Spangler Studios Blog

Here’s a clip presenting selected work mostly from this past year, some in-progress things, some finished. The music in the background is “Midnight on the Nile” by Spider.

Inspired by a NE Animators meeting last night that focused on sound creation, and some following discussion about bringing bits of animation into other scenes, I cut up some tracing paper and drew this, then put together some sound for it. You might have to turn up the volume for this one. I think the levels are a little low.

1. It’s always a good idea to make extra touch up paint for props and especially characters that are going to be handled and animated, as much as this might seem like a speed-hindrance at the time.
2. Writing down specific processes and solutions for problems and situations that might reoccur in the future, this will save time and headaches.

I was talking with someone at Handcranked this morning, and he said how the fabrication people were agreeing that it would be helpful to create a “recipe book” of mixtures that have been researched and perfected in the past for specific needs…. for example, how to make perfect snow for stop-motion sets, and perfect snow-glazed hillside plaster combinations. This seems to be a reoccurring theme with many people I’ve spoken with in this field. You can’t trust those fickle brain cells as much as you’d like to believe!

Today is Sunday, Oct. Last Sunday I took the commuter rail into Boston, and traveled to Belmont where I moved my things into my temporary home away from home. The neighborhood is very quiet and safe, the grocery store and train/bus stops a short walk away. My roommate Suzanne is a designer/illustrator/Lego enthusiast, and we are getting along really well. Turns out she has a history with some people from my last stop-motion job at Wreckless Abandon. Strange connections! It’s like this situation was meant to be. When I arrived I was only expecting an empty room with a mattress and box spring, so I’d brought my sleeping bag… but the room had been set up with a real bed and sheets, pillows, a nightstand, a desk, chair, and bookshelves full of interesting art books! I finished reading Smilla’s Sense of Snow from home last week, it was my night and morning companion, and I was sad when it ended. I think I’ll read The Endurance now from the bedroom library to continue the themes of ice and naval adventures.

The first week of work at Handcranked was an alternating mix of experiences. I did more tests using the puppets I’d brought in from past films and series work, along with my little elf with the cut-out head. Two tests that I would describe as choppy, were said to be too smooth, so I had to simplify the animation even further. At first it was a real challenge, turning off the “smoothing dial” in my head, but now it feels completely freeing. Most of the time, I hardly even look at the frames I’ve taken, instead keeping track in my mind and focusing on the puppet, as if the video reference didn’t exist, which is part of the idea of trying to replicate or at least consider the conditions under which the stop-motion animation from the 60s was created. It’s been like re-learning the process from the beginning, simplifying it. I’ve enjoyed getting away from my smooth style, and experimenting with these funny crudely expressive characters.

I now think that it’s helpful to know, as an animator and maybe this relates to other art forms as well: what you can accomplish, or in what ways you can pull off the desired result, using the simplest most efficient methods possible. After that, you can always add complications, but they’ll stem from a more organized base if you can begin with a simplified structure / process / understanding.

The people I’ve been working with here have been great. That’s always what makes even the most commercial jobs worthwhile, is the people I get to meet and interact with. They’ve been for the most part calm and good natured and surprisingly generous with the sharing of information about techniques and tricks and processes… the type that can not likely be learned from a book or even internet research, only experience/trial and error/or learning from someone with that experience. It’s wonderful being in such an open learning situation like that. I feel a strong connection and loyalty to the people who are sharing these things with me, and the chain of sharing is perpetuated, because I now feel much more willing and inspired to share my own personal learned techniques and processes and compiled learning with others who are in need of it.

For a few shots, I’ll be working with a recent animation graduate who’ll be acting as an assistant animator, handling the more repetitive and mechanical background character movements. Hopefully I’ll be able to pass on some useful information beyond how to animate these specific mechanical characters. If I wanted to be a jerk, I could just act mysterious about the way I’m doing everything, not explaining anything beyond the visible surface, but partly because I know how frustrating it feels to be around people like that, I don’t have any desire to be a jerk (thank goodness).

I learned a little about brazing the other day, something I’ve been dying to learn, so I can continue on with my kinetic sculpture ideas, creating them so that they can be durable. That was very exciting.

Beyond the work hours, life here is pretty lonely… I became somewhat depressed one night when I realized I was wandering the grocery store more for reasons of entertainment than for obtaining food. For example, spending several minutes standing in front of the refrigerated salad dressings display, picking up one at a time and thinking about how attractive or unattractive their colors or packaging were (”hmmm, organic soy-based lemongrass-ginger..”), while hurried mothers and business people popped in and out of my peripheral vision as they grabbed whatever they were looking for as quickly and efficiently as possible. I have to remind myself that this is only a temporary job, and I’m not used to being in such a quiet residential town. I think I’m actually turning into a city lover (who would have thought?). I’d hang out in the more bustling town of Waltham after work if the train didn’t come at such limited times!