Stop Motion. The Marvel Factory

"Forget the luscious colours of children's cartoons, the happy little animals singing in Disney films and the sentimental stories with happy ends for happy families, because Stop Motion is the other side of the animation moon, the dark, mysterious and unsettling side which 'normal people' generally try to avoid and which they often hurriedly catalogue as disturbed and disturbing. Those who employ stop-motion animation techniques tend to have a preference for things like bones, rags, old toys and weird objects forgotten in dusty attics, and their favourite themes tend to take on gothic and macabre tones... and yet, for those who get over their initial diffidence and overcome the knee-jerk prejudice which hinders them from following their imaginative instincts, a world filled with marvels - sometimes with sinister undertones, but undeniably fascinating and exciting - is there to be explored. Long considered the younger, uglier and rather naughty sister of traditional animation, at a certain point stop-motion was suddenly overtaken by the brash newcomer of 3D animation... and just like Cinderella, stop-motion came to badly need a fairy to step in and use her magic to finally restore love, respect and justice. And one fine day this fairy arrived, sporting permanently rumpled hair which looked as though it had never tangled with a comb in all its life, beaming the infectious grin of the eternal child, bustling in from Burbank. The name of the fairy was, of course, Tim Burton." - Stefano Bessoni

Stefano Bessoni has created an illustrated handbook focused on stop-motion animation, with an introduction by Barry JC Purves. Starting from the question What is stop-motion animation? the author examines its history and techniques, then offers a step-by-step description - enriched with detailed photographs - of how to create an animation puppy for your animated films, taking into account the set design, the usage of Dragonframe and some editing and post-production techniques. The book ends with an overview of several must-see stop-motion animated movies that you can't miss (if you haven't seen them already): Neco z Alenky (Alice) and Lekce Faust (Faust) by Jan Švankmajer, Rigoletto by Barry JC Purves, The maker by Christopher Kezelos, La noria (The Waterwheel) by Karla Castañeda and, last but not least, Bessoni's Gallows Songs.