Phil Tippett - Short Film.

[skywalker]

Hey Guy's

I recommend this for anyone who has not seen it already it really is a fantastic and highly enjoyable 22 Minutes.

For those who don't know Phil Tippett is an award winning stop motion animator who did the stop motion on all 3 original Star Wars movies as well as Jurassic park and Robocop.

Really enjoyable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTGQ_K0DBPo

 

[Palifan]

Thanks for posting that, hadn't heard of it before and a great watch.

Here's an old thread I put up about my day at his studios, he really is quite a character!

http://www.starwarsforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=13642&p=185662&hilit=phil+tippet#p185662

Ian

 

[skywalker]

Thanks for posting that, hadn't heard of it before and a great watch.

Here's an old thread I put up about my day at his studios, he really is quite a character!

http://www.starwarsforum.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=13642&p=185662&hilit=phil+tippet#p185662

Ian

WOW.... Ian what a great experience that must have been,, so how did this come about were you in California on holiday and went on an arranged tour.? or was it a personal meet up with him.?

Cheers mate,

 

[Palifan]

I was working in San Francisco on a stop motion project and the head of the rapid prototype department was a close friend of his so sorted out a tour for about 10 of us. Phil Tippett was the whole reason I got into stop motion after seeing the Taun Tauns at the beginning of Empire back in 1980, so it was a bit of a life long dream to meet him. I was also living in Berkeley , where his studio is, so it was a small world. He did offer me a chance to work on Mad God but the project I was working on came to an end so I couldn't stay out there any longer. It would have been nice to have got to know him a bit better but the once was still enough.

Ian

 

[skywalker]

I was working in San Francisco on a stop motion project and the head of the rapid prototype department was a close friend of his so sorted out a tour for about 10 of us. Phil Tippett was the whole reason I got into stop motion after seeing the Taun Tauns at the beginning of Empire back in 1980, so it was a bit of a life long dream to meet him. I was also living in Berkeley , where his studio is, so it was a small world. He did offer me a chance to work on Mad God but the project I was working on came to an end so I couldn't stay out there any longer. It would have been nice to have got to know him a bit better but the once was still enough.

Ian

Bloody hell mate that's some story to be able to tell..!

So have you worked on anything movie wise..? and are you still doing it..?

Sorry for all the questions mate but I am a big fan of Tippetts and obvisoulsy Ray Harryhausen and stop motion in general.... And I am a nosey bastard.. :lol: :lol:

 

[Palifan]

I've animating professionally since 89 and have mainly worked on features since around 98. Chicken run was my first followed by all the other Aardman films accept Shaun the Sheep. I also worked on Coraline, Botxtrolls and just finished Kubo for Laika. Today I've just started on Laika's next film so it's been a bit endless (but no complaints from me!). There have also been a couple of films that were pulled after several months work ( like the one in SF which lasted 10 months), and I also dipped my toe into CG with Flushed Away. It's amazing that I've been able to last this long in what seemed like a small industry but I think I have a lot to thank Nick Park for as I've been lucky enough to part of all of his Wallace and Gromit projects since The Wrong Trousers. It's amazing how time flys but goods to hear there's someone else on here who appreciates the old classic techniques and just to let you know I met Ray Harryhausen a few times and he really was such a lovely guy. He looked at my first Were-Rabbit rehearsal for a shot and laughed telling me that now I had to do it all again, something he never did (no time for tests in my day!).

Ian

 

[skywalker]

I've animating professionally since 89 and have mainly worked on features since around 98. Chicken run was my first followed by all the other Aardman films accept Shaun the Sheep. I also worked on Coraline, Botxtrolls and just finished Kubo for Laika. Today I've just started on Laika's next film so it's been a bit endless (but no complaints from me!). There have also been a couple of films that were pulled after several months work ( like the one in SF which lasted 10 months), and I also dipped my toe into CG with Flushed Away. It's amazing that I've been able to last this long in what seemed like a small industry but I think I have a lot to thank Nick Park for as I've been lucky enough to part of all of his Wallace and Gromit projects since The Wrong Trousers. It's amazing how time flys but goods to hear there's someone else on here who appreciates the old classic techniques and just to let you know I met Ray Harryhausen a few times and he really was such a lovely guy. He looked at my first Were-Rabbit rehearsal for a shot and laughed telling me that now I had to do it all again, something he never did (no time for tests in my day!).

Ian

Again WOW.... Not wanting to sound like some weird stalker and keep going on but I am so impressed genuinely can't believe you have been involved in all those projects,, I mean even for those not interested in the skill of stop motion everyone loves Wallace and Gromit so just to be involved in that is amazing..

So I take it this is your full time job as opposed to a hobby..?

Also do you / can you make the models or do you just do the motion capture.?

If you have any links to independent stuff you have done I would love to see some of it (if on youtube or wherever)... or some of your sculpts / models if you make them.

Dean.

 

[Joe]

Haven't watched the Phil Tippet film (yet) but just wanted to say, wow Ian! Thanks for posting such awesome stories, sounds like a fantastic career!

 

[Palifan]

Thanks for the comments Joe and Dean, really appreciate it! It's been my full time job now since 89 and although I've animated the puppets for all of those years I did also spend some of that time making props and sculpting puppets. for all the Aardman jobs you need a level of sculpting ability for the lip sync as well as keeping the clay hands and arms up together (and in fact the whole puppet where Gromit is concerned). I have really enjoyed making full puppets from time to time with the last ones being some of the characters from The Pirates for the model makers to then turn into the foam latex animatable puppets (these are called design sculpts that are then copied into production sculpts for casting). I'm thinking about getting back into that area this year at home, just to keep my hand in with it. Just to say as well that there's no motion capture with what I do, it's all moved by hand but there has been an increasing number of CG elements that are now getting put into every shot, especial with work for Laika at the moment.

I don't really have a reel that's on line at the moment but there are a few shots of mine on this trailer with Kubo surrounded by all the CG birds -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4-6qJzeb3A

I'll see if I can find a few pictures of things I've made to post up for you to see.

It really has been a great job to do and I know how lucky I've been to keep doing it for so long but we do put in a lot of hours to get things looking the way they do and my poor wife and kids don't get to have me around at normal hours during the week which is a shame.

Ian