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Behind the scenes at Laika’s wildly imaginative new stop motion movie, Missing Link

We take a peek behind the curtain at Laika, a movie studio dedicated to fusing high tech 3D printing techniques with the time-honored art of stop motion animation. Laika’s latest film, Missing Link, is its most wildly ambitious to date.

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We take a peek behind the curtain at Laika, a movie studio dedicated to fusing high tech 3D printing techniques with the time-honored art of stop motion animation. Laika’s latest film, Missing Link, is its most wildly ambitious to date.

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27 Comments

27 Comments

  1. checotey

    April 3, 2019 at 4:25 pm

    come one guys, they copied a lot from aardman

    • Mary McFly

      April 6, 2019 at 8:25 pm

      ​+checotey “Aardman’s 2012 stop-motion feature “The Pirates! Band of Misfits” incorporated 3D printing technology pioneered by Laika for smoother, more versatile face replacements.” Come one guy, you just hatin.

    • checotey

      April 7, 2019 at 6:59 am

      Mary McFly : no no, there is no hate involved here. aardman was founded in the 70s or so, laika in 2004, or 05? so it is definitely more likely that laika copied more stuff from aardman. laika probably contributes to the industry as well, but aardman is the frontrunner here…and I am not british or so

    • Mary McFly

      April 7, 2019 at 7:27 am

      +checotey i agree with that, aardman are pioneers too, i am sure they learnt something from them, but its not like they are copying them, its more like learning the good techniques from the vets and sharing the progress, i dont think laika thinks aardman copies them just because they now incorporate that tech to their animation, because their styles are so different, its more loke a win win for everyone evolving the craft 😉 im not brit either but i love their accent lol.

    • Brad Hiebert

      April 9, 2019 at 9:59 pm

      well, before Laika was “Laika”, it was Will Vinton Studios… Doing the same same kind of claymation that Ardman does. In those days the faces were all clay and the animator pushed and pulled the clay around to make facial expression on the fly. The use of 3D printing to create 3D printed faces was pioneered by Laika on their first film Coraline and expanded every movie since….example. In Coraline, limited faces were printed white and hand painted….

    • MadZL

      April 18, 2019 at 9:06 am

      Ok mr family guy

  2. G. Rouch Blackburn

    April 3, 2019 at 9:42 pm

    Wow amazing… Respect good ? job

  3. Remi Stardust

    April 3, 2019 at 10:46 pm

    Beautiful craftsmanship. I’m afraid this kind of labor of love doesn’t pay off in todays world, where movies and shows have become so much of an interchangable commodity.

  4. Igor Gabrielan

    April 4, 2019 at 1:18 am

    laika.ai

  5. young boss

    April 9, 2019 at 11:41 pm

    Laika ,in my opinion is one of the most underrated animation houses out there they have consistently producing great animated features,and they never disappoint.

  6. Madi Bendy

    April 11, 2019 at 1:22 am

    I adore stop motion it’s an underrated art

  7. Stan ezen

    April 11, 2019 at 3:23 am

    We need to support studios like this. This is a dying art

    • Wellington Oliveira

      April 14, 2019 at 2:30 am

      YES!

    • Dominic de Martigny

      April 14, 2019 at 11:59 am

      Yet you probably won’t go

    • Stan ezen

      April 15, 2019 at 7:10 am

      Pornbably

  8. Filscout

    April 12, 2019 at 7:48 pm

    I saw the movie and I loved it, the humor, the gags and the fun story! The fact that it is mainly hand animated is the charm and beauty of this timeless art form. CG animation becomes obsolete after one year or less due to its reliant on software tech. which always changes every year making the previous outdated.

  9. Wellington Oliveira

    April 14, 2019 at 2:34 am

    First of all: Laika is way overdue for that best animated feature Oscar

    Second of all: Laika’s movies don’t get nearly the box office they deserve! What the hell is this projection that “Missing Link” will open with a meager 5 million?! This movie is pure art!

  10. thegoldfish100

    April 15, 2019 at 12:10 pm

    When they first started laika was my favorite , because they pushed everything with stop motion. They used it to do just about everything. Now, they seen to be moving away from that, from the warmth that stop motion gives, and the realism, to a cold, and work out medium CG. Disappointed to see they’ve used so much CG.

  11. bella torres

    April 17, 2019 at 1:44 am

    I’ll be working on this one day.

  12. Jakab Ágó

    April 17, 2019 at 9:29 pm

    106000 unique print… hm… if you do the math: 106000/24/60=> 73,6 You can get a 73,6 minute long movie out of that, if each print used once. They could almost print each frame out, and photograph. But then whats the point? 🙂
    I know multiple characters in one shot are messing up calculation.

  13. Jac Conte

    April 18, 2019 at 7:36 pm

    All thanks to the inspiration of the work of the master of stop motion, Ray Harryhausen.

  14. tyson145

    April 20, 2019 at 5:57 am

    What 4 jerkoffs didn’t like this!? What were you expecting exactly? I free toaster?

    • Kiwi Dew

      April 22, 2019 at 6:07 pm

      Toaster bananzaa!

      Jk the jerk was probably was some kid or something

  15. J. C.

    April 21, 2019 at 1:07 am

    Lol, thumbnail looks like the room of faces in Game of thrones

  16. mackenzie hughes

    April 21, 2019 at 2:19 pm

    Laika is so amazing. Every movie I’ve seen of their’s is on my top ten favorite movies.

  17. DESIRE Design Pro

    April 21, 2019 at 11:26 pm

    interesting

  18. Stuart 01 Media

    April 22, 2019 at 7:50 pm

    I applaud anyone who has the patience to create stuff like this. it’s spectacular.

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