Hidden Side of Animation

Jesse Ross, virtual technology and design (VTD) student, uses cutting-edge technology to research animation secrets of the creators of “Wallace and Gromit,” a British stop-motion comedy created by Nick Park of Aardman Animations.

Growing up exposed to the family business of metallurgy, Ross combined his personal knowledge of casting and metal works with the LIDAR, 3D photogrammetry and motion capture technologies he was learning at VTD. The result was his digital reproduction of the moving armatures embedded inside the famous characters developed by the London animation studio. Through online resources, Ross researched the metal structures inside the characters, recreated them digitally and animated the rigs using motion capture.

Ross is excited to make his research accessible to students learning animation and plans to demonstrate the technology to animation studios interested in combining state-of-the-art digital animation with the traditional art of stop-motion animation.