BreakThru talks to animator extraordinaire Tim Allen about his life in animation, Tim Burton and his incredible work on Peter & The Wolf
and Magic Piano.
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| Tim Allen on the set of Corpse Bride |
- When did you
first become interested in stop-motion animation? Were you interested in art as
a child?
Yeah, I was
always drawing, making models and reading comics. I think my earliest ambitions
were to make comic strip cartoons along the lines of Garfield, and I copied
this format with vampire and ghost characters. As a teenager I’d moved on to
Batman and my dream had now progressed to drawing superheros (or maybe being
one!). I opted out of conventional A-levels in favour of a 2 year Art Diploma,
as we knew I was going down the road of an artistic career. At this stage, I
honestly can say I hadn’t even considered you could animate for a living!
Somewhat lost
for what to do after my art course, I was looking at modelmaking degrees and
accidently stumbled upon an animation degree. At this time Nightmare Before Christmas had recently come out in cinemas &
the idea of working on something like that just blew me away. Cheesy as it
sounds, it was a moment of complete certainty, a true calling. I looked around
& found a very good stop motion course at Glamorgan University and my very
first animated steps began...
- How did you
first 'break into the industry'? Was there a particular project that helped
solidify your interest into a career?
It was tough
getting going and those that get a break shortly after college I think are the very
lucky ones. As I graduated, the industry was just starting a quiet patch which
was leaving lots of established professionals on the job hunt. I contacted
& tried to visit pretty much every stop motion company in the UK. In
retrospect it was good experience in that it taught me who was who in the stop
motion world as I literally knocked on almost everyone’s door. I did a fair bit
of work experience & trainee model making where I learned quite a bit about
studio practise.
I guess I did
the classic of casting my net wide and after 1 and a half years I finally made
a catch! I was asked to come for an animation audition for Ealing Animation in
London. I think I got the job for two reasons - I would work very hard to
impress and I was cheap!
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One of Tim's first jobs in animation came with the BBC's
fondly remembered stop-motion education show 'El Nombre' |
It was a low
budget educational programme called El Nombre and so long as we told the
educational part properly we had some creative freedom within the rest of the
episode. For months, my animation was mostly long drawn out shots of gerbils counting
money, very slowly. Fortunately the characters were charming and I had some
very interesting and challenging sequences to work on for the action parts of
the story. I was one of only two animators on the show so had my fair share of variety
and tricky animation. A junior animator wouldn’t normally get the difficult
stuff, but they only had two of us to delegate to! After 8 months the series
finished & I was looking for work again, but this time I had some half
decent shots under my belt & could pretend I was a professional!
- How did your
involvement with Tim Burton begin? Were you a fan of his work before you were
recruited for Corpse Bride?
I’ve always had
a huge appreciation for Nightmare Before
Christmas as it was the project that inspired me into this business. I
loved Tim’s visual style and to work on a giant set from a Nightmare or Corpse Bride
movie felt like the ultimate career moment at that time. Back then the only
place that made feature films was Aardman. They already had a full time
animation crew in place, which left most other animators around the UK (myself
included) working on children’s TV series. This meant that when Corpse Bride
came along it was a big deal – a chance to work on a big Hollywood size Tim
Burton movie! I’d now been animating children’s series for 6 years and this
movie felt like the opportunity of a lifetime!
However my
showreel was rejected, as was my second attempt and only 6 months later did my third
showreel (I kept working on it and updating it) earn me an audition. I had to
do a nerve-racking 3 day test, but this time around, I made the right
impression. It didn’t end there of course as you need to continue earning the
directors trust for him to delegate what sequences you get to animate.
- Can you
describe what an average day is like for an animator? Do you specialise in one
particular area of it or is there a lot of variety?
On a film you
often get typecast and could spend most of your time with a handful of characters.
On Corpse Bride I was mostly cast as Barkis
the sinister psychopath for 6 months. On Magic
Piano I developed how to animate the Flying Machine & spent a good 6
months pushing it to the limits! On children’s series & commercials you can
get a lot of variety quickly which is great for learning your craft.
An average day? It
always depends on the project and the company you’re working for. Each studio
has slightly different working practices so I could answer differently for each
production. Here’s a generalisation:
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Tim worked extensively on bringing the villainous
Barkis Bittern to life in Corpse Bride |
As an animator
my role tends to function like that of an actor in a live action film and I
must be cast for the role. This is all based on what the director needs and I
will work to his/her instructions to try and find the best way to approach the
shot. From here I’ll plan the shot out with the camera crew to ensure I’ll be
keeping the puppet in focus and making good use of the lighting. Next the
model/puppet makers and riggers will help me with any details so that I can
create the shot as close to the director’s needs as possible.
A quick note
about time keeping: There’s normally pressure to get things done as quickly as
possible (for understandable financial reasons!). In fact the key to making
beautiful stop motion fast is all in the preparation time. It’s like struggling
through an obstacle course when you’d be better off removing the obstacles and
just sprinting to the finish line. You’ve got to take responsible decisions to get
the balance right.
Once I start
animating, you’re kind of on your own – for many many hours until the work is
complete. You have to embrace & love the creative freedom to ‘perform’ your
shot as a live action actor would. You have specific instructions that you need
to get right but at the end of the day you’ll be relying heavily on your
instincts. In truth you’re normally under pressure to get it done as quickly as
possible!
- Could you tell
us a little about your involvement with BreakThru Films? How was it working
with Suzie on Peter and the Wolf?
I came onboard Peter & the Wolf about 2 months into
the shoot and it was quite an exciting time in those early stages. I was the
first animator to come over from outside Poland for the project. Suzie was
great and had such a clear vision of how every detail should be. The challenge
for me was being able to give her the detailed performance she needed in the
limited time we had.
Initially Suzie
was hoping I could do lots of work establishing the wolf, but the puppet wasn’t
quite ready and I started working with Peter. She liked my close up acting work
and basically I think most of my time was spent doing close-ups of Peter face.
It was tricky as only the eyeballs could move and Suzie needed very specific
emotional reactions from a completely static face! The shot that stands out in
my memory is where Peter sees Duck, his childhood pet and closest companion, eaten
alive right in front of him. Suzie asked for Peter to display utter shock, then
overwhelming horror, followed by a shiver creeping up his spine, climaxing into
trembling realisation. All this when the only facial movement I can get is
moving the head and eyeballs!
- And what are
your thoughts on The Flying Machine?
Oh quite simply
it’s the most challenging project I’ve ever worked on! It wasn’t just because I
was animation supervisor this time round, though certainly that in itself was
an interesting new challenge. It wasn’t just that it was my first time shooting
in 3D or that every action had to naturally sync with Chopin’s music. No the
film had so many unbelievably ambitious but potentially beautiful sequences. To
try and coordinate shots with thousands of flowers blowing in the wind, or epic
long shots or the entire junk yard coming to life was complexity on a grand
scale - and I didn’t even animate those pieces myself!
Most of my time
in the studio was taken up trying to get a 2 metre high flying machine puppet
to soar through the sky convincingly. It was a fascinating yet intimidating
character/machine/force of nature (we called it all these and more!). We had a
lot of practical hurdles to overcome (I sense I’m making a gross understatement
here!) and it was really tough getting such a big complicated model to do what
I wanted. I sometimes get more satisfaction seeing the shots before post
production than after, the only reason being that you can see all the rigs
moving that control it. Then you get a very real sense of what a technical
accomplishment it was.
But the real
beauty of the film was that Director Martin Clapp had worked so hard to make these
sequences flow to the music and tell some beautiful moments. Each shot was
utterly complex, but you knew it was justified and would be worth it. I’m very
very proud of all we did on Magic Piano
and feel lucky to have been so heavily involved with it.
- You've most
recently completed work on Burton's Frankenweenie, can you tell us a little
about the animation approach in this new film?
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The cloth will come off Tim's work on
Frankenweenie when it's released this October |
Well I can’t
give too much about the film away yet, but again I’m really excited to be a
part of this gem of a movie. It may initially look similar visually to Corpse Bride, but the animation is much
more dynamic and lively. It really tested your timing as an animator. I did a
lot of work with central characters Victor and his pet dog Sparky. This meant animating
a four legged character who had to behave like a loveable but realistic dog. I
looked at live action videos of real dogs regularly to try and get Sparky’s
running and mannerisms accurate.
- Do you think
there's a bright future for stop-motion animation, and if so, what can explain
it's continued appeal?
It looks like
we’re starting a golden age of stop motion now. There’s going to be a lot of
films coming out of America, as well as several European ones on the cards
soon. After a dry spell for children’s series, there’s suddenly many happening
in the UK simultaneously. Aardman continue to keep as busy as ever too. We
could be looking at 6-10 years rife with stop motion productions.
As for the
appeal, I guess it’s the age old tangible quality, that you feel you can touch
it and you can see it’s not perfect. I think people find a model set and a
puppet very immersive. You can literally walk on that set and more easily
imagine being in that world. We all had toys or dolls we had a close attachment
to as children & perhaps puppets tap into this primal bond with our
imagination.
It’s been such a
blast working with so many different talented people and I feel so Iucky I
found an art form I love and can earn a living from. I even went to Ray
Harryhausen’s house recently to discuss stop motion techniques with him – I
mean how cool is that?! It is not an easy career and won’t suit most people but
there can be a lot of highlights. I’m trying to settle down more but there’s a
lot of stuff tempting me right now. I believe even BreakThru Films aren’t done
with stop motion...!
Follow Tim’s adventures in the world of stop motion on Twitter: @TimAnimation
