New, longer Corpse Bride trailer up
There’s a new trailer up for Corpse Bride, which tells a lot more of the story than the teaser trailer did.
I have mixed feelings about the new trailer. Visually, it all looks great. This one shows a lot more of what makes the animation so distinctive. For instance, pay attention to Corpse Bride’s veil, how it flutters and flows. Then remember that this was all shot one frame at a time. Creating the illusion of continuous movement was incredibly difficult, and they did it incredibly well.
I’m not crazy about the voice-over. The rhyming doesn’t really work for me, and the announcer is the same guy who does all the stuff for the WB Network (“Tonight, on an all-new Gilmore Girls, Rory blah blah blah”). It feels too much like a featurette for my taste. I would have suggested stopping at the shorter, funnier teaser. But that’s just me.
See it here.
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July 7th, 2005 at 11:05 am
Does John August have any direct connection to the “Corpse Bride” project?
July 7th, 2005 at 11:38 am
I’m not convinced it’s stop motion animation like ‘The Nightmare Before Christmas’. Looking at the IMDB page listing there are quite a number of digital effects people. Perhaps it’s a digital animation mimicking stop motion?
July 7th, 2005 at 11:58 am
Craig:
I’m one of the writers for Corpse Bride. Should have made that more clear. (And yes, the IMDb page is out of date.)
Steve:
I was on set, and yes, truly, honestly, it is stop motion animation, with little puppets who move a tiny amount each frame. You’re right in that there are digital effects artists for certain things that couldn’t be done by hand. But that’s a tiny percentage of what you see on screen. The sets, the characters and props are real and amazing.
July 7th, 2005 at 12:06 pm
Cool. I look forward to it as I enjoyed ‘Nightmare’ quite a bit. I am interested in the digital work though. Would you know if any digital trickery was applied to ’smooth’ the motion between frames?
I guess I’ll have to wait for DVD bonus disc. :) (You ever that t-shirt?)
July 7th, 2005 at 12:15 pm
Steve: Generally, the main reason for digital effects on a stop-motion film is to add the effects that could not physically be animated by hand, on set. This generally includes things like drifting smoke and fog.
I don’t believe anything digital is done to smooth out the motion (although don’t quote me on that) – there was a discussion on CGTalk about this a while back, and one of the animators on Corpse Bride mentioned (I believe) something about the fact that the animation was actually all done by hand.
July 7th, 2005 at 2:01 pm
From what I can gather… The smoothness is creating by exposing middle film frames to a drfiting version of the object. This I can’t explain fully without hands a few drawings, but basically I remember seeing a guy slide a pie with two chickens on it, in between shots. This simulates forward “blurred” movement. Otherwise it tends to just look like a bunch of posed images, which is never good.
But I’m assuming the CG is entirely touch-up based. Like if a hand accidentally shifts place, you can just fix it digitally instead of reshooting. It’s obviously far less costly than antyhing else, and is just easier. It’s pretty much why George Lucas loves post production. He films people in a blue room and can literally have them “tranported” anywhere once it’s painted in the background.
Using CG in a stop motion animated film isn’t really a cop out, it’s just a matter of practicality.
July 7th, 2005 at 8:46 pm
Wow, John. It really looks great.
July 7th, 2005 at 9:16 pm
I can’t wait for this movie. If it’s half as great as Nightmare Before Christmas, I’ll be happy. It looks absolutely amazing. Very gothic in that Tim Burton way, but kind of light and ethereal, too.
I’m, of course, looking forward to the Chocolate Factory, but I think I may enjoy Corpse Bride just a wee bit more.
July 8th, 2005 at 12:33 am
B Taylor: That technique is also known as “Go-Motion”
July 8th, 2005 at 7:41 am
Do you think WB is intentionally building a library of dark fantasy/magical movies?
Harry Potter Charlie Batman Corpse Bride
I’m sure there are more. But these jump to mind. Interesting niche.
July 8th, 2005 at 8:10 am
Completely off-topic, I know. But the review for “Charlie” has today appeared over on Empireonline – the only film magazine worth the effort, in my opinion.
This is the only proper review I’ve seen so far. It gives the film 4 stars and very positive write-up. Also, quashing those Michael Jackson comparisons with Depp’s Wonka. Which, let’s face it, had us all a little worried (apart from John).
I now officially cannot wait! Roll on July 29th!!… or 15th, if you’re American.
Oh, and John, you also get a rather favorable mention in the last couple of paragraphs. Totally deserved, I’m sure.
http://www.empireonline.co.uk/site/incinemas/Review.asp?FID=9775
Go check it out!
July 10th, 2005 at 3:03 pm
John,
Any idea if a ‘making of’ book on Corpse Bride is due to be released ?, I would love to read in depth on the production process from the beginning to it’s conclusion.
July 13th, 2005 at 12:40 am
I believe you mentioned working on How to Eat Fried Worms or something close to it? I was surfing around and found this (http://www.geocities.com/eatawormextras/) and thought of you.
July 17th, 2005 at 5:20 pm
I saw this trailer when I went to see Charlie. It was in Spanish.
August 3rd, 2005 at 2:42 pm
Hey
I worked on the visual effect side of corpse bride in london. The main stuff i did on the film was removing rigs (that hold up the puppets) ,setting the shot up for smoke etc and replacing unwanted elements(like a different floor or whatever). There was also some CG cloth animation i think. Oh and some Blue screen stuff aswell.
Oh and using CG in a stop motion movie is more common than u think.
January 3rd, 2006 at 10:11 pm
OMG IM IN LOVE WITH VICTOR VAN DORT HE’S SO SEXY HE’S MINE!!!! ALL MINE!!! LOL