Variety: When the Oscar nominations were announced on Jan. 24, some may have been surprised to find “Kubo and the Two Strings” among the visual-effects nominees. But it wasn’t a shock to those who had carefully looked at the work Oregon-based Laika had done for its latest release.
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Kubo and the Two Strings has such an interesting animation style. All I ever saw about it was a trailer and a commercial or two and I was stuck by how simultaneously odd and pretty it was. I had no idea it was stop motion. I have such respect for stop motion artists; it is so so much work. As far as I knew, the puppets used for stop motion have to be soft. There are minor changes to carry out that either call for a new puppet or the ability to manipulate the one you have (to a certain extent). I wish there was a video or something to show how this 3D printing was used for the puppets in Kubo. I can't quite wrap my head around it because 3D printing, to me, is so associated with hard immobile objects. I assume that with he right joinery a solid, mobile armature could be made for a puppet, but that seems easily achievable with other products and wouldn't call for 3D printing as it is an expensive tool.
When I first saw previews for Kubo and the Two Strings I remembered being impressed with how strong the art design was. So many animated films tend to soften up their art in order to appeal to a wider range of audiences. Kubo did a great job in creating and sticking to a strong artistic direction. I’m even more impressed now knowing that most of the animation in Kubo was stop-motion. Stop motion animation is such a great art, and I’ve been worried that it’s been slowly dying because of computers. It’s great to see a blending of both computers and stop motion animation in the production of this show. 3d printing the models is a clever idea, and I’m sure it decreased production time greatly. To be able to 3d print a character’s model instead of having to sculpt and re-sculpt it allowed for the animation team to reach higher with the stunts and movements of the characters.
I never actually saw this movie but I have seen the trailers. It's awesome to hear that 3D printing was an integral part of this process. I was pretty disappointed that when I read the article there wasn't much explanation on the use of 3D printing in the making of the film. I think the title of the film was extremely misleading. Most of the article talked about the challenges of animating the film as a whole and not necessarily why 3D printing was crucial. Based on the trailers I've seen I can't exactly pinpoint where 3D printing might've been used, specifically in the water scenes. The motions of the water and wind are so fluid that it would be extremely enriching to see how they converted the solid 3D printed objects and created these forms. From the trailers I can see that there is a paper motif throughout the movie that looks as though these effects could've been pulled off by a 3D printer. There's a lot of layering of very 2D objects that create origami structures, and this quality is seen in many of the garments worn by characters as well as the architecture of the scenery.
The entire process and application around the technology of 3D printing is always interesting to hear about considering I know nothing about it and am not a very tech savvy person myself, but in the case of Kubo, it was cool to see how the use of 3D of printing was utilized into the art of film making! I always associate 3D printing with medical or scientific purposes, but it's fascinating to see it's start of being developed and integrated into the world of theatre and film. I've heard of costume departments using 3D printing to make buttons for uniforms or the props department using it to build something but I never even considered it's ability for stop motion. I agree with Antonio and wish that the article actually went into the background of how the 3D printer was used specifically or perhaps talked about issues that may have raised when using it considering the learning curve of using this new technology for a purpose it originally wasn't intended for. I'm excited to see how this further develops.
Stop motion animation is probably one of the coolest movie making forms out there. Hearing about the process and all of the work that goes into each individual frame is mind boggling. I have a family friend in LA that is currently working on stop-animation series for a Netflix. Hearing him tell me how much 3D printing and other CNC based technology has changed the industry and art form is, to me, both good and bad thing. For the longest time, this timeless way of moviemaking was done completely by hand and each prop was made to cater each induvial movie. Now with 3D printing, everything has been created with 3D generated software. Don’t get me wrong, I love to see this type of change, but I would like to see the oldies like the original A Nightmare before Christmas method. No matter how it is made I hope to see stop animation for many years to come and continue to be recognized in the industry as a whole.
I watched Kubo and The Two Strings while on my wisdom teeth medications, so it is safe to say that it has a special place in my heart. Through the haze I was still amazed at the incredible visual details in all parts of production: scenery, lighting, costumes, special effects, etc. I watched a behind the scenes video which showed all of the model figures along with the stands filled with hundreds of different faces for the same characters to get the range of emotion that the film shows in each scene, that could cleverly clip on and off to the figures’ heads. It makes sense that these heads would be 3-D printed. A part of me is sad that a lot of hand skills are being replaced with new technologies such as 3-D printing, laser cutting, CNC routing, plotting and printing, etc, since it means that there is an entire art form slowly dying. However, I think that people are still finding ways to integrate older hand techniques with new technology in order to create the best final product. I think the fact that we are still learning a lot of these hand skills while we are undeclared and even as declared designers and technicians means that there will always be something worthwhile in knowing how to do something by hand.
I absolutely loved Kubo and the Two Strings, and everything I’ve seen about how it was made has been fascinating. I’ve already seem a fair amount about the building of the skeleton puppet, which is definitely one of the most obviously impressive projects for the movie, but I think even though it might not seem as flashy, all of the detail work that goes into all of the characters is just as impressive. I also really appreciate that this article discusses the basis of textures, such as garbage bags for water and tulle for clouds. In terms of 3D printing, it one of the behind the scenes videos I saw about Kubo, they show a shot of a bunch of different facial expression being 3D printed, so I’m not surprised to read that 3D printing was vital for making Kubo and the Two Strings. It made a lot of sense once I saw that video, even though at first I wouldn’t have associated 3D printing with stop motion since you can’t manipulate 3D printed objects they way you can manipulate something like clay.
I have not seen Kubo and the Two Strings this article makes me really want to see it, for two reasons first that of seeing the how the large skeleton worked out and trying work out how they were able to rig it allow enough motion so that it could portray a realistic character in the movie. But more so than just wishing to "see" the rigging is that of seeing the models that they created using 3D printing, a field that still has yet to surprise me with how versatile it can be in fabricating objects. The usage of 3D printing in creating models for a motionstop movie when stated is both a incredibly simple and sleek concept and one that I'm not sure I would have ever thought of with out reading this article. It quite simply is a wonderful elegant concept that I love and really makes me wish to see how the end product turn out, which I am assuming is great considering that it is being nominated for an Oscar and other awards in the industry that let it sit in the same class as The classic of Nightmare Before Christmas.
I love the mixture of make culture including 3-D printers being implemented into the entertainment world, which always likes to be as big as possible. It makes sense for this type of change to occur and I can't wait to see what heights it can reach. The implementation of this technology in Kubo and the Two Strings is incredibly impressive and I wonder how a medium that is so delicate is holding up to the abuse that comes with posing the figures over and over again as well as in such an enormous scale, as with the skeleton puppet. Furthermore, I wonder how they're facing the challenge with making articulated limbs for the figures and puppets that allow them to be posed for the creation of the film. I'd loved to see the show just to see how it held up. Finally, in terms of our own world, I'd really love to see the use of 3-D technology having a stronger presence here in the school of drama. I feel like the 3-D printer isn't being used enough even though we created a safer environment for it. It might not have any place on the stage (for now) but at least for the scenery students to use as a model making platform.
This article makes me wish I had seen Kubo when it first came out. When I saw the trailer, it struck me as a really unique animation style but I didn’t really that they were using stop motion and puppetry. I’ve always been fascinated by the concept of stop motion animation. When I was very young one of the upperclassmen at my elementary school did a year long project creating a stop motion animated short and see all the work that went into that fairly brief clip was amazing. It makes complete sense to me that modern stop-motion animators would utilize the technology of 3D printing. Reading about the skeleton makes me want to find videos of the teams constructing and working with that puppet. Sasha makes an interesting point that new technologies such as 3D printing, laser cutting, CNC, etc. are causing the deaths of certain handmade art forms. However, they are also allowing artists to accomplish things they never would have been able to before. So I hope we can continue to innovate and break boundaries with new technology without losing the artistry inherent in handcrafted pieces.
I am deeply enthusiastic about the work produced by Laika. While "Kubo" is their most recent film, they are also the company responsible for such fantastic works such as "ParaNorman", and "Boxtrolls"(This one is frankly my favorite of their works due to it's use of color in character creation - If you have a couple hours of free time you need to watch it). Each of these films utilizes the "Laika style" with a fantastic mix of stop-motion and CGI. This company is bridging between the former world of stop motion and modern technology. The use of the 3d printer to create all the variations of faces allows for greater facial detail and more nuanced expressions than just clay-mation previously allowed. CGI adds in the more particular lighting effects, extends the backgrounds, and erases the rigging equipment they use to hold up the articulated puppets. Even with the help of technology, the process of creating these films is still extensive and highly time consuming. I have nothing but respect for Laika. For a cool time lapse/film by them - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF_MTFzm27A
I had heard a lot of buzz about Kubo and the Two Strings and their unique animation and stop motion techniques, mostly from NFTRW. But I didn’t really understand how amazing their process was until I sat down and actually watched the movie with a few friends over winter break. By the end of the movie I was absolutely speechless. My friends however, weren’t as impressed, that is, until I mentioned the movie was stop motion. My friends had mistakenly believed the movie was entirely CGI because of how seamless it was. Now, after hearing about all of the different techniques used by the team at Laika, I think the process was even more complex than I believed. It seems like the team tried to find the best technique for creating each individual element of the show instead of the show as a whole. They definitely deserve whatever awards come their way.
The creation of modern stop-motion films is really intriguing to me. Far away from the crude home made videos that we all made as kids , when we moved our legos around and took a blurry picture of each step (at least I did). I am interested in the work that Laika studios have done on Kubo and the two strings, but whenever I think about stop-motion animation, the biggest thing that I think about has to be The Nightmare before christmas. Arguably the best christmas movie ever, possibly behind Die Hard, I think it demonstrates a kind of mastery of the genre that I think were missing from the subsequent Tim-Burton-esque productions such as Coraline and Corpse Bride. There is a spectacular unity of the medium from the voices to the amazing soundtrack by Danny Elfman, and while the technical mastery in those previously mentioned films was certainly beyond mention, as I am sure it is with Kubo and the two strings, I believe there must also be room for good artistic direction. I haven't seen Kubo, so the jury is still out, but if its any bit as good as Moana, it's box office rival, then I will be happy.
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