That amazing stop motion film that blew everyones minds “The BoxTrolls” made by LAIKA studios in Portland Oregon was not what you might think. Given the fact that LAIKA studios has been a stop motion studio for a very longtime now having once been Will Vinton Studios and having it’s history going all the way back to the 1970’s, You might be shocked to find out that a large portion of the Box Trolls film was CGI. Shocking, right?
The above video provided by the Foundry goes into depth about the compositing work involved with making the film. There’s of course a lot of green screen, compositing of the varied different elements, along with a ton of CGI background characters, and fire and smoke. Having been at the studio for a tour while they were filming I can tell you that LAIKA wasn’t trying to pull the wool over everyones eyes. In truth, all stop motion films that require a large scale will need a lot of compositing work. When you throw in camera moves and large crowd you will definitely need the extra tools required to make the scene look realistic and entertaining. That being said I’m sure there are those whom turn their noses up to such things.
What can’t be denied is the fact that most of the film is practical scenes and all the puppets were animated by hand. The film was amazing and to be able to see the process that they took to make such a brilliant film is a gift that many outside of the industry never get a chance to see. Checkout the film above and get inspired.
