LAIKA
Jaden McGrath 5/3/19
Ever since their debut in 2009 with Coraline, Laika Studios has put out some of the best animated films in the last decade. From Coraline to ParaNorman to the Boxtrolls to Kubo and the Two Strings to even their most recent release, Missing Link, Laika has truly been a winning streak with the quality of their films. They have definitely become one of the most beautiful and inventive animation studios in recent history with their excellent use of stop motion animation in all their films. But not only are they the most beautiful, Laika is also one of the most hardworking animation studios around since mostly everything in their films had to actually be made by hand. From the characters themselves, the sets, the props, the ground, the water, the trees, and mostly everything had to be physically built and moved frame by frame to make an actual film out of it, which is Laika's specialty like another stop motion studio, Aardman.
To make a character or something in the environment move in a scene, the animators would have to move the object or character frame by frame for each individual shot. For example, if they wanted a character to wave at someone, they would slowly lift up his arm frame by frame and move it back and froth just as slowly frame by frame in order to make that action occur. And not only do they have to build the characters, but they also have to build the sets around them to make the environment of the scene come to life. Usually a set will be huge enough that the animators can step on and move around in case it needs to move a specific object or character in a scene. For their newest film, Missing Link, Laika made and used a total of 110 sets during the production of the film. Now you may be asking how they get the facial features on a character to move. Well instead of moving the facial features as well, they build multiple faces for all of the characters with each of them having a different reaction. Coming back to Missing Link, they created and used a total of 106,000 different faces for all of the the characters from Lionel Frost to Mr. Link himself.
Now although all of their movies mostly contain stop motion, there are times where the animators also use computer animation as well. Once again coming back to Missing Link, the entire set is made by hand, but in the scene where the characters finally reach the Himalayas, the sky and scenery in the distance was actually made using computer animation. This is understandable because having to make that far away scenery by hand might have been annoying and complicated. But what might be one of the most famous things Laika is know for is going big. Sometimes some of the models they used in the film were at or taller than the hight of the animators. Two good examples of this would be the metal contraption Snatcher uses in The Boxtrolls and the giant red skeleton monster from Kubo and the Two Strings. Particularly that red skeleton monster because that is by far the largest thing Laika has ever built to date. It's clear to see that Laika studios take pride in their work, and if you don't believe me, then try sticking around through the credits for each film. During those end credits, they would show a look at how the animators would build and move the scene and characters by hand. Leave it to Laika Studios to show how much dedication, tender love, and care can go into an animated feature and I can't wait to see what they do next.
I honestly had a blast with this article. Mostly because I myself am a huge fan of Laika and enjoy each and every one of their films. It kept my undisturbed attention the whole time and I actually did learn a few things while reading it. For example, I learned exactly how many alternate faces were made for Missing Link as well as how many sets they made and used for that same film. But a lot of the information presented here I already knew because I'm a gigantic movie buff and I make sure to do as much research about movies as I can. That would include the films made by Laika Studios.
As for questions, I actually do have a few. My first question would be how tall was the giant red skeleton monster in Kubo and the Two Strings was exactly? I also would like to know what the hardest thing they ever had to make was. Another question I have is how long does it officially take for them to finish one of these movies? As usual, I do not disagree with the article at all. I know I keep saying that, but here they used information I already knew was true as well as using video proof of their points. I think this is important to animation because for the longest time, the stop motion industry was not doing so well. Most of the studios wanted to capitalize on computer animation and still do to this day. But thanks to Laika (and to a certain extent, Aardman), the stop motion industry is alive and well. Thanks, Laika. And I can't wait for your next animated feature. If it's anything like your last five movies, then I have no doubt it will be spectacular.
Ever since their debut in 2009 with Coraline, Laika Studios has put out some of the best animated films in the last decade. From Coraline to ParaNorman to the Boxtrolls to Kubo and the Two Strings to even their most recent release, Missing Link, Laika has truly been a winning streak with the quality of their films. They have definitely become one of the most beautiful and inventive animation studios in recent history with their excellent use of stop motion animation in all their films. But not only are they the most beautiful, Laika is also one of the most hardworking animation studios around since mostly everything in their films had to actually be made by hand. From the characters themselves, the sets, the props, the ground, the water, the trees, and mostly everything had to be physically built and moved frame by frame to make an actual film out of it, which is Laika's specialty like another stop motion studio, Aardman.
To make a character or something in the environment move in a scene, the animators would have to move the object or character frame by frame for each individual shot. For example, if they wanted a character to wave at someone, they would slowly lift up his arm frame by frame and move it back and froth just as slowly frame by frame in order to make that action occur. And not only do they have to build the characters, but they also have to build the sets around them to make the environment of the scene come to life. Usually a set will be huge enough that the animators can step on and move around in case it needs to move a specific object or character in a scene. For their newest film, Missing Link, Laika made and used a total of 110 sets during the production of the film. Now you may be asking how they get the facial features on a character to move. Well instead of moving the facial features as well, they build multiple faces for all of the characters with each of them having a different reaction. Coming back to Missing Link, they created and used a total of 106,000 different faces for all of the the characters from Lionel Frost to Mr. Link himself.
Now although all of their movies mostly contain stop motion, there are times where the animators also use computer animation as well. Once again coming back to Missing Link, the entire set is made by hand, but in the scene where the characters finally reach the Himalayas, the sky and scenery in the distance was actually made using computer animation. This is understandable because having to make that far away scenery by hand might have been annoying and complicated. But what might be one of the most famous things Laika is know for is going big. Sometimes some of the models they used in the film were at or taller than the hight of the animators. Two good examples of this would be the metal contraption Snatcher uses in The Boxtrolls and the giant red skeleton monster from Kubo and the Two Strings. Particularly that red skeleton monster because that is by far the largest thing Laika has ever built to date. It's clear to see that Laika studios take pride in their work, and if you don't believe me, then try sticking around through the credits for each film. During those end credits, they would show a look at how the animators would build and move the scene and characters by hand. Leave it to Laika Studios to show how much dedication, tender love, and care can go into an animated feature and I can't wait to see what they do next.
I honestly had a blast with this article. Mostly because I myself am a huge fan of Laika and enjoy each and every one of their films. It kept my undisturbed attention the whole time and I actually did learn a few things while reading it. For example, I learned exactly how many alternate faces were made for Missing Link as well as how many sets they made and used for that same film. But a lot of the information presented here I already knew because I'm a gigantic movie buff and I make sure to do as much research about movies as I can. That would include the films made by Laika Studios.
As for questions, I actually do have a few. My first question would be how tall was the giant red skeleton monster in Kubo and the Two Strings was exactly? I also would like to know what the hardest thing they ever had to make was. Another question I have is how long does it officially take for them to finish one of these movies? As usual, I do not disagree with the article at all. I know I keep saying that, but here they used information I already knew was true as well as using video proof of their points. I think this is important to animation because for the longest time, the stop motion industry was not doing so well. Most of the studios wanted to capitalize on computer animation and still do to this day. But thanks to Laika (and to a certain extent, Aardman), the stop motion industry is alive and well. Thanks, Laika. And I can't wait for your next animated feature. If it's anything like your last five movies, then I have no doubt it will be spectacular.
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