Aardman Animations Ltd.

04/19/2024 | News release | Distributed by Public on 04/19/2024 02:41

Crafting Stop Motion Magic with VR Technology

Aardman is lauded for its stop motion mastery and rightfully so, after almost 50 years of creating cherished characters and stories in the medium.

But I've worked with the studio long enough to see it embrace incredible technologies along the way, ever since coming on board for the first Chicken Run movie. Technology has allowed the studio to create, embellish and elevate stories that are rich in scale and detail. I, personally, have created and worked on a wide spectrum of projects at Aardman, from feature films, commercials, series, immersive films, and game cinematics. A variety of experiences requiring a vast array of tech tools. Some very traditional, some cutting edge. But all part of an arsenal designed for bigger, more exciting storytelling that keeps an audience immersed and not distracted by the 'how did they do that?!'

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget was one such story that required the studio to unleash everything we knew at it. Engaging our army of multi-disciplined artists to seamlessly integrate the 'real' stop motion with the 'digital' enhancements.

This process included a healthy dose of the 'virtual' too.

'That's for games, isn't it?'

When I was first asked by Sam Fell, director of Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget, to be Production Designer, his first challenge for me was to create an image that embodied 'a Butlins for chickens!'

Excited to jump in, I designed a 1960's-style holiday camp postcard to give Sam a general flavour. He loved it, and I explained that having seen it conceptually, I would have loved to flesh it out as a three-dimensional world in virtual reality. 'That's for games, isn't it?' he asked.

I told Sam that I'd been dabbling in the VR for a few years, praising its virtues as a creative medium. My first experience being in an immersive story project for the BBC, based around the migrant crisis. Designing and co-directing the experience was incredible. I saw huge potential in expanding the world of immersive storytelling but also, the potential to create worlds in a new, exciting medium that felt, to me, intuitive and 'tactile.'

Sculpting and painting in a 3D space is very much like being in a virtual studio and this is what I pitched to Sam. That we could design the world for his stop motion movie in VR, where he could literally frame every shot on virtual sets if he wanted.

So, with a bit of free time, I recreated the postcard illustration in 3D, whacked a VR headset on Sam's head and watched for his reaction. To this day, I'll always remember the look on his face when he took it off. He had a beaming smile - he understood it wasn't just for games but there was a virtual studio at his disposal that could help craft his film.