harryhausen wouldn't approve

so, you don't see stop-motion used for effects work much anymore, mainly since the computer graphics revolution started mostly in the 80s, but popularized by Jurassic Park when Phil Tippett, the stop-motion animator said upon seeing the first computer test for the film "I think I'm extinct!" of course, he adapted to CG on the film:

"Dennis Muren: "Eventually Phil realised there was a place for him, and I was able to convince him there is a place for you and your shop on the show. He had some really terrific animators there that understood how we could make these dinosaurs move naturally."

but i digress. recently on The Sarah Silverman Program, Rob Schrab (yes, the Rob Schrab that created Scud: The Disposable Assassin and Monster House) decided to use stop-motion for a creature that Sarah gives birth to...


Doug Tennapel and the Chiodo Brothers took the job. its a pretty cool mini-behind-the-scenes along with a great face-melting scene to boot.

speaking of Doug Tennapel -- the creator of Earthworm Jim and the Neverhood (an all stop-motion Dreamworks game created in the 90s) -- here's an unfinished/effects-less stop-motion short he did called Kog-Head and Meatus. and let's be honest, he can tell the story better than I:

"This was for a character I made associated with a video game company in North Carolina. Koghead and Meatus are blue creatures that are supposed to be violent cartoon beasts in battle with giant synthetic monsters. Yes, it's a lot like GEAR and a common theme in a lot of my work.

I wrote and directed, but my lead animators were Mike Dietz and Ed Schofield. I think we did this in the year 2000 or 2001. We never finished it because we sent the footage back to North Carolina to do some effects work and they went out of business and now we can't find the people who might have the material.

The voices are by Rob Paulsen.

The characters are owned by the NC company and are pretty much tied up and dead at this point since the company doesn't seem to be in the gaming business anymore.

This version of K and M you're looking at is a work in progress. It's not finished at all and shouldn't be seen as such. I'm mostly showing you guys how we do our work. If they request I remove it for any reason I'll have to do it immediately."

Rob Paulsen is of course the voice of Pinky and Yakko, as well as Arthur from The Tick amongst countless others. its truly a cute short, effects or not, and technically very impressive. without further adieu: