Stop-motion with BoxTrolls

     Travis Knight is the lead animator and CEO at Laika a studio. Laika is known for their movies Coraline, ParaNorman, and its upcoming movie BoxTrolls. Their new movie takes place in a Victorian age town where the humans live above, and the misunderstood box trolls live down below. Travis says that with this movie will require "an artful balance of darkness and light, intensity and warmth." because of its story and atmosphere.
     What is very interesting about BoxTrolls and the other Laika films is that they combine stop-motion with some CGI to get effects they normally couldn't produce. What is also very interesting is that they use 3d printing to create the heads of the characters and mouth shapes rather than sculpting every one. Through the years animators have learned new things with every film, and then incorporated them with each one after, with what they learned from Coraline they incorporated into ParaNorman and from both they are incorporating into BoxTrolls!
     Travis described many of the deep insightful details of Laika's work process and the general work he goes through to make their movies a success. I find it very intriguing how different techniques like 3d printing are used to create characters. This shows that Stop Motion animation is still being practiced in this century and that new innovations are being created through  digital and physical practices!