WINTER TIME ZOMBIE- TIME LAPSE

We JUST released our latest stop motion zombie clip, called WINTER TIME ZOMBIE.

It serves as some good advice, if you are tempted to stick your tongue out during the holiday season.

Now, we're posting a "behind-the-scenes, time-lapse" clip. A few notes:

The toothpick is very important! It's used for animating eyes... and also gives the animator something to stick in his mouth when bored. Be sure to use the high quality, ROUND toothpicks, not the cheap FLAT ones.

The beautiful Bolex camera is being used to hold a set piece steady. It's not actually being used for animation.

Finally- these time-lapse, behind-the-scenes stop motion clips are a dime-a-dozen these days, you'll see them done for basically all stop motion features. And as you watch, you get the idea pretty quickly- take a frame, move the puppet... repeat.

SO- since at Mad Lab we are always trying to keep the audience engaged, we've added some EXCITEMENT at certain points.

Vampire Instructionals- Back To His Crypt

Some weeks ago, we introduced Mad Lab fans to our little creation, a wee vampire kid who did his best to school other vampire kids in the ways of the blood sucker.

Each episode saw the little guy choosing a "How To" topic, that ranged from "How To Turn Into A Bat" to "How To Drink You-Know-What". He even covered a subject that few non-vampires realize is very important to these creatures of the night: DANCING.

For that important topic, the little guy took his time and warmed it up, over THREE episodes.

The clips were very fun to make, and we had some great feedback. And they featured the great voice talent of young Marco Bertolo, who may very well have a long career as a cartoon voice actor ahead of him, now that he's cut his teeth in cartoon land (his vampire teeth, that is).

We hope you've enjoyed this run, and in time we hope to bring the little guy out of his crypt for more cartoon adventures. Maybe we'll team him up with other monster kids, or send him on some serious world-saving adventures (after sundown, of course). Time will tell!

In the meantime, if you haven't watched them all, here's the latest- "How To Drink You-Know-What".





See you soon, little vampire! Have a nice nap. We'll be careful when we wake you up next-  you're liable to be pretty thirsty.

Betty Boop's Hallowe'en Party

Closer... and closer... October creeps... towards... HALLOWEEN!

To deepen the chill, here's a fun Betty Boop cartoon from the 1930s, Betty Boop's Hallowe'en Party.

It says "banned" on the YouTube page, but there's nothing worth banning in it... it's pretty tame for a Fleischer cartoon, actually.

But it has some great moments, especially around the 5:30 mark, when the power of Halloween rises up, with a bit of help from Betty, that is!

You can always count on Fleischer to get nice and weird.

Enjoy!

Vampire Instructionals

If you are a fan of Mad Lab Productions, you probably know that just yesterday we launched a little mini-series called VAMPIRE INSTRUCTIONALS. The first episode is called HOW TO BECOME A BAT.  

The premise is a very simple and direct one: a kid vampire takes it upon himself (itself?) to create little instructional animations to school OTHER kid vampires on key aspects of vampire life (unlife?)

With the first episode only being online for 1 day (as of writing this), we have nearly 100 views. Considering we're a small company who is just promoting this via our own FB page and Twitter, and doing it in a fairly quiet way (since the series is just a cute little thing, not some big blockbuster project), that's not bad at all. The clip is getting around, and people are watching. Thank you, internets.

So things are good, but there is ONE area that's proving to be a bit of a challenge. It's a tricky situation, but there's no way around it. It's sure to be an ongoing issue, but what can we do? We made our bed (coffin?) and now we have to lie in it. The challenge is: dealing with this little vampire we have making these things.

Catching him (it?) was the first trick. Never underestimate the fangs of vampire, even a little one. And working within his hours of productivity was the next hurdle. That kid is a night-owl, to say the least.

But he's clever, and other little vampires seem to be able to relate to his (its?) take on things...and the little critter has a pretty good sense of humour.

He (it?) doesn't bite- as long as you keep his fridge stocked with the red stuff.

And we DON'T mean Kool-Aid.

So let us know what you think, and be sure to check our YouTube Channel next Monday, for Episode 2. Here is Episode 1- HOW TO BECOME A BAT:

Animating With CLAY!

Clay as in "the material"... not as in "a guy named Clay".

Many people are introduced to animation (and stop motion in particular) through clay, or plasticine, or even Play-Doh.  The material is readily available, and is easy to work with.

There's some real advantages to working strictly with clay. First of all you don't need an armature! The clay itself is all you need. The trick is that the clay can't stand up on its own (if you try to make too tall of a character), but if you can work within those constraints, you're in for a good time.

Another advantage is how incredibly animate-able it is. If you are up for it, you can sink whole days and weeks in carefully sculpting and re-sculpting every tiny piece of material. The results can be astounding. Growing out of this is another fun thing- if you love to sculpt and craft, it's a chance to do just that,  a LOT.

Another good thing- the material (as mentioned earlier) is cheap, and easy to find.

We like it so much at Mad Lab, we just had to create a little something out of clay!

Go ahead- let 'er rip!

Just click HERE.

How To Make A Miniature Severed Arm

1. Find a very tiny person. Rip his or her arm off. VOILA! Or- get some armature wire from an art supply store. Craft a simple arm with fingers. This will be like the skeleton for the arm, on to which you will add "flesh" and "skin". And since the wire is soft but strong, it will allow you to pose the arm when you are done.

2. Glue foam (even a kitchen sponge works) on to the arm in the shape of a long tube. This is the "flesh". Trim the foam down till it's "arm-like" in its proportion and shape.

 3. Tint liquid latex (available at art stores- get Burma brand, it's the only kind widely available that works). Tint the latex with acrylic paint till it's the colour of the skin you want (careful- it dries much darker, so do a test).

 4. Paint the latex on to the arm. This latex is the "skin" that is on top of the "flesh" (sponge). Keep applying coats to the arm and fingers, allowing it to dry between coats.

 5. Add little weird bits of latex on the end of the arm, or anywhere you want a "wound". Tint some more latex blood colour, and use that to glue to the bits on, and to give it a nice gory look.

6. Sculpt some bone bits for the end from Sculpy, and attach it with hot glue. Add some gory bits of latex around the seam, so it hides any mess from the hot glue.

 You now are the proud owner of an awesome severed arm that is capable of being posed however you want. Animate it! Scare your sister (or brother, or dog).

When the therapist asks you why you spent a week making a tiny severed arm, mutter something about "the voices told me to". The additional therapy sessions will be a great way to get out of school/work.

Mad Lab Makes A Commercial!

Hope you can tolerate mindless cartoon violence. This was just released today. It's the signal film for The Burlington Animation Festival, a new animation festival that happens this September.

It was great fun to do some work outside of the realm of stop motion! Special thanks to our 2012 intern, JASON BURCH for his awesome design work and animation on this.

Alexander Gorelick- Stop Motion Maestro

 This pic is from Alex's website, and features non-Mad Lab work he has done (just to be clear).

We have a larger stop motion project that we are developing, that is full of spooky goodness. We've been working very hard on it, to say the least.

Essentially, we're getting a promo package together that we hope will WOW everyone, and give the world complete assurance that this project is going to be a wonderful thing to behold.

Part of that promo package is a piece of promo animation, that shows off a central character, the tone of the project (funny and spooky), and the overall production value we are capable of achieving.

To that end, we reached out to a remarkable stop motion animation talent, Alexander Gorelick, to tackle the actual animation of the promo piece.

Alex is, in the truest sense of the word, a maestro. The life he can bring to a puppet borders on the uncanny. We're beyond excited to have him bringing our creation to life.

IT'S ALIVE!!!!

If you are a stop motion fan, you MUST check out his website, and his demo reel.

You can watch check it all out, here.

Directing The Eye of The Audience

DIRECTING THE EYE OF THE AUDIENCE is a very important aspect of animation. In brief, if something is moving (and other things are not), the eye is going to focus on what is moving. It probably all goes back to having to watch for predators and prey when we were hunting (and hunted) creatures. In other words "if it moves, it's worth paying attention to, because I can either eat it or be eaten by it".

Animators use this constantly. So if you watch this clip a few times, you'll see what we mean. In the background, first Fitness Class Zombie moves, and growls, while looking in (and down) at Living Corpse Zombie. Next, Living Corpse Zombie moves, and reacts, and then- BOTH zombies look towards Springtime Zombie in the foreground. With this, the audience is not only having its eye directed by what is moving, it is having its eye directed by the eyes of the zombies! What are they looking at?

With that, the foreground zombie comes to life, and lifts up the Mad Lab logo, and has his acting moment.

So the end result is a movement of the audience's eye from screen left (in the background) to screen right in the foreground! Like reading a book (if you come from a country that reads from left to right, that is). And that controlled movement across the frame (and in depth) is fun and dynamic to watch.

Cause at a basic level, the pleasure of watching animation is the pleasure of simply watching things move! It's up to the animation team to cater to that pleasure, and manage (direct) the eye of the audience- within the shot, as well as across shots (through editing).

AIN'T ANIMATION FUN?!!!!!