Pencil Test Studios explains why Armikrog is claymation over traditional 3D animation
A portion of a Omnigamer interview with Luis of Pencil Test...
Omni: Speaking about the expressiveness. Do you think there’s a sort of essence or flair that stop-motion brings out to it? Why did you choose claymation over traditional 3D animation?
Luis: That’s something we talked about a lot actually. Something we’ve talked about over the years. You know that feeling you got when you watched the Harryhausen stuff?
Omni: Absolutely.
Luis: And no matter how raw that was, because he was basically inventing the art form or surely elevating it to a place no one had kind of seen before. Even looking back at that stuff, there’s a magic in stop-motion animation. We talk about it a lot. What is it? I can only speak for myself. There’s something about the human element in stop-motion. We’re not computers. Our movements aren’t perfectly timed and precise and they’re not generated by an algorithm that says start here and start there and there. And then that curve between the start and end spot isn’t really smooth as human beings. It’s kind of what makes your personality. You can watch two people walking down the street and you can tell a lot about them by the gait of their walk: the little subtle imperfections, the subtle differences, their swagger. There’s something about the way they move.
I find that with stop-motion, because you’re touching it with your hand, you’re moving it with your hand, there’s something about seeing things animate and the locomotion of that animation is generated by a human being pushing things around that you don’t get any other way. You just don’t. And you’re either a fan of it or you’re not. It either speaks to you or it doesn’t. But for the people that it speaks to, that it touches, I feel like stop-motion brings a human element that you can identify with. I know I sure do and the guys do and we’re in love with it. [...] Animation isn’t a job, it’s a craft, and stop-motion is like the niche, exotic rare cousin of this craft. It really is that human element, those slight expressions that come out when a human being pushes those little objects around and it translates.
Omni: Speaking about the expressiveness. Do you think there’s a sort of essence or flair that stop-motion brings out to it? Why did you choose claymation over traditional 3D animation?
Luis: That’s something we talked about a lot actually. Something we’ve talked about over the years. You know that feeling you got when you watched the Harryhausen stuff?
Omni: Absolutely.
Luis: And no matter how raw that was, because he was basically inventing the art form or surely elevating it to a place no one had kind of seen before. Even looking back at that stuff, there’s a magic in stop-motion animation. We talk about it a lot. What is it? I can only speak for myself. There’s something about the human element in stop-motion. We’re not computers. Our movements aren’t perfectly timed and precise and they’re not generated by an algorithm that says start here and start there and there. And then that curve between the start and end spot isn’t really smooth as human beings. It’s kind of what makes your personality. You can watch two people walking down the street and you can tell a lot about them by the gait of their walk: the little subtle imperfections, the subtle differences, their swagger. There’s something about the way they move.
I find that with stop-motion, because you’re touching it with your hand, you’re moving it with your hand, there’s something about seeing things animate and the locomotion of that animation is generated by a human being pushing things around that you don’t get any other way. You just don’t. And you’re either a fan of it or you’re not. It either speaks to you or it doesn’t. But for the people that it speaks to, that it touches, I feel like stop-motion brings a human element that you can identify with. I know I sure do and the guys do and we’re in love with it. [...] Animation isn’t a job, it’s a craft, and stop-motion is like the niche, exotic rare cousin of this craft. It really is that human element, those slight expressions that come out when a human being pushes those little objects around and it translates.
