Stop Motion Production

Here is how the work lines up. Stop-motion in Canada draws on a deep animation industrial base. Mainframe Studios Vancouver (Bob the Builder, Barbie franchises), Jam Filled Entertainment in Toronto and Halifax (Pickle and Peanut, Cupcake & Dino), Spin Master Entertainment (Paw Patrol franchise headquartered in Toronto), 9 Story Media Group, Nelvana, Aircraft Pictures Toronto and Vancouver, and the National Film Board of Canada Animation Studio Montreal where Cordell Barker (The Cat Came Back, Strange Invaders) and Brad Caslor (Get a Job) have built a many-Oscar-nominated stop-motion practice across four decades.

Here is how the picture comes together. Sheridan College Oakville's Animation programme stays the top-tier feeder pipeline into Disney Animation, Pixar, DreamWorks and Sony Pictures Animation — each Canadian stop-motion call we book draws fabricators, animators and rigging supervisors trained on Sheridan's Bachelor of Animation, with secondary feeders from Capilano Vancouver, Concordia Mel Hoppenheim Montreal and Algonquin College Ottawa. Toon Boom Harmony — built in Montreal and the industry standard for 2D animation pipelines — sits alongside Dragonframe and Stop Motion Pro on the capture stations our crews configure for puppet shoots in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal stages.

Here is what we have to work with. Studio space and rigging come through Mainframe Vancouver's stop-motion build floor and NFB Montreal's aim-built stop-motion studios on Saint-Antoine, with secondary fabrication and shoot capacity at the Vancouver Film Studios annex, Pinewood Toronto Studios soundstages and MELS Cité du cinéma Montreal. Our crews handle armature welding, silicone-skin moulds, replacement-face systems, miniature set construction at quarter-inch and half-inch scale, and the Dynamic Perception and Mark Roberts Milo motion-control camera rigs that allow smooth dolly, pan and crane moves frame-by-frame.

Here is the layout. Capture configurations run RED Komodo and Sony A7R V bodies through Dragonframe with tethered Cinema 4K tracking. Animators average 1-5 seconds of finished footage per day — a 30-second commercial often spans 4-6 weeks of stage time before post. CPTC at 25% of qualifying labour stacks with Creative BC Animation Tax Credit (16% on labour), Ontario Computer Animation and Special Effects credit OCASE, SODEC Quebec animation credits and the Alberta Made screen credit, with IATSE 891 BC and 873 Toronto animation department calls plus CRTC Canadian Content certification through CAVCO and Telefilm Canada commission slots.