Buchanan met Harryhausen as a youth while the master was at work on the original Clash of the Titans, and eventually became a set of extra hands and eyes on that set and subsequent projects. This tutelage sped along a career in 2D & 3D animation, special effects, armature construction, production design, storyboarding, sculpting, miniatures and TV/film production crews in the UK & Wales.
Buchanan's homage to this iconic art form is reflected in his own short films & series, Omni Force, The Ultra Guardians, and his online digital content. His projects profess his own space opera leanings, with grotesque creatures and heroic black, female, hybrid and cyborg characters driving the story—arrayed against conglomerates epitomizing villainy. Use of hands-on miniature detail and expressive puppet nuances also figure in his work.
He has been the subject of numerous interviews in animation journals and publications and is considered part of an exclusive tier of premier animators in his field. He was given reign by Clive Barker to design and fabricate a quadruped creature with rider for the film Nightbreed. Buchanan's work can also be seen in the BBC series Space Odyssey: Voyage To The Planets.
Openshaw, Dave; Reccia, Mike;(editors); (photos: Bell, David); Sci Fi & Fantasy Models #4 January/February 1995; Puppets For Omni Force; pp. 27-29, (interview)(back cover image)
Openshaw, Dave; Reccia, Mike; (editors); (photos: Bell, David); Sci Fi & Fantasy Models #5 March/April 1995; Models For Omni Force pp-43-45 (interview)(front cover image)
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Animation is a method in which figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most animations are made with computer-generated imagery (CGI). Computer animation can be very detailed 3D animation, while 2D computer animation can be used for stylistic reasons, low bandwidth or faster real-time renderings. Other common animation methods apply a stop motion technique to two and three-dimensional objects like paper cutouts, puppets or clay figures.
Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames is played back. Any kind of object can thus be animated, but puppets with movable joints or plasticine figures are most commonly used. Puppets, models or clay figures built around an armature are used in model animation. Stop motion with live actors is often referred to as pixilation. Stop motion of flat materials such as paper, fabrics or photographs is usually called cutout animation.
Special effects are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game and simulator industries to simulate the imagined events in a story or virtual world.
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad is a 1958 Technicolor heroic fantasy adventure film directed by Nathan H. Juran and starring Kerwin Mathews, Torin Thatcher, Kathryn Grant, Richard Eyer, and Alec Mango. It was distributed by Columbia Pictures and produced by Charles H. Schneer.
Raymond Frederick Harryhausen was an American artist, designer, visual effects creator, writer and producer who created a form of stop-motion model animation known as "Dynamation".
Clay animation or claymation, sometimes plasticine animation, is one of many forms of stop-motion animation. Each animated piece, either character or background, is "deformable"—made of a malleable substance, usually plasticine clay.
It Came from Beneath the Sea is a 1955 American horror science fiction giant monster film from Columbia Pictures, produced by Sam Katzman and Charles Schneer, directed by Robert Gordon, that stars Kenneth Tobey, Faith Domergue, and Donald Curtis.
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The 3 Worlds of Gulliver is a 1960 Eastmancolor Columbia Pictures fantasy film loosely based upon the 1726 Irish novel Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift. The film stars Kerwin Mathews as the title character, June Thorburn as his fiancée Elizabeth, and child actress Sherry Alberoni as Glumdalclitch.
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A monster movie, creature feature, or giant monster film is a film that focuses on a group of characters struggling to survive attacks by one or more antagonistic monsters, often abnormally large ones. The film may also fall under the horror, comedy, fantasy, or science fiction genres. Monster movies originated with adaptations of horror folklore and literature. Typically, movie monsters differ from more traditional antagonists in that many exist due to circumstances beyond their control; their actions are not entirely based on choice, potentially making them objects of sympathy to film viewers.
An armature is the name of the kinematic chains used in computer animation to simulate the motions of virtual human or animal characters. In the context of animation, the inverse kinematics of the armature is the most relevant computational algorithm.
Charles H. Schneer was a film producer best known for working with Ray Harryhausen, the specialist known for his work in stop motion model animation.
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Ray Harryhausen: Movement Into Life is a British documentary for made by John Walsh when he was a student at the London Film School. Its subject was the art and animation of Ray Harryhausen The film looks at the stop motion animation process employed by Ray Harryhausen focusing on the creatures from his 1981 film Clash of the Titans. The voice-over was provided by Doctor Who actor Tom Baker who won the role of Doctor Who after the series producer at the time was looking for a replacement for Jon Pertwee who was leaving. the role. Producer Barry Letts saw Tom in The Golden Voyage of Sinbad in 1973.
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