Trick or Treat Velma Time Lapse

How did I never notice this time lapse footage before now? This is from Robot Chicken Season 6. Velma falls from a building and breaks her back on a metal strut. Old-Man Whoever in the ghost costume throws up in his mask.

No wonder there is so little time lapse footage of me out there, it seems that I can't help but do product placement in everything I do (see what I'm snack on in the back left corner?).

Save the Wolves

This is from Robot Chicken: Season 6. I animated all of the street location scenes. Those include shots with the deer, homeless people and concerned man and woman.

*The elements stated above are the extent of my contributions to this video clip. All rights reserved to Adult Swim and Stoopid Buddy Stoodios.

Velociraptor Practice

There's lots of hype around the new Jurassic World trailer. Ironically, this Robot Chicken trailer has a lot more dinosaur screen time.

I animated all of the velociraptor shots, but not the human shot at the beginning. These were the first shots I did for Season 7 and it was a lot of fun! The puppets are foam molds from the old Jurassic Park (or Lost World) toys which I used to play with all the time in my childhood. I never thought I'd get payed to play with them as an adult!

*The elements stated above are the extent of my contributions to this video clip. All rights reserved to Adult Swim and Stoopid Buddy Stoodios.

A Grouchy Start

It's been a long time since I cut a demo reel together, and I'm realizing now that I'm probably not going to cut one any time soon simply because it hasn't been necessary for me in years. However, much of my studio work, specifically on Robot Chicken, is streaming for free online already so I might as well post some links to the stuff I contributed to. 

This sketch, A Grouchy Start, was entirely animated by myself. It's a rare treat to be the only person to animated an entire sketch simply due to scheduling practicality. Most sketches take place in multiple places, meaning multiple sets, so a single sketch will bounce around several stages and animators before it is finished. Since this sketch takes place entirely in one alley, it only touched one stage, mine!

Ricky Recycle Bin was an excellent puppet to play with, his larger than life attitude lent itself to broad acting choices, and being a Muppet-style character, meant lots of acting with the head. It had lots of input in the acting choices and really had fun when he looses his temper. For his last syllable of the word "understand" as he yells at the little girl, I animated him on singles to make it that much more crazy. As a result, this is one my favourite sketches. The Ricky puppet was broken in the spine and both shoulders by the end of the sketch! Oscar and his brother were fine by the end though, despite what happens to the brother in the sketch.

For an extra bit of trivia: the man wearing yellow that pushes Ricky over is modeled after the likeness of Animation Supervisor Alex Kamer.

This sketch turned out to be a favourite for viewers who have worked in a recyclable sorting facility, so this is dedicated to all you recycle heroes out there! Now the whole world can feel your pain!

*The elements stated above are the extent of my contributions to this video clip. All rights reserved to Adult Swim and Stoopid Buddy Stoodios.

Me in a time lapse captured while shooting The Boxtrolls

Post by The Boxtrolls.

*All rights reserved to Laika and Focus Features

The Boxtrolls International Trailer

The Boxtrolls International Trailer 1 is out

I did the stop-motion animation in the shots at 1:29, 1:43, 2:04 (holding the little box shot), and 2:06 (birds-eye-view shot).

*Elements stated above are the extent of my contribution to this trailer. All rights reserved to Laika and Focus Features

The Boxtrolls Trailer 2

The next trailer for Laika's The Boxtrolls is out!

This has some nice behind-the-scenes, backed by a smart music choice. One of my shots made it into this one, it is the overhead shot of the boxtrolls at the 1:04 mark. I animated the 4 adorable boxtrolls centered here:

I know all of their boxtroll names, but I don't think I can say them until the film is out. They've each got their own personality, not that you get much from this short clip. I'm told this trailer will show before Disney's Frozen.

*Elements of the single shot stated above are the extent of my contribution to this trailer. All rights reserved to Laika and Focus Features

The Boxtroll Teaser is here

Laika is giving the world a sneak peek at the next feature in a short teaser to show in the previews before Despicable Me 2. But if you can't make it to the theater, you can view it online here:

 

Poster!

*I had no input into the trailer and poster. They are both owned by Laika and Focus Features

An Animated Life

Today we say goodbye to a very special man. Ray Harryhausen has passed away at the age of 92, and with him passes a golden era in stop-motion and special effects history. Ray inspired and influenced countless filmmakers, animators, puppet-makers and special effects artists around the world, including myself. Ray transformed my curiosity about stop-motion into utter fascination. His book, An Animated Life became my bible; from 2010 to 2011 I lived by the good book of Ray, and it still remains my most treasured hardcover that I own to this day. Its safe to say that I would never have made Scrap Metal without the inspiration I received from Ray's work. He was a modern renaissance master of his medium, and it still boggles my mind to think that he animated 7 skeletons without a frame-grabber. That sequence still holds up today. It's sad to see you go Ray, but I will always have your films to bring me joy and to continue inspiring me. Thank you for everything, you truly lived an animated life. Say hi to Ray Bradbury for us.

-Good bye.

Watch Scrap Metal in 3D!

IT'S A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!!!

 

 

Scrap Metal is now available to view in 3D exclusively only on Youtube! And its not that fancy-pants, polarized 3D crap you see now. No, this is Sheridan Scope - hard core, blue-and-red, 50's monster-flick 3D where the colours are all screwed up, but you don't mind in this case cause its all nostalgic and junk! So dig out those old 3D glasses you cut out of your cereal box 15 years ago and put them to good use!

 



 

*NOTE: After launching the video, click the 'change quality' icon, which is the little gear in the lower, right-hand corner and change the video to 720p for best resolution, then click the little 3D icon which will then appear just left of this icon. You get some 3D options, I'd suggest 'full colour'. For best results watch in full-screen and, if this embed gives you any trouble, just click the little YouTube icon in the lower-right corner to go straight to the YouTube page. 



 

Scrap Metal takes on the World!

Well, its midnight, December 21, 2012. The Mayans predicted the end of the world and here it is... in the form of my stop-motion film, Scrap Metal!

 

 



Scrap Metal from Anthony Straus on Vimeo.

 

Merry Doomsday! And a happy New Year!

Teaser and December 21, 2012 Release Date

Well, we've all been patiently waiting for the Mayan calendar to end and now it is almost upon us. And you all know what that means right? Armageddon!! And what better way to celebrate the end of civilization than with the worldwide release of Scrap Metal? That's right, one year and eight months after the completion of my thesis film, I've finally decided to release it on the web for everyone to stream absolutely free! Why free? Well, money isn't really going to be worth anything in 2013 now is it? Except maybe to burn for warmth after solar flares knock us into the dark ages! One problem with my plan though, if the grid does go down, how will anyone be able to watch Scrap Metal on the Internet? Well, just be ready on the 21st to catch it before the grid is gone, don't wait, watch it while you can and send it to everyone you know so that they can get a quick glimpse of what the end of the world looks like before enjoying it firsthand!

I can't just leave you all high and dry though, so here is a little teaser that has been a long time coming:
 

View in HD: Scrap Metal Teaser from Anthony Straus on Vimeo.

 

 

Robot Chicken Variant Cover for Aquaman #12

Hey everyone,  I collaborated on a Robot Chicken variant cover for Aquaman #12, which is being released August 29!

 

 

 

There does not appear to be any credit for the variant cover, but here are the players behind the scenes: I posed and arranged the puppets in this cover, lighting/camera was done by Jeff Gardner, post production touch-ups were done by Cam Leeburg, with the image conceived and directed by Zeb Wells. I don't know who specifically made the puppets or the set, but it would have been several people at Stoopid Buddy Stoodios, which is where we shot this cover.

______________

 

 

Except from TV Guide <http://www.tvguide.com/News/Robot-Chicken-DC-Comics-1052101.aspx>:

 

 

     "'This is the last thing I ever thought we'd put on an Aquaman cover because it's such a bizarre collision of worlds but I think it's one of the best covers we've ever done...I just love the look on Superman's face!' says DC Comics chief creative officer Geoff Johns," (TV Guide).

 

Oh and I love this:

 

     "There is no actual Robot Chicken content inside Aquaman No. 12. 'Our plot is deadly serious,' notes Johns," (TV Guide).

 

_______________

 

 

And while you're out looking for this special variant, pick up Avenging Spider-man #11 which is also coming out this week and is written by Zeb Wells.

 

Oh and what's this it says on the cover? Robot Chicken DC Comics Special showing midnight on September 9? That's right! Check out the trailer:

 

 

I joined up half way through this project, so I've animated a few shots, a couple of them in this trailer: First, Aquaman falling on his face as Superman, Green Lantern and Wonder Woman laugh and fly off. Second, Superman getting shot in the crotch and saying, "What's going on here?"

 

I've got some other shots that I can't comment on yet, but I can tell you this: they are hilarious and this special is a must see for all Robot Chicken and comic book fans.

 

Excelsior DC fans!!!

 

....No wait-



Making Norman Trailer

ParaNorman has a new trailer out and this is a must see, best one yet! Laika really wants everyone to know how much work and precision goes into one puppet and there are a lot more than just one Norman puppet, I can tell you! Not to mention the ridiculously large number of characters that appear throughout the length of the film each have several duplicates as well. This is just one!

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!

 

ParaNorman Trailer #4

This one shows lots of stuff. I animated the bit with the windshield wipers!

*ParaNorman trailer is property of Laika Inc.

New - ParaNorman Trailer 2 and Poster are out!

*Spoiler Alert: This trailer gives away a lot of the gags, so watch at you're own risk*

 

Really digging this poster! 

*ParaNorman trailer and image are property of Laika Inc.

George Bush Caricature Sculpt

I finished this in May 2011 and just never got around to posting it until now. Started it in my spare time near the end of my internship at Cuppa Coffee where I learned a couple tricks; I set it aside to concentrate on my 4th year film and didn't get to finishing it until after my 4th year at Sheridan. In other words, it’s been a long time coming, so it’s good to finally get it out there. My apologies about the quality of the pictures.

ParaNorman International Trailer!

The ParaNorman Internation trailer is out! (MSN Exclusive)

Also, Check out the new posters!

*ParaNorman Trailer and Images are property of Laika Inc.

The ParaNorman Official Website is Live

http://www.paranorman.com/

*ParaNorman website and poster are property of Laika Inc.

ParaNorman Teaser is out!

Check out the Yahoo Movies page, and everyone go see it in August 2012 cause it's going to be awesome! Plus, I'm animating some of the scenes, so you know it's good ;)

*ParaNorman Trailer is property of Laika Inc.