Company Profiles - Stop Motion Pro
Stop Motion Pro |
| A Melbourne-based niche software developer has teamed up with Wallace and Gromit filmmakers to create animation history. |
| http://www.stopmotionpro.com/ |
The story so far |
| Stop Motion Pro is a dynamic software package that is revolutionising the world’s animation industry, by making stop motion animation easier, faster and less expensive to produce. Founded and developed by former engineers at Telstra Research Laboratories, Ross Garner and Paul Howell, Stop Motion Pro was launched in 1999 and is now sold in 49 countries. It replaces manual, film-based animation techniques with a digital process that captures individual frames from a video camera, webcam or stills camera, and allows them to be stored, animated and played back on a computer in minutes. |
Reaching new markets |
| After two years of excellent online sales – particularly to Australian schools and universities – Stop Motion Pro entered the international market in 2001. It secured a UK reseller after attending the well-respected Annecy Animation Festival in France and BETT, the world’s largest educational technology trade show in London. Stop Motion Pro attended these events with support from the Victorian Government’s ICT Trade Events and Export Assistance Program. Less than a decade later, Stop Motion Pro is the industry standard for stop motion High Definition (HD) production. It is used by leading educational institutions such as CalArts (USA), VanArts (Canada), the University of the West of England, Bournemouth University, the Royal College of the Arts (UK) and the Victorian College of the Arts (Australia). The company’s biggest coup to date is securing a deal in 2004 with the triple Oscar winning stop motion animation studio, Aardman (makers of Wallace and Gromit) to exclusively test Stop Motion Pro for the professional market. Hearing that Aardman had bought their software, Stop Motion Pro arranged to meet them. ‘I asked them outright if they wanted to help us make the product more suitable for a professional studio and they agreed because they could see the potential for them in terms of production savings and efficiencies,’ said Garner. "Although we didn’t get immediate sales from the deal we gained access to the skills, expertise and intellectual property of a world leader, which was even more valuable." |
Why Melbourne, Australia? |
| Head of Production at Aardman, Ian Flemming, was instantly impressed with the direct approach and determination of the Victorian company. "Stop motion animation is traditionally shot on 35mm film, frame by frame, which then needs to be sent away for processing," explained Flemming. "But Stop Motion Pro allows us to shoot footage and play it back within 10 minutes. Aside from the huge technical revolution it brings, there are major improvements in terms of capital cost, productivity and work flow. It means we can be much more competitive." Stop Motion Pro worked with Aardman over four years to refine the software. In early 2008 Aardman announced it would use Stop Motion Pro for an upcoming Wallace and Gromit HD TV special for the BBC. The geographical distance between the two companies has never caused a problem. ‘It’s actually an advantage because we often send a problem from Bristol at the end of the day, and they work on it in Australia while we’re sleeping,’ said Flemming. “The solution is there for us in the morning.” On a recent visit to Melbourne Flemming was also greatly impressed with the depth of animation and ICT expertise in the city. During his stay he visited the set of the new animated feature film Mary and Max from Academy Award winning director, Adam Elliot (Harvey Krumpet). The film is attracting significant international attention as the first stop motion feature in the world produced using a fully digitised production process. Stop Motion Pro and another Melbourne-based company, XDT, developed all the new technology and processes for the film. "I’ve been blown away by the innovation and ingenuity I’ve seen here, and the depth of skills and expertise in Melbourne," explained Flemming. “They’ve created a process that is going to jolt the industry in a big way.” |
The future |
| Now adopted by every major animation studio in the UK, Stop Motion Pro is also expanding its product offer to schools and universities worldwide. The company has employed a filmmaker to present stop motion animation tutorials to school students. New versions of Stop Motion Pro will soon be available in French, German and Spanish to expand its markets into Europe, North Africa and South America. As well as the Wallace and Gromit special, Stop Motion Pro is also working with Aardman on a pre-school TV series for the BBC and Disney called Timmy, a spin-off from the hugely successful Shaun the Sheep animated kids program. |
