When I was young...

When I was young...
The first 3D animation movie that came in to my mind when it comes to the animation that I loved was "The Nightmare Before Christmas", it is totally a classic in my memory of 3D movies. I remembered that I drag my dad to buy a copy of this movie, when it came out in the stores. There was even once when I sat there so quietly in front of the huge television screen in the electronic store, watching the movie, which so happened to freaked my parents out, while they were choosing a new television set. The short movie was a musical, filled with terrifying, yet magnificent sights. It was the first full-length stop motion animated movie ever created! I am inspired by the characters in the movie. They were simple models, yet packed with so much character due to its texture, and the way it was animated.
GENESIS
The genesis of this story started with a poem by Tim Burton (Disney animator) during the early 1980s. In July 1991, the production of "The Nightmare Before Christmas" started.

PLOT
The plot of the story depicts a dream world, known as "Halloween Town" filled with unique character models consisting of monsters, ghost, ghouls, goblins, vampires, werewolves, witches and skeletons. Jack Skellington(The main character in the story, aka "The Pumpkin King") became tired of leading the citizens in a frightful celebration routine year after year during Halloween. He stumbles upon a portal while wandering in the forest and crosses to "Christmas Town". Being impressed by the feeling and style of Christmas, Jack decides to present his findings to Halloween Town's residents. Having presenting his findings very vaguely and the residents fails to grasp the idea of Christmas, he decides to take over Christmas, by acting as Santa Claus. Meanwhile, Sally(A rag doll created by the town's mad scientist) falls in love with Jack, and was worried that Jack's plans would become disastrous. As his obsession grows stronger with Christmas, he instructs that Santa Claus to be brought back to Halloween Town to take a rest for this Christmas, allowing himself to take up the role of Santa. Thus leading him to terrify the citizens around the world, with his monstrous gifts. He survives a military attack, as he was known as an imposter trying to destroy Christmas. Though disappointed, he quickly picks up himself, as he has new ideas for Halloween, and quickly rush back to Halloween Town to save Santa from Oogie, allowing Santa to save Christmas. In the end, Jack reveals that he is attracted to Sally too. The story ends a romantic scene of them kissing under the full moon in the cemetery.

Character Design
The production team handcrafted 227 puppets to represent the characters in the story. They also created 400+ Jack Skellignton heads to allow the expression of every possible emotion. Sally had only ten types of faces made from a series of eleven expressions and synchronised mouth movements. Santa Claus' head has more than 50 different working parts.

The best fact about the puppets was that the smallest working puppet in the movie was just a doll from the "real world" that Jack visit, which was only one inch long.

How come Halloween Town looks so twisted?Amazingly! It looks so twisted due to the design artists, using their non-drawing hand to sketch out their design. I've never thought of drawing this way. SOMETHING TO BE NOTED ABOUT!