|
|
|
GooRoo Animation |
|
|
Michael Richards and Cameron Edser from GooRoo animation tell us about their animation and GooRoo animation studios...
Who are you and how did you get into the cool art form that is stop motion animation?
We are the co-creators of GooRoo Animation, Michael Richards and Cameron Edser. We developed an interest in animation at a young age whilst drawing flipbooks in primary school. We’d always loved cartoons but it was when we inherited an old analogue video camera that we thought we would try to make our own animation using Lego. This soon got replaced by plasticine and we were hooked. It’s ironic how we weren’t allowed to watch a lot of T.V as kids and as a result of finding other ways to occupy ourselves we somehow ended up making things for the T.V.
We taught ourselves many techniques in stop-motion animation making lots of short films throughout high school. Back then animation was always just a hobby but we worked away at it fanatically in any spare moment on weekends and holidays.
When we left school, we decided to start taking it a bit more seriously and see if we could make a career out of it. Whilst in school, we produced the film The Bushman of Bunyip Billabong. This proved to be a huge milestone for us. The film screened in festivals all around the world and went on to win numerous awards including the Bond University Film and Television Awards, which secured Cameron a full scholarship to Bond University to study Film and Television.
The following year, in 2006, we won a major prize in the Nescafe Big Break Awards to help us establish our company, GooRoo Animation. We put the prize money to purchasing the equipment we needed to complete Animal Instincts, a 5 minute claymation.
We are now in Adelaide and set up our studio in Payneham. We have produced some advertisements and are continuing to develop GooRoo Animation.
|
  |
  |
What are your recent productions, who it is aimed at, where might people see it?
Our most recent film, Animal Instincts, has been incredibly successful on the film festival circuit, screening all over the world and picking up over 20 awards to date. It’s now online, as are all of our past films. You can see them on our website. Our films are for everyone but are generally enjoyed more by a younger audience.
Animal Instincts is an action-packed comedy, where the farmyard rivalry between a cow and a sheep escalates into a battle of epic proportions. The film is currently being converted into full stereoscopic 3D by The 3d Film Factory in San Diego and will be released internationally on various 3d platforms, as they become increasingly popular over the next few years.
Since Animal Instincts, we have worked with Quench Studios and The People’s Republic of Animation to produce some commercials for Coopers .
One of our older films from early high school, Cows With Guns, was lucky enough to be featured on youtube in 2007, getting it viewed by almost one million people.
|
I just checked out your Animal Instincts - what a great film - well done, the tractor footage is really hilarious! How did you film all that?
Cheers for the compliments on the film, it was shot mainly on a Canon 20d, but the tractor scene was shot on high speed. The very same camera used for the cricket. Don’t ask me how we got our hands on that but very cool and fun. The tractor was pulled along by a thread of fishing line up a ramp to smash through the fence sending shrapnel everywhere. If we weren’t happy with a certain take, we would have to clean up the set, fix the character, rebuild the fence and replace the dirt for take two. This usually took around half an hour. Sadly it took 12 takes before we got the winning shot. But it was worth it seeing as it’s everyone’s favourite scene.
|
 |
 |
How would you use SMP in the production - how could it help your workflow?
Our old DSLR camera did not have ‘live view’ and we triggered it to take shots with canon software with no onion skinning. This was an animation nightmare. Now that Stop Motion Pro is compatible with the latest ‘live view’ DSLR cameras, we have the best of both worlds, crisp colour previewing with onion skinning and the absolute best photo quality in the final shots. We often ask ourselves how they used to do it back in the 35mm days when the footage arrived to be watched 2 weeks after it was shot. On average, before we are happy with a shot, we might make around 50-100 adjustments in the frame with lights, characters, props, camera settings, motion control points etc. Without instant previewing we would be guessing. Complicated but useful tools like HDR and double pass shooting are easily achievable with Stop Motion Pro. In fact it makes the whole process more user friendly with all the little conveniences. It saves running 2 or 3 programs at once. We think the fact that Aardman are now using Stop Motion Pro says enough. If the industry leaders are using it, then why shouldn't we? |
Can you tell us a little about how you make the imagery in your work? How do you make your puppets?
The cow and the sheep from Animal Instincts have wire skeleton armatures inside them to stop them drooping in between frames. We found that reinforced speaker wire works just as well as aluminum wire but it’s less costly. The sheep’s limbs are simply coated in latex and painted black. The sheep’s torso is expanding foam from a can wrapped in a fluffy, wooly material. This made for a super light and easily animated character. Although the cow has a much heavier body weight due to a coating of plasticine we think the camera prefers this look. The eye’s and horns are baked clay with a coating of paint. The shoes screw directly into the wooden floor and the character then slots into the shoe to stand upright. We would like to explore magnets in the shoes and also purchase some ball and socket armatures to improve on our previous models.
|
 |
  |
What's next for you and your animation?
We have just received good news that we have been approved for funding to make our next film. It will be the first time we have funded a project with money other than our own. The film will be an animated music clip to a song by The Dairy Brothers (www.thedairybrothers.com) called “My Neighbourhood” and it’s about a guy whose world gets overrun by baboons. The project will be a part of Digitopia, a digital media initiative run by the Media Resource Centre in South Australia.
We are also in the process of writing a series of animated shorts based on our film Animal Instincts. It will involve a pair of farm animals on a continual quest to escape the boundaries of captivity in the thirst for freedom. This will be a big project for us so hopefully we can find investors for this series as well.
We are also very interested in 3D stereoscopic shooting of Stop Motion and would like to purchase a second digital SLR camera to explore this medium. It is good to see on the website that Stop Motion Pro is already there. Stereoscopic 3D does seem likely to revolutionize cinema like colour did to black and white. It would be fun to be one of the first to test it out.
We also have an idea of creating a behind the scenes, educational package, aimed at students and semi-professionals. It will teach the tips and tricks of creating stop motion animation based on our own experiences with our latest few films. Having noticed the scarcity of educational resources available whilst we were students, we were forced to teach ourselves almost everything we know. Something we have always planned to do and it remains on our list is to pay visit to Aardman in Bristol. Now that would be a great learning experience.
Thanks guys, all the best for you and your animation!
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
|
|
