At first I thought Travis Knight may have been the one who animated Norman coming to life, but I stand corrected as it is actually done by the very talented animator Malcolm Lamont (who seems flattered to be mistaken for Travis). Nice one Malcolm! You can't tell from this clip featured above (I chose this one for the lack of ad pop-ups), but that surface gauge says Malcolm on it. You can see if you switch to hi-res in this version: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGnBT0J5jCs about 1:05 minutes into the video. Its great, you can even see the coffee draining from the mug. I know a couple lucky people that happened get that mug for Christmas, now those who got a different present will be jealous, lol.
That is a test stage that Norman is coming to life on by the way. Every animator started off in a test stage to practice animating before ever doing anything that appeared in the film. It's important to keep the quality high throughout the film. notice that this is a fresh, clean test stage though, mine was riddles everywhere with tie-down holes. If my memory serves correct, I started in test stage 9, no way of telling which one this was shot in.
Thanks to Laika for putting this together, its so gratifying when the public understands the sweat and tears that go into making the illusion of life, since this is not normally considered by the average movie-goer. Laika is certainly doing everything they can to promote ParaNorman, even books and Merchandise are coming out; which can only serve to increase the potential fan base!
