Making a stop-motion animation feature film seems like such a daunting task that director Wes Anderson might have had an easier time if his upcoming new movie Isle of Dogs was a live-action film set on an actual island full of trash. And a new behind-the-scenes video about how animators brought these very good doggos to life shows that while the final product is a visually stunning piece of art, the craftsmanship that goes into making it is just as impressive as the end product.
In this featurette from Fox Searchlight, we get to learn how 27 animators and ten assistants carefully–and painstakingly–turned a collection of human and dog puppets into creatures that look like they are living, breathing beings. Their process, which included studying the actual movements of people and dogs, hand-crafting countless different mouths for each human character so they could capture a wide range of emotions, and getting real-life video examples from Wes Anderson, is less about moving the puppets a little bit, and more about putting together an actual performance.
It makes sense that certain animators would excel at different aspects of the film making process, but the fact an artist can specifically be better at the nailing the timing of joke even when doing stop-motion animation is pretty incredible. How quickly do you realize you have a penchant for comedic timing when a five-second joke takes 40 minutes to film?
That’s just another reason to love stop-motion animation, especially because it would probably be harder to get a joke just right with a real dog on an actual trash island.
What aspect of making a stop-motion film do you find most impressive? Bark out your favorite in our comments below.
Featured Image: Fox Searchlight
Like stop-motion? Here’s more:
- 116 years of stop-motion in three minutes.
- Seven non-scary stop-motion Halloween flicks.
- SpongeBob’s stop-motion Halloween song.
