clip.

(Link via FWAK)

Hee hee! No Santa Today is a wonderful little stop motion short starring a sock monkey and a wooden horse named Cecil and Britches. The cartoon was shot by Paul Corrigan at his desk during his free time. I wish my free time yielded such awesome fun.

(Thanks, Dave!)

Jerry at Cartoon Brew notes that Disney will be re-releasing Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas in Disney Digital 3D in October (trailer here).

Until then, however, you need to check out the 3D stereograph photos (bust out those red-and-blue glasses, kids!) taken on set by animator Joel Fletcher.

You know, for an animated movie that’s nearly 15 years old, Nightmare really has legs — especially in this age of CGI-or-Bust. The film has spawned its own prolific mini marketing machine of branded merchandise and toys that seems stronger today than at the time of the film’s release, and now with this timely re-release, maybe we can expect more Skellington goods.

Check out this YouTube link: Mysterious Mose. Directed by Seamus Walsh and Mark Caballero, it’s a pitch-perfect throwback to 70′s-era stop motion and puppetry, and something I definitely would have watched as a kid. If I didn’t know better I’d fully believe if you told me it was from an episode of The Hilarious House of Frightenstein. Be sure to check out more of their work here, including a gorgeous stop-motion Flintstones promo for Cartoon Network, and their Annie Award-winning work restoring and completing The Tortoise and the Hair with Ray Harryhausen.