Slashdot Mirror

Long-extinct? Stop motion is alive and well. Heard of Aardman Animations? (Wallace and Gromit, Chicken Run, etc).

There are very good scanning systems that can build a model (at least, the external skin) of an object from a 3-D object.

In the past, you had a robotic arm, and you'd have to move it along the surface, or to specific points along a grid that had been drawn on the object, so the computer taking the recordings could use sensors to determine the angle of each of the joints, and calculate where in space the tip of the arm was.

Laser range finders have made that obsolete, and they can automate the whole system without touching the object being digitzed.

The clay mockup of a new car design has been done for years; well before they've been using compuers in the process.

There might be uses for this glove as an input device (ie, being able to store an animation of exactly what was done to get it that way... which would be cool for a 'making of' for Wallace and Gromit, but current technology would be more convenient for scanning in objects in which you can easily view all surfaces from the outside.

For me the word Morph is a name, and the name of that Aardman creation. I'm not from the UK but from Ireland where we also get BBC. 1980 sure outdates 1991 and Morph certainly did morph, just not digitally! I definetly think the date on the record should be 1980. Is it sci-fi, I'd say so, just way after it's time and for kids! And because a is worth 1000 clicks, http://www.aardman.com/showcase/amazing.html.

The Morph Files was early Aardman animation, with clay characters that could easily, well, morph from one shape to another as the story required. The first production is from 1980.

to the Aardman site

From the creaters of Wallace and Gromit, Morph! A cheeky bit of plastercine. More a name than a word, but he could 'morph' into lots of shapes. And this was back in 1980!

Have we learnt nothing from Wallace and Gromit's The Wrong Trousers?

Have we learnt nothing from Wallace and Gromit's The Wrong Trousers?

I hear they're linux powered.

Doug Moen

Robotic pants! What are they thinking? When will these scientists learn from history?

Feathers McGraw read Gromit's copy of "Electronics for Dogs", and then modified the (ex-NASA) trousers, so they were remote controlled, and removed the local control panel.

So it was a hardware hack, not a software hack. [But it's the hardware equiv of Back Orifice]

Any time to let someone get physical access, especially if it's unsupervised, especially a jewel thief penguin, you're screwed.

Feathers McGraw read Gromit's copy of "Electronics for Dogs", and then modified the (ex-NASA) trousers, so they were remote controlled, and removed the local control panel.

So it was a hardware hack, not a software hack. [But it's the hardware equiv of Back Orifice]

Any time to let someone get physical access, especially if it's unsupervised, especially a jewel thief penguin, you're screwed.

Feathers McGraw read Gromit's copy of "Electronics for Dogs", and then modified the (ex-NASA) trousers, so they were remote controlled, and removed the local control panel.

So it was a hardware hack, not a software hack. [But it's the hardware equiv of Back Orifice]

Any time to let someone get physical access, especially if it's unsupervised, especially a jewel thief penguin, you're screwed.

Working link here (Flash). Parent link doesn't work for me for some reason.

They were able to accomplish the entire trip over a single weekend, including building the rocket.

Of course, the best reason for going is the replentish our supply of Cheese!

In case you didn't see before, a previous Slashdot article on returning to the moon.

There's a nice history on their website explaining everything.

Gareth

I'd quite like to see this film, but where's the tech spec for the DVD? From the lack of one, I can only assume that this is Region 1/NTSC?

Just goes to remind us what a disaster the DVD region encoding is. Its a system that can only help large conglomerates staging their worldwide releases, not small operations who'd like to sell to all and sundry via the 'net.

Ho hum. Wish more folk would release their wares on Region 0, like the good folks at MindCandy did.

BTW, Aardman had been going for a long, long time. Those of us who grew up in the UK have been watching their stuff all our lives on Vision On, Take Hart, and Morph. The rest of the world probably saw their work first on music video - Peter Gabriel's 'So' was out 3 years before W&G. So its probably more accurate to say that Aardman got their start by years of slog on TV work.

As for "hopes to fund future films by selling his old ones" I think that's also the business plan of Disney, Universal, Sony.... ;)

Basicly you're right. Using clay would be the most 'natural' way to do it.
Unforunately, if you want to do it in clay, you would have to find a way to digitse it.
That means you need a 3d-scanner of some sort (here, here, here).
Needless to say, these can be very expensive.
Ofourse serious /. geeks would build it themselves.
On the other hand if you want to stay with the clay option, go for stopmotion. It worked for Aardman!

Recent research suggest that it is not green, but yellowish.

While you're waiting for it to go back up, check out Wallace & Gromit's Crackling Contraptions, especially if you've never seen any of the duo's shorts before. (Beware, AtomFilms only use the Windows Media Player format now.)

Wallace and Gromit also have an official site, available from the Aardman Animation site. -Mr. Fusion

While you're waiting for it to go back up, check out Wallace & Gromit's Crackling Contraptions, especially if you've never seen any of the duo's shorts before. (Beware, AtomFilms only use the Windows Media Player format now.)

Wallace and Gromit also have an official site, available from the Aardman Animation site. -Mr. Fusion

Wallace and Grommit offical site

better looking than the developers site which truly looks like the car mechanic's car

The first wallace and grommit was "a grand day out" about an adventure they went on to get more cheese. Where is the biggest supply of cheese? Hence all the cheese jokes, dear moderators. This came out in 1991, so it is more likely that Microsoft stole the dog image from aardman than vice versa.

My favourite penguin has always been Opus. And did not the original evil pengiun from Batman, predate Linux? Linux was also created in 1991 another coincidence?

Like all things, some penguins are good and some are not.

Personally I get all my space-related facts from this

baaaah!
I wonder if they'll be able to create another character that mass-appealing. Especially for the ladies.
Sometimes I feel like I'm the only male person with a Wallace and Gromit Shaving Set.

By the way, they're already working on a video game. Creepy.

Umm maybe that's just my confession that all of these items currently exist in my household. Plus a single solitary Gromit.

One.. two.. three.. baaaah!

I don't know why this is such a big deal!

Wallace and Grommet for the uninitiated: here.

...This has been interpreted by the Wallace court as permitting such devious acts as shouting "Fire" in a crowded theater illegal, and under the Grommet Doctrine has allowed threats against the President's life and other disruptive speech to be further limited.

Look, I'm sorry, but claymation figures should not be involved in the formation of national policy, no matter how funny they are.

That's Gromit, not grommet

Actually Aardman has been doing claymation all the time for more traditional medium as well, it's not just the net, and it's not dying anytime soon. Chicken Run starring the voice of Mel Gibson was a good example, which did very nicely at the box office a year or two ago, despite not being quite as good as Wallace & Gromit.

The three Wallace & Gromit shorts are classics, frequently shown on TV in many countries. Two of them won the Oscar for animated short films. There's also a fine DVD with all three stories available, with Nick Park's early animation work as a bonus. R1 DVD even has a commentary tracks by Nick Park himself. Highly recommended stuff!

Not too long ago I saw Aardman's pretty recent TV-show Rex the Runt. It's only something like 13 10-minute episodes, but it was completely hilarious, very trippy and psychedelic. There should be second series coming as well, and I can hardly wait for it being shown on TV here.

Actually Aardman has been doing claymation all the time for more traditional medium as well, it's not just the net, and it's not dying anytime soon. Chicken Run starring the voice of Mel Gibson was a good example, which did very nicely at the box office a year or two ago, despite not being quite as good as Wallace & Gromit.

The three Wallace & Gromit shorts are classics, frequently shown on TV in many countries. Two of them won the Oscar for animated short films. There's also a fine DVD with all three stories available, with Nick Park's early animation work as a bonus. R1 DVD even has a commentary tracks by Nick Park himself. Highly recommended stuff!

Not too long ago I saw Aardman's pretty recent TV-show Rex the Runt. It's only something like 13 10-minute episodes, but it was completely hilarious, very trippy and psychedelic. There should be second series coming as well, and I can hardly wait for it being shown on TV here.

For some reason this makes me think of Wallace and Gromit's The Wrong Trousers. Not that that's a Bad Thing.

-- D.

Really nice. Thank you Pixar :)

Why is everybody saying Pixar=Steve Jobs ?
Pixar is John Lasseter, that's all.
He's an artist, and I love all that he has done,
from the very beginning.

I think one of the first 3D computer rendered image that Pixar made and got used in a movie was in "Young Sherlock Holmes", but I am not sure about this...

By the way, if you like short animation movies you can also
go to Aardman, and enjoy some movies from the makers of Chicken Run !

As everyone knows, the real reason we went to the moon is for the cheese. Foodstuffs, like aforementioned 'rocks', are always declared!

-----
IANASRP- I am not a self-referential phrase
-----

Forget the jacket, let me know when the Techno-Trousers are available -- as long as they haven't gone wrong!

All I can think of are Wallace's Techno-Trousers .... :)

Oop, Feathers McGraw. I wonder why I saw Carruthers somewhere...

Vote Naked 2000

Does this remind anyone else of one of the Wallace and Gromit adventures?

Actually, Aardman has a whole history of great characters from before Wallace & Grommit. They did a series of claymation lip-synch portraits of people telling their stories or of office scenes, including an incredible one of this rough kid who'd just been released from jail ("Going Equipped," from 1985). There was also the one of the social security office ("Down and Out," 1977) which was an early one but really incredible.

Their homepage http://www.aardman.com has details on these and many other great shorts. Well worth the visit!

I don't want to get all Katzy here, but we should consider all the things that can go wrong. This shows what can happen if, say, you put on The Wrong Trousers. (Even has a penguin.)

And can you imagine what would happen if you put on the wrong exoskeleton. ( or.. )

aren't you glad this isn't another anime/alien/heinlein comment?

I went to see Toy Story 2 a few weeks ago (it was great), and saw the trailer for that Dinosaur film. I almost puked - something about the flickery, jerky motion and the huge, slightly fuzzy screen... Anyway, that trailer was followed by one for another film - Chicken Run. No fancy computer graphics here - pure plasticene. It looks brilliant. It's from Aardman, makers of such wonders as Wallace and Gromit and Rex the Runt.

Ford Prefect

Oh by the way, have you seen this chicken?