Siggraph

If the clips from Laika Studios‘ upcoming Coraline are any indication, the incomparable animation artist Henry Selick (Nightmare Before Christmas, James And The Giant Peach) is directing a new spin on the idea of ‘3D.’ Despite the fact that this advance look at Coraline is happening at SIGGRAPH, Selick’s amazing animation isn’t in 3D-CGI — it’s in stereoscopic stop motion. (Think of ‘3D’ in its last-century meaning, before the term was transformed by computer animation.)

Coraline was shown as part of SIGGRAPH’s ‘Animated 3D Cinema’ session alongside clips from Dreamworks’ upcoming Monsters vs. Aliens, Disney’s Balto and Sony/Image Movers’ Beowulf. But it has a look unlike any of the computer-rendered stereoscopic efforts, with a dimensionality that is palpable.

Which is not to say that Coraline avoids digital tools entirely. The film’s Visual Effects Supervisor Brian Van’t Hul, who made the presentation, noted that digital paint fixes and rotoscoping for wire and rod removal were used — a job made especially challenging by stereoscopy. He noted that it required twice the amount of work, and if the paint fixes for the right and left eye images weren’t flawless, a ‘retinal rivalry’ would result.

The Coraline team used only one camera to film the left and right eye images, using a small rig on miniature stop-motion sets. The sweeping camerawork in the Coraline clips was so stunning that it was easy to forget that this was all so painstakingly filmed. Van’t Hul (who previously worked with Selick on Nightmare.. and and James…) reported that shooting ‘Coraline’ has already taken 75 weeks, and they have 8 to 10 more weeks to go. It’s required up to 10 different shooting crews and 50 miniature stages.

Van’t Hul noted cheekily that the Laika crew was determined to break the rules of stereoscopy as often as possible, adding that exploiting flaws in the process can create something new. “Technically correct is not always creatively or emotionally correct,”

he observed. This glimpse of Coraline revealed emotions that rang true.