The 2017 Academy Award nominations are out! Among them are two nominations for LAIKA‘s #OregonMade “Kubo And The Two Strings” – Animated Feature, and Visual Effects!
LAIKA and Focus Features’ “Kubo And The Two Strings” will open on August 19th. “Kubo” is “a clever, kindhearted boy (voiced by Art Parkinson of “Game of Thrones”) who ekes out a humble living, telling fantastical stories to the people of his seaside town. But his relatively quiet existence is shattered when he accidentally summons a mythical spirit from his past which storms down from the heavens to enforce an age-old vendetta. Now on the run, Kubo joins forces with Monkey (Academy Award winner Charlize Theron) and Beetle (Academy Award winner Matthew McConaughey), and sets out on a thrilling quest to save his family and solve the mystery ofhis fallen father, the greatest samurai warrior the world has ever known.Continue reading... “LAIKA’s New Feature, “Kubo And The Two Strings” Opens This Month”
Laika’s Brian McLean won a special award from the Oscars for “pioneering the use of rapid prototyping for character animation in stop-motion film production.” (Laika photo.)
Laika uses stop-motion animation techniques to bring their characters to life, but with hundreds of puppets needed for the process it is painstaking to create the many expressions and movement needed to make the action fluid. The studio overcame this by becoming early adopter’s of the 3-D printing process that enabled them to create the many minuscule changing facial features without losing any of the artistry that goes into each puppet. Continue reading... “Laika Wins Technical Oscar’s Award For 3-D Printing Technology”
The role of “FX Artist” working on a film is a fun one indeed. FX Artists are tasked with creating dynamics and particle animations that create flashy effects like explosions, psunami level tidal waves, smoke, buildings crumbling, and other such epic imagery that make summer blockbusters all the more fun.
Two Oregon companies, LAIKA and Bent Image Lab picked up nominations for the 42nd Annual Annie Awards. (Bent Image Lab garnered a nomination for “Polariffic” (Hallmark) in the Best Animated Special Production category, and Laika’s “The Boxtrolls” picked up 13 nominations, including Best Animated Feature.) Laika was awarded two Annies for Best Production Design and Best Voice Acting (Ben Kingsley as Archibald Snatcher). “The Boxtrolls” is also nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Oscar’s next month. Continue reading... “LAIKA Scoops Two Annie Awards”
The Portland area visual effects and animation user group, VFX/PDX, has a special program on tap for the upcoming user group meeting on November 15th. A little something called “Short Film Saturday!” It’s been a prolific year for eye-popping short films in the area, and this show promises an in-depth look behind the scenes at the visual effects and other wizardry from this year’s crop. Headlining will be Toby Froud’s Lesson’s Learned(presented with VFX artists Adam Sager and David Manuel) and Joshua Cox’s Proximity. Continue reading... “VFX/PDX User Group Meeting – Short Film Saturday! w/Lessons Learned + Proximity & More!”
Laika’s third big, stop motion feature, “The Box Trolls” (Laika and Focus Features) had some positive nationwide opening numbers, $17.3 million gross, Laika’s biggest opening yet. Laika President,Travis Knight, and Focus Features CEO, Paul Schlessel announced late last week that they will continue to work together for three more projects.
Members of the Production Industry At PWA NW Youth Careers Expo
Last week saw a strong turnout for the Annual Portland Workforce Alliance NW Youth Careers Expo. Oregon Film asked members of the production community to join us in showcasing an array of production job opportunities that are here in Oregon. With a staggering 5,000 students attending, it was a productive day showing future job possibilities in a hands-on way.
In Individual Achievement nominations there are seven categories in which ParaNorman talent gets a nod:
Animated Effects; Andrew Nawrot, Joe Gorski, Grant Laker, Character Animation; Travis Knight, Directing; Sam Fell, Chris Butler, Character Design; Heidi Smith, Production Design; Nelson Lowry, Ross Stewart, Pete Oswald Ean McNamara, Trevor Dalmer, Storyboarding; Emmanuela Cozzi and Writing; Chris Butler.
LAIKA
