PORTLAND, Ore. — If you've seen any of Laika's five films, you may have wondered how they all get made. Or maybe you think you know how stop motion animation works.
I thought I understood it, until I got to meet stop motion animator, Jason Stalman, and learned that sometimes this film style even involves the animators acting on-camera.
I stopped by Laika's studio in Hillsboro, to help (attempt to) animate a few frames of Mr. Link, the sasquatch character in "Missing Link," the movie nominated for an Oscar this year. Stalman explained his tough (and sometimes tedious, but still mind-blowing!) job of moving each puppet frame by frame, to create 1/24 of a second of film at a time.
Laika has been nominated for the Best Animated Feature Oscar before, but the studio has yet to win. However, 'Missing Link' did win the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature Film back in January, so Stalman is hoping that's a good sign.