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Grass Roots technical notes, by Dave Borthwick

Our previous work has consistently explored less orthodox techniques and narrative conventions, in the spirit of helping to ensure that stop-frame animation continues to represent a leading edge in innovative forms of expression and performance.

This is particularly pertinent when considering the persistent debate surrounding the continuing relevance of Stop-Frame animation in the wake of expanding CGI technology.

With few exceptions, the wider entertainment arena has been offered a very limited taste of what stop frame animation really can achieve.

It’s perhaps because the more traditional fare of 2D cell animation is a graphic process, that it compares so unfavourably with the graphic sophistication offered by CGI.

But the initial gaze of wonder that CGI often inspires, too often glazes over. Despite the technically unlimited potential, CGI remains constrained by the limitations of a graphic construct that, by its nature, lacks inherent substance, texture (and presence), all of which are basic building blocks of stop frame animation. It’s a totally different discipline with unique and abiding advantages over CGI.

Despite the limited alternatives that have found their way into the mainstream market, the potential for producing engaging animation is still largely untapped and is not limited just to the equally traditional techniques of claymation.

In bringing the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers to the screen, our intention is not simply to create a moving version of the comic books.

Choosing to work within the Stop-Frame technique affords us the distinctive look and feel of 3D model animation as well as the significant creative benefits of working ‘hands on’ with the physical components of the process. These allow us to take advantage of the spontaneous invention that is an inherent part of Stop-Frame animation.

But there’s still a roll for CGI in the production, creating the more expansive backgrounds and features that would otherwise be too costly to construct.

Our expertise in producing a seamless blend of these two disciplines is already well proven in the number of acclaimed films and TV commercials produced over the last 15 years.

Further streamlining of the production is made possible by our use of the current and developing Digital Stills Capture technology which allows for an unprecedented versatility in lighting and camera operation.

Stylistically, the Freak Brothers’ world is an anarchic mix of gritty urban realism and wanton fantasy which we are creating, through the skills of some of the best sculptors, model-makers, set-builders and animators that the industry has to offer. These combined efforts have already proved to be a refreshing and engaging use of an ‘art-form’ that is still largely unexplored on the more commercial level.

In order to give our creative teams the opportunity to benefit from the more constant play of ideas that occur throughout the whole process, our production ‘machine’ needs also to be flexible and versatile.

We achieve this by using smaller, multi-skilled crews thus avoiding any specialist skills becoming too isolated within the kind of large, over-departmentalised studio productions that generally suffer under the misconception that more hands always make for faster results.

This approach has distinct advantages. We can offer our crews the kind of continuously creative environment and practice that drew them into animation in the first place. An inspired team is a productive team which, we believe, should be encouraged to employ the innovative and often unorthodox methods that make animation such a uniquely creative process.

This in turn enables us to produce a film of originality and high production values, created in the true spirit of the animation genre that is steadily becoming one of the most popular forms of cinema entertainment and it’s achievable on a much (lower) budget.

Further notes. The advantages of a Digital approach.

The more traditional unwieldy, film technology has often made for the more ‘staged’ action and shot design, often associated with stop frame, where moving shots are costly and time consuming.

By adapting the much more compact hardware designed for Digital Stills Photography, it is now possible to down-size the entire recording and associated kit, making it far better suited to stop-frame film recording.

The impact on the film will be evident not only in a more expansive production and shot design that draws us more into the action, but also through an image quality that invites unprecedented manipulation and novel application of the two previously disparate disciplines.

Whereas, in the context of stop-frame animation, CGI has been used essentially as a post-production facility, it can now be integrated into an enhanced stop-frame process throughout the production stage that capitalises on the combined creative strengths of both disciplines the substance and texture of model characters and sets, and the high resolution image of CGI.

This Digital approach will not only enhance the production design significantly but will also provide a very appropriate technical effect enabling an entertaining portrayal of the mind expanding themes of the narrative.