Shooting a Frame: A Look Behind the Scenes at the Making of Coraline | LAIKA Studios

You might be surprised to find out how much work goes into capturing a single frame of animation! Join LAIKA animator Eric Leighton on a guided tour under, behind, and around the set of the Coraline theater, where incremental adjustments are made and special tools are required.
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At LAIKA, our films are born in imagination, shaped into stories, and crafted by passionate artists who give life to unforgettable characters. Founded in 2005 and located just outside Portland, Oregon, LAIKA’s five films were all nominated for Oscars® and PGA Awards for Outstanding Animated Film.

[@alexandrathompson3350]

"I find that my clothes tend to light on fire."

[@theghostlyfigure9989]

He says it so casually too

[@dan-gy4vu]

*exposes his skin instead*

[@therealunslimshady471]

Alexandra Thompson ikr

[@melodyleavitt9464]

He probably works shirtless when he’s not being recorded

[@Person5385-w4s]

he said so casualy because dealing with it is nothing compaird to everthing else in this

[@tapdancinggiraffe9047]

I love his modesty with this particular scene.

[@junkerburn2341]

For your viewing pleasure.

[@moogaboogaa]

he’s so respectful to a clay model lol

[@dani.1170]

for real lmao

[@killkaiii3317]

I have crazy respect for the animators at Laika.

[@LAIKAStudios]

Thanks! And we love the enthusiasm and support of awesome fans like you.

[@TheWitchvortex]

I think you also have to be a little bit crazy to do this :D . These people are amazing

[@therealunslimshady471]

Omg ikr like bro wtf

[@tianapitesr8553]

@@LAIKAStudios Must have that Lego Pink Palace!

[@almosthuman2398]

I like to be animator but... I think I dont have pacient enough for stop motion 😂😂

[@megapistol64]

If you blink during the movie, you'll miss 10 hours of work

[@Angel_Billy4-30-23]

MegaPistøl Damn, yeah, that's true.

[@prcervi]

and that's why you rewatch it. catch all the work over several viewings and have fun spotting all the foreshadowing.

[@re.gathasiahaya3414]

Yep

[@nopenotgivingit]

Damn

[@men_del12]

But id I don't blink, my eyes will dry

[@diegoaleman4277]

Mad respect for you guys at Laika i love every one of your works and i can't wait for the reveal of your new movie. Thanks for everything

[@LAIKAStudios]

Thank you for all your support Diego! Fans like you mean the world to us, and we can't wait for you to see our next film.

[@nate3556]

What’s the next film???

[@chapasproject]

​@@nate3556 when this was posted they talked about "Missing Link". its all ready came out and failed because of a bad advertisement. no one knew it existed a damn shame! hope it wont hurt the studio to badly. i really wish they go back to dark Halloweeny themes. coraline was the most amazing thing ever!! pure masterpiece.

[@gracerose7314]

@@chapasproject I'm so sad almost no one knew about missing link 🥺 it was a real gem just like all of Laika's works, but in my opinion one of the most memorable for the Laika team since it was the first where all their characters were adults which had a huge impact on the scale of the characters and sets, phenomenon

[@jovivianed4602]

@@nate3556 I think the next movie is going to be called wildwood

[@pangalaxy2885]

That was one frame. One. Frame.

[@WobblesandBean]

I know right??

[@Jacksonk628]

Masterpieces paranorman my favorite movie ever

[@grampsgramps8478]

This is just pure passion...I would like to be involved in something like this

[@LAIKAStudios]

Thank you for your interest! You can find all LAIKA job postings here: laika.com/careers.

[@MB-ev9ix]

mad respect. 2d animation is difficult by itself, but stop motion is INCREDIBLY difficult

[@cube4547]

Honestly I think traditional 2D animation is harder, because you have to draw EVERYTHING (with the exception of backgrounds) in the movie over and over again. With stop motion you're taking real pictures of real objects so all you have to do is move them around and take said pictures, following the same animation principles without having to do everything over and over. I do realize that many faces are made for the movie but like, in many film productions there's tons and tons of props and prop variations made, and it's not like the animators themselves make the puppets or anything... There's obviously different departments. So if you mention the puppets themselves you're stepping out of animation into craftsmanship. All those props and puppets are eventually sold at auctions anyway.

[@cbwmechbot]

@@cube4547 Stop motion animation is actually the hardest type of animation out there. 2D and 3D gives animators have the luxury of being able to plan their key poses, then animate frames in-between those important poses. This is called "Pose to Pose" animation. An animator can have an entire shot planned out ,just with key poses. On the other hand, the only way to animate stop motion is called "Straight Ahead". You literally start animating from your first frame and go on from there, and it is incredibly difficult not being to have key poses to guide where the animation is going. Straight ahead is almost like making it up as you go, it is incredibly time consuming having to check and go back to see if the movements look right.

[@BowHooHoo]

@@cube4547 I think the word we should use here shouldn’t be which one is harder, since some people may have a harder time drawing or some people may find it more difficult working with physical objects, I think both are equally as hard. I think the word we’re looking for is which one is more time consuming, but then again both also takes so much time

[@Speed-TV]

@@cube4547 That's maybe how it worked decades ago, but nowadays 2D animation and CGI is easier than ever. You don't have to redraw the character every frame. Instead, you can hook it up to a rig where you can move the arms and everything like a puppet. For stop motion, you are physically limited. The creators of this movie had to create a physical object for every position of the fingers and mouth for example.

[@ezrap743]

That is such a well-animated and beautiful scene! I love the amount of detail that goes into each movement. I really hope to work there one day - that is honestly the dream.

[@LAIKAStudios]

Thank you so much for your interest! Please find all current and future openings here: laika.com/careers.

[@bravemaverickstudio4845]

Millions of ppl have the same dream as you do, me too.

[@allenbriones8193]

Nice I want to be a stop motion animator once I grow up

[@lordlammi1562]

Don't wait. Start as soon as possible. I'm trying to start now.

[@raeeeeee]

I do too but I’m too lazy😅😂

[@lordlammi1562]

@@raeeeeeeI'm trying to fight my laziness.

[@gracerose7314]

Same here :) I finally saved up for months just to afford some silicone and armature kits, hope you're getting into it as well now

[@BuriedHatchetProductions]

Have you grown up to be an animator yet?

[@Silly_Sulky_Seli]

I wonder is it's handier or even worse to work this job when you're a big perfectionist

[@redprime3210]

I feel like that's part of the job description in order to be a professional animator

[@onigireee]

Handy for extremely tiny details. Worse for things that don't require such perfect movement, and are on a tight deadline.

[@prcervi]

for stop motion it's nearly a requirement for consistency less helpful if the deadline is breathing down your neck though

[@redprime3210]

@@prcervi lol I wasn't being literal. As someone who practices stop motion. I'm pretty familiar with the basics. And requirements.

[@madmady8278]

as an animator myself I can attest to it being... both better and worse. you learn more because you push yourself harder and therefore you are a better animator by default. however a 10 second segment that another animator could complete in a fortnight will take you a month. will the quality be better? yes. will the boss be happy? No. thats my 2 cents.

[@snail2871]

Hes just so casual about the diffulty of the environment hes working in. "I tend to find that my clothes catch on fire" xD

[@RareToyCollectorSteve]

Man that is a lot of work to get some animation frames. Great work you guys.

[@LAIKAStudios]

We're so grateful for your support. Thank you so much!

[@KahokoHinoEEVEE]

This kind of stuff is my passion tbh

[@dragonluvver975]

How's it going now?

[@onigireee]

Animation in any form is horrifying enough. Laika's animators run on the energy of unicorn blood, that's what they do. 💖

[@lordlammi1562]

Coraline is my all time favourite animated film and seeing this makes me love it even more.

[@danielaurista]

Wow.Must of felt like a workout being a puppet animator.-_-

[@nyctoverse5036]

*must've

[@therealunslimshady471]

Nyctoverse they can say must of buddy

[@reed8658]

Miss. Stainer no they can’t

[@nyctoverse5036]

@@therealunslimshady471 Nope. It's basic grammar m8. "must've" is short for "must have"

[@therealunslimshady471]

Nyctoverse oh I thought you could say must of? Sorry, I’m really stupid.

[@princepeterwolf]

This is the only real animation studio that exists right now, we all need to support them, they are passionate about what they do and they never play safe.

[@TheAnjelHarte]

God coralline is such a legendary work of animation. The amount of craftsmanship and patience that goes into LAIKA’s films is inspiring

[@Carolina57685]

you guys work so freaking hard omg bless you

[@jubjubbly9793]

I've watched his movie three times in the last year, and each time I continue struggling to see that *everything* is hand made. It just seems too perfect and too smooth to be that well done, but it is! This is my dream job, although I don't have near enough patience to do so.

[@pyroshayniac1090]

What a cool guy. You can tell how passionate he is. The final product was amazing.

[@darkmelodies2694]

Laika has an unfortunately short, but very impressive resume.

[@ShankX10]

My goodness I cant imagine how much running around he had to do to animate the entire stage! And most likely the times he messed up.

[@trevorvanzuydam8115]

Awesome!

[@mateusmartins3707]

CORALINE + LAIKA ♡

[@chatboulon743]

This is insanely tedious but OMG it was beautiful to see just one frame done. I always stay after the credits in hopes of seeing a time lapse of them working on a character or scene, but this... I appreciate this a lot more!

[@thetoot9615]

They did that with Boxtrolls!

[@breadcrumbhoarder]

“I find that my clothes tend to light on fire” oh my god the dedication to craft is absurd

[@stinkman70]

This is why your animations are smooth and perfect . No other animators come close to the work that you all do . Thanks for sharing this video . Awesome work .

[@emilionader5865]

And he did it all alone? My respects for Laika and all of that incredible family ♥️

[@christyshultz6443]

No he has a small part to play there are so many of them.

[@MrLiam241]

"I've found that my clothes tend to light on fire."

[@nivorann]

If there's one thing you need to have when you want to be any kind of animator, it's determination.

[@krose6451]

It takes a special kind of person and patience to do this work. It leaves me in aw.... and now I must go rewat h this movie.

[@Skrenja]

I honestly think Coraline's animation was almost TOO smooth and perfect. They could have cut a few corners and made the animation jankier and I wouldn't have cared one bit!

[@fedorbrockmann1698]

Guys that's awesome! You're my favourite animation studio, not just stop motion!

[@Nelson_Monoceros]

I will tell you the truth I've in love with EVERYTHING in this studio I mean..the character design,the voices,the works,the animations,EVERYTHING is so...PERFECT you got all of my respects you amazing humans UwU

[@Veronyak]

The amount of cardio work these people must do for just a single scene is crazy! This is why I love stop-motion animation.

[@PaperMortal]

Man I cant wait until I'm old enough to apply for work there! >w< its a dream job of mine for sure.

[@sofiat1661]

omg that’s an insane amount of work, mad respect!

[@Sierra-gu1zz]

Coraline is one of my favorite animation movie, definitely can't get bored even if I watch it for hundreds time

[@edward5pointoh]

Wow that’s so crazy! Coralline is easily one of my favorite movies and glad you guys put so much work into it

[@frog_enthusiast347]

I loved Coraline so much when I was a child, and even now I love watching it on the occasion

[@browny5124]

All this work for a scene mad respect 🔥🔥

[@luqmanhafeez55]

Oh my god!!! I love this scene soo much...

[@cubedeveloper9504]

I just rewatched Coraline and made my mother watch it with my brother aswell, me and my brother have always loved this movie since we were kids, maybe at first we didn't notice it but it slowly growed onto us just how wonderful and truly magical this film is, I couldn't be more grateful for all the hard work you all put into this masterpiece, thank you!

[@FlatEarthTalk]

You guys rock! Coraline is by far my favorite of your films and hope to see Missing Link soon! Keep em' commin'

[@miraccle9515]

Laikaaaa your movie will never get old-! °^°

[@spookypaladin4667]

I absolutely adore LAIKA and their movies! Everything about them is just perfect~

[@w3ss3l88]

you guys deserve a billion dollars just for all this effort.

[@daniela.valadez8870]

My absolute respect for animating all of your movies! Coraline is one of my favorites!

[@ANGEL-mb9yx]

Coraline is award winning I love it so much

[@orionsarrow1025]

Wow... the studio is like a shadowy doll house. I never considered that the lighting is controlled to such and extent.

[@dante2sharp]

All that ghard work paid off i watch this movie 2 or more times a day i am OBSESED

[@randompersonontheinternet473]

This is amazing! A lot of hard work goes into a single frame.

[@eemsaccount]

The sets are massive! I expected them to be small

[@ban6809]

Everybody knew what he means with "chest"

[@lototheflo9640]

yep...me meant chest

[@halalulo7557]

He meant boobs XD

[@Velchat3]

@@halalulo7557 Which are on the chest.

[@miskalkaseeh9605]

Hala Lulo which means chest smh

[@reddragon7297]

Seriously, that's so amazing

[@blehbleh2335]

Bruh let’s jus give everyone who worked on this and paranorman a round of applause 👏🏼

[@k.r4312]

I watched coralline again yesterday (for the millionth time) and it’s such an amazing movie. I have so much respect for the people that made this movie/the work that went into it.

[@мееее]

Can't help admiring of this

[@blazin.kalinnn9125]

The amount of dedication, work, and skill that goes into claymation/stop motion pictures is absolutely mindboggling. It's my absolute favorite kind of animation though. I find them beyond beautiful.

[@BabyJesus66]

I will trade you my soul for a few of those props... Deal?

[@ban6809]

SOLD!!!!!

[@JayRobison]

DEAL!

[@cargoloyalty9978]

They’ll have to sew button eyes on you first.

[@BabyJesus66]

Offer still stands.

[@snailfail9326]

This is so much work!!

[@migueberg43]

The 7 dislikes are from 3D animators, even I respect 3d animation as any other is easier, stop motion is for so much respect

[@kap79]

Just incredible work.

[@MegaMAWG]

Love you Laika! I'm currently constructing a stop-motion animation space near my studio in my home and can't wait to get started on some of the things I have in mind. I'm a newbie @ 57 years old but I've been a stop motion fan since the days of Ray Harryhausen. Thank you for the "behind-the-scenes stuff. It's inspiring!

[@sw00mpy_40]

"If I grab it, which besides is being impolite-" this man respects all puppets 😂👌

[@nakoyakampman2076]

Its amazing how its done

[@ChimeraLotietheBunny]

Big respect for creating my wonderful stop motion childhood and many others..You fellas inspired me to do my own figures that I could use for stop motion aswell...Big inspiration

[@kerry2107]

The work and dedication is absolutely amazing. What a team! Such inspirations. Would be absolutely amazing if they made a Coraline 2. It's what the world needs! 💜🌍

[@qvasararthouse9743]

I love LAIKA so much!!!

[@creativeliv1124]

I want to work for Laika one day. I’m huge into art and directing, I mean I am still a child but I have really good vision for a director. I love laika so much! Working for them is a dream come true.

[@andrear4809]

Exact same story here

[@claudiusmaximus4088]

I love this movie so much

[@javigarcia4324]

Laika you are the best at making moves I love your moves

[@erinmalone2669]

Holy moly that takes a long time. It paid off though the movie is amazing

[@sugarwater5305]

Oh my gosh. I love you guys! You are such a big inspiration to me, and am so thankful to have been able to see your PAM exhibit. I really hope to work at Laika some day. It’s my dream job.

[@themackshack9140]

It’s a fine line between passion and insanity

[@ednaduran1517]

Omg!!...i love your job!

[@v-lonely-boy4646]

"my clothes tend to catch on fire" okay what????

[@snufkintheplush3076]

I used to love this movie btw great job!!!

[@tombasiticfilms2894]

This is amazing

[@andini7478]

This is so hard and must be tiring. You guys are amazing. You guys deserve all praises. God bless all people behind Coraline.

[@Gabi-ho8zb]

I have so much respect for them because that is not even easy, it's a hard work.

[@emilytien4634]

“I found that my cloths tend to light on fire” he said it in such a CALM voice, also isn’t that a health hazard Laika?

[@darlisson_florentino]

Coraline 2!! Please!!!! 😥😥😥

[@ConorMG]

Darlisson Soares no

[@Tinselmistletoe]

Darlisson Soares I think there is a book of coraline 2 is real. I’m not sure

[@sugarangel1219]

The head of Laika Travis Knight has said he will never do a sequel because he wants to focus on telling new and original stories

[@rockergal0123]

Phenomenal isn’t even good enough to explain this. I understand why we’ll never get another one 😂

[@ericadiaz1357]

All that work for just one frame!? Wow, it must have taken a long time for just one scene, let alone the whole movie.

[@daze.d5462]

I really love all the stop motion films. I can just feel the passion poured in every frame. Mad respect to the guys that did Coraline.

[@bobbylawrence3517]

Laikas best production was Coraline, Paranorman came close but not as good ! Hopefully they have a new story coming up that's enchanting & engaging just like the brilliance of Coraline

[@Robson89almeida]

I watched Kubo and Caroline and I loved both. Watch out, Disney because Laika will crush you!

[@alexpovivity1065]

"I've noticed my clothes tend to light on fire" well yes that does seem to be a problem...

[@eyesofender5151]

IMAGINE if there was an earthquake 😩

[@sapphic.flower]

So incredible! I’m a 2D animator but stop motion just blows me away!

[@karinaaguero3565]

Miss this move😊☺😥😌

[@Salvebuonaserat]

interesting fact: he is the director of Disney's 2000 "Dinosaur".

[@EdmacZ]

The true horror of Coraline isn’t the movie itself. It’s the dangerous time consuming work that went into it.

[@Julian_LewisDig]

They created this 15 minutes from where I grew up and where I live now

[@keiraabeloved]

it’s crazy how small it all is

[@8arw]

The intricacy and patience! Just beautiful.

[@andreagoldhurricane453]

Honestly I love stop motion and I praise the people behind stop motion animations! They work so hard and Laika is a master at stop motion movies