Adam Savage Meets Aardman Animations’ Puppets!
A special visit to the cave this week as two friends from Aardman Animations visit Adam and bring along some of their amazing stop-motion animation puppets! Jimmy and Gary work at Aardman’s model shop, and show Adam the intricate details that go into each puppet. Plus, a surprise for Adam!
Shot by Joey Fameli and edited by Tywen Kelly
Music by Jinglepunks
31 thoughts on “Adam Savage Meets Aardman Animations’ Puppets!”
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Watching my new favorite Tested video, drinking coffee out of my Wallace & Gromit mug. Life is good.
Being from the UK and Bristol specifically I’ve always loved Aardman’s work, it was such a pleasure to hear how much work goes into making their films. It was also a joy to see how charmed Adam was by the whole experience, he really is a fantastic interviewer. Speaking of which will there be any more episodes of The Talking Room?
I like Adam’s comment regarding the whole history of animation in their workflow.
It caused me to pause however and consider — for the pirate, why not just CG on the mouth in post? Would that cross “the line”? Don’t know. No doubt color grading and other tweaks are done in post so….
Aardman are national treasures, so this is immensely cool to see them on Tested! I love what they do and that they’re still firmly placed in the UK film/animation industry today. Loving the magnets(?) for the mouth pieces 😀
Ah man, I love it. Once again, Adam’s pure and honest excitement is the best part of Tested. Adam truly loves the art as much as all of us. I grew up loving traditional effects and The Nightmare Before Christmas was the first full length feature I saw in the art form. It truly makes traditional and even 3d animation somewhat boring.
I think i have just got why i like Adam videos
Because he isn’t a moron
The viewer isn’t treated like a moron
That was absolutely freaking EPIC!
Seems like they could probably CG the whole thing these days, but I’d be interested to hear, what are the advantages of stop-motion when CG has come so far?
Don’t get me wrong. I find this process very interesting, and I hope it sticks around. And there must be some reason why it does.
Does this mean that Adam now can join Wallace and Gromit and build some One Day Cracking Contraptions?
This was wonderful on so many levels. Hat tip to Joey again for the camera work, and whomever did the editing did a great job. Adam’s passion and enthusiasm are clear as usual, and it was fun to hear him talk a little shop with these guys. The genuine surprise and joy at seeing his bust was a wonderful touch.
Amazing job guys, this is exactly why I love your work. More of all of this please!
Redonculous. But I’m surprized Adam didn’t know there was a dodo in Pirates! Brilliant movie.
Another great video. I have been a fan of stop motion since the days of Ray Harryhausen. As a teenager loved watching Wallace and Grommit (The Wrong Trousers) and all of the other great shorts and films coming out of Aardman studios. I agree that you can truly tell that Adam is a fan of their work and deosnt act like an idiot or make the guys visiting look like idiots. But the best part is the truly genuine reaction of Adam when he received his Aardman style bust of himself. To make Adam truly emotional and speechless is hard act to accomplish. Well done.
Brian
What a great video! I enjoyed Adam comments and explanations. The Aardman Adam is absolutely fabulous!
Adam is the real deal.
His genuine enthusiasm for what people create and the people themselves gives me such a charge.
As others have said, the expression on his face when the gents mentioned they have something special… He is such a kid. I’m pretty sure I had the same expression right then too.(yeah, I saw the frame grab with Aardman Adam before playing, but I still was just as excited for Adam).
I think before POTUS Obama leaves office he should list Adam Savage as a National Treasure.
We’re alll verklempt! -Talk amongst yourselves…
Artists.
Yes, thank you Adam for not dumbing it down — for going into the nuts and bolts of the artistry. A layperson would not have pursued the way in which they keep the sheep’s wool from “boiling”. Now we know!
This was terribly exciting and moving! I am so creatively itchy right now!
Oh man, that was freaking awesome! I didn’t think Adam could get more excited than he did about the dodo bird, and then out come Aardman Adam. <3
I got to make and animate 3D CGI models of some of the Pirates! characters for a project, officially approved by Aardman, and that was loads of fun, and we only had photo reference to go by!
Unfortunately it was all virtual, and is now out of my reach. I wish I could’ve kept my work.
Watching this while wearing my Tested shirt makes my shitty day a lot less shitty. I’m in a very turbulent moment in my life at the moment and Tested clips like this remind me there is a future for people who dare to make a living out of doing things they are passionate about. Thanks for this gem, Tested!
awww, so cool! but why’s someone cutting onions in here?
WOW, AMAZING! Very cool….so happy to be a Brit! Great video, good to see the puppets close up and how they are animated.
Love little Adam:)
Another day at Tested University. I think Savage was excited.
I think it’s more a matter of principle. There is a joy that comes from pushing the boundaries of what’s possible when making a movie using such a time consuming technique.
The comparison I would make is The Lego Movie. Although it was made in CG, the animators still built virtual brick by virtual brick all of the sets. They didn’t have to do that, I would imagine there could have been several other less time consuming techniques that they could have used to “cheat” it, but there is a realism and satisfaction that comes from actually putting the time into it.
Those freaking Gordon Ramsey trained ninjas!
I don’t think that there are any significant advantages of stop motion over CG nowadays, to me it’s more of a challenging artistic choice, which if done correctly, results in a very fulfilling movie. Also the form, style and realism it brings to the screen isn’t something that it can be fully accomplished in CG.
The Nightmare before Christmas comes to mind. It could have been made using traditional animation and probably it would have been a good movie. But to me the stunning visuals and unique “feel” it has from being stop motion made it the classic it is nowadays.
Like practical special effects, I think stop-motion animation “keeps it real”. CG has opened a Pandora’s Box of “anything goes” and I think film suffers for it. At the risk of getting in a fight with fans, I have been re-watching the Harry Potter films recently and don’t feel they hold up — because of the heavy use of corny CG. Many of the spell effects and monsters are just over the top … because they can.
I know I’m preaching to the choir since we agree about the special “feel” from real stop-motion animation. My original comment about CG’ing the mouths was more of a thought experiment — where does it lose that feel?
Love this video, as a Bristol born and bread lad Aardman holds a very special place in my heart. And to see that joy cross all the way over the other side of the pond is what makes the Aardman way of doing things very special indeed. Could have watched them talking about this kind of animation for hours and Adams reaction is priceless!
Very cool video.
Can we expect a stop motion video with the mini savage?
Although I’m a big Harry Potter fan, I will say that The Prisoner of Azkaban, directed by Alfonso Cuarón, in which he implemented more practical effects does change how the film “feels”. But then again when CG is properly used, specially in the later films, it does really make the world come alive.
To me the problem with CG effects comes from the overuse of them. Like the saying goes “if your only tool is a hammer, then everything starts looking like a nail”, and that’s a problem that a lot of films have suffered from, which in turn has disillusioned movie goers. If you look at Fury Road or The Martian, there is a ton of CG being used, but since it’s blended so well with practical effects you can’t tell the difference of what’s real and what’s not. Finally, and to expand on my point, when the people involved in making a movie with CG actually invest a lot of time and effort into doing quality CG effects, and not to make their life’s “easier, then the results do show in the final product. There’s a reason Jurassic Park and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy haven’t aged with time like, for example, the new Ghostbusters movie (in which the effects were compared to the Scooby Doo movie which was released in 2002).
Loved this! Long time watcher of the youtube channel finally made my way over here.
The wife and myself are big aardman fans and a couple years ago got to go to their show they put on in Bristol. Seeing the sets were amazing. I was surprised how big the figures (and sets) were. Roughly 12 inches tall for a human.
Took some pics that day. Bit rubbish being through glass and not great lighting but some might enjoy.
http://coffeecuprobot.tumblr.com/post/98703858437/something-a-very-different-for-the-coffeecuprobot
Thank you for all the great work and the many hours of entertainment and inspiration.
I just saw this timelapse video of animating the movie “Kubo And The Two Strings”. It does a great job of giving the viewer an idea of the massive amount of work that goes into making these stop-motion films.
If anyone has the original source of this, I’d gladly link to it instead.
Kubo And The Two Strings
http://imgur.com/gallery/v9rt6