Sinbad Update... With Pics!

First of all let me start off by saying I'm sorry for almost never posting updates on this blog, but that's largely due to the fact that the stuff I've been working on for the past couple of years is 'under wraps' so, there's very little I can actually show. But at long last, I actually DO have some stuff I can show you from my work on 'Sinbad The Fifth Voyage'. It's only a couple of photos and I'm able to (re)post them because the Producer/Director recently posted them on his blog and Facebook. This first photo is of the sculpture of the head of 'Alakei' which is a statue that comes to life in the film. This sculpture was life sized (along with two of her arms) and produced for a portion of the film in which a live action actor needed to physically interact with those parts of her. Sadly, this prop (although filmed) was cut from the film due to a change in the direction of the scene which rendered this head no longer needed. (I can't be any more specific about the reasons for eliminating those props without giving away plot details I'll get in trouble for!)

Now THIS critter actually is in the film! This is a creature called the 'Goliath Crab' and he/she/it is a nasty one. As I write this, I'm still in the throws of animating a pretty extensive scene involving this bugger. This is only one frame and I realize it's a bit difficult to make out the full design of the thing but, I suppose that's part of the reason this specific image was chosen for a 'sneak-peek'.

IRS Stop Motion Ad

I was thrilled to be the lead animator on this new ad for the IRS!

The Official Sinbad Trailer Has Been Released!

New Info - Harryhausen Tribute

All the most current info about the tribute to Ray Harryhausen and a video about it can be found at the following link...

http://www.stopmotionmagic.com/tribute

Ray Harryhausen's Birthday!

This year Ray Harryhausen will celebrate his 90th birthday and I'm hoping we can do something really special! When I learned that Ray would be turning 90 this year, I made a suggestion on StopMotionAnimation.com that maybe we should celebrate by shooting stop motion video birthday cards for him. Our friend Nick Hilligoss was already in the middle of shooting a short with that same theme for Famous Monsters of Filmland Magazine Online and I'm already working on 'Sinbad The 5th Voyage' but, I still felt that wasn't quite enough.

After I made that suggestion, a lot of animators agreed that the idea had merit and we really should go for it. I blathered on about the idea for a while hoping that it would become something worth collecting on a disk and shipping it to Ray himself. Well as it turns out, it got a lot more attention than that, the idea has ballooned and I'm happy to report that AnimateClay.com and Famous Monsters of Filmland Magazine Online have both taken up the concept and expanded it into something that amounts to a REAL TRIBUTE!

Plans are still being hashed out but, Ray's business partner has now officially given his blessing to this and Ray will indeed see whatever we turn out AND there are plans being hatched for this to be something that can truly be called an 'event'.

Over the past couple of weeks, I've been contacting as many stop motion animators that I have email addresses for and asking for their participation in this tribute and I'm happy to say that there have been a good number of those who have signed on to shooting a 'card' for Ray's birthday. I will be shooting my own short for this and I hope you will too!

So if you have the time, Please consider shooting something? There really are no strict rules for this other than the following... it needs to be shot in either puppet or clay animation and it must be 'family friendly'. (no gore or otherwise offensive content) Other than that, it can be as long or short, simple or complex as you can afford the time to do... it just needs to honor the life and career of Ray Harryhausen and/or wish him a Happy Birthday!

Further details about how this will be collected and shown are developing currently and I will post future updates as they unfold. But I want to get the word out to as many stop motion animators as possible as soon as possible. Ray's birthday is coming up on June 29th and I suspect that anyone who intends to shoot a 'card' for this event would need to plan to have it finished at least a month in advance of that date.

Ray Harryhausen is in my opinion, THE KING of stop motion animation and more than deserves his 90th birthday to be a massive showing of THANKS for all the years of entertainment and advancements to the craft which he alone mastered for millions of fans.

More To Come...

Sinbad: The 5th Voyage

I've had the distinct honor of being picked as the one who will animate a stop motion animated scene in the film 'Sinbad The 5th Voyage'. As an animator who has seen the work of Ray Harryhausen as nothing less than miraculous for all of my 43 years, I can only hope to make a meager - if not foolish attempt, to fit my tiny feet into those giant shoes.

We stop motion animators refer to him as 'Uncle Ray' for very good reasons... he is family and he will always be larger than us, for all he has taught, inspired and mastered. I will do my best.