Congratulations are in order for Stelios Polychronakis, his film "The Village" has been accepted to be screened at Annecy, 2010.  Integrating stop motion with CGI background elements is a key part of the visual style of his film. Beautifully lit and animated, check the trailer for yourself.

Hi Stelios, can you tell us about your self, and how did you get into animation?
My name is Stelios Polychronakis; I was born in Athens, where I live at the moment, and was raised on the island of Crete. I'm 38 and I'm a freelance animator and designer, and I also teach animation at the Department of Graphic Design of the Technological Education Institute of Athens.
My interest in animation started a long time ago, in Athens in the early 90s as a graphic design student. A two-semester course in animation at university was enough to get my interest going! After graduating I got into film design and worked in the UK, in the art departments for a few big films, like Billy Elliot, Cold Mountain and The Hours.  After returning to Greece, my love for animation brought me back to the field, when I started designing sets for stop-motion shorts and adverts, and animating my own 2D stuff. Then The Village came along and I got to design and animate my own stop-motion short for the first time!
What are your recent productions, who it is aimed at, where might people see it - is it on at other festivals apart from Annecy?
My latest production is the short film called The Village (original title To Horio). It will premiere this year in France at Annecy in June, and hopefully it will appear in festivals in many other places around the world after that! A trailer of the film can be viewed on YouTube.

Samples of my work can also be viewed on my website. www.sp-filmdesign.com
As I said before, The Village was my first stop-motion animation project as animator – all of my previous animation work has been 2D. My films so far have targeted adult audiences, but I would love to do a stop-motion film for kids in the future. I think stop-motion was made for that!   

What hardware do you use?
My shooting set-up is pretty much standard for stop-motion these days. I use SMP on a PC, a Canon EOS DSLR with live view capability and manual Nikon lenses of various focal lengths. One of the problems I faced early on was unacceptable levels of flicker. Unfortunately, my studio was in an area with very bad power fluctuations and it showed in the animation. I tackled that problem using a powerful voltage regulator.
I was very lucky to have inventive and talented colleagues who helped by constructing all the mechanical contraptions I needed for rigging and shooting. For example, for The Village we designed and built our own rig for camera movements, at a fraction of the cost of hiring a motion control unit. We moved it manually of course, step by step, but we saved lots of money; plus with a bit more work, it can be fitted with computer controlled motors for our next production!
After shooting, I use Photoshop for removing rigs and retouching, and for The Village I gave the   RAW material to a post-production house, where they used Fusion and Maya for compositing and to add fog and snow to certain shots.

How does Stop Motion Pro help you in your production?
SMP has been an excellent tool for this film. Initially, my decision to use SMP was based on the fact that it is professional software that is easy to use. The interface is so simple, it won't take you ages to learn how to use it; in fact, you can start animating immediately.
Time was of the essence in the production of The Village. I did all the animation myself for the film and my small budget meant that I had to shoot an average of six seconds of animation per day –about six times more than that produced in big stop-motion studios. SMP with its lightning fast playback and loop options helped me to achieve speed and at the same time keep the quality of animation at a high level.
I also did some pretty cool rotoscoping for a very demanding dance sequence. I brought in a choreographer, shot a video of him dancing the sequence and then matched his moves in SMP! It gave the film a whole new perspective!  

Can you tell us a little about how you make the imagery in your work? How do you make your puppets?
Coming from my background of film design, images are very very important. I love to create atmospheric and evocative visuals. I believe that any kind of film benefits from that. So, I start by extensively researching the architecture, the time period and every small detail of the sets before I design them. Then, I like to build my sets out of light materials like cardboard, polystyrene, chicken-wire and balsa wood, and then work a lot on texturing and color. Light materials mean that you have to be more careful while shooting not to move anything, but I think you gain a more organic, weathered look. Add some good lighting, and you have a great looking shot!
When it comes to puppet making, I have to say that I had no previous experience. So, for the doctor, the key character in The Village, I decided to contact Mackinnon & Saunders in Manchester (UK), who are the premier puppet makers in the business. I wrote them an e-mail and sent them the storyboard of the film and much to my surprise they replied! They said they liked the story and the visual style and they agreed to make the puppet for me! The puppet was built around a steel armature. The body was foam clipped and covered with custom-made clothes. The head, hands and feet were made out of latex. The head had also a mechanism for basic mouth and eyebrow movement for achieving different expressions. Part of the success of the film is due to this gorgeous-looking puppet, which was just a pleasure to animate.    

What is next for you and your animation?
There are no immediate plans, but there are lots of ideas floating around. It's a long way from idea to storyboard, though, so I'm going to wait until the right idea starts to take shape! I gained a lot of experience and know-how making The Village, and I met an amazing team of talented people that I would like to collaborate with on a new project. I hope I will have one soon to keep the momentum going. Ultimately, my dream is to make a feature-length animation film that will appeal to all ages!

Thanks for taking us through your production, all the best Stelios, we look forward to seeing more of your work.