Rapid Prototyping
Rapid prototyping means using a 3D color printer to quickly create small items. LAIKA used rapid prototyping to create puppets, puppet faces, parts, and props for ParaNorman.
Faces
As in Coraline, the puppets in ParaNorman use multiple “replacement faces” so that the puppets have a wide range of expressions.
Time
To craft a new puppet from scratch takes at least 3-4 months from start to finish, not including design and testing time. For ParaNorman, 60 puppet makers created 61 characters that comprised 178 individual puppets. Printing replacement faces required four 3D printers working constantly for approximately 572 days (about a year and a half).
120 different costumes were designed and made by hand for the film
ParaNorman Street Shoot, ParaNorman 2012.
Hand-Crafted
Approximately 31,600 hand-made props were created for ParaNorman.
It takes a Village
LAIKA is home to a diverse and creative community of storytellers, artists, inventors, technicians, and craftspeople who hail from around the world. More than 320 crew members worked to bring ParaNorman to life. To create some three dozen unique locations for the town of Blithe Hollow, the production utilized 18 carpenters, 18 model builders, 6 riggers, 12 scenic painters, 11 greens artists, and 10 set dressers. Many of the town’s settings and features, such as the Blithe Hollow Witch Statue, were inspired by real locations in Salem, Massachusetts, including the famous Salem Witch Statue.
ParaNorman has nearly three dozen unique locations, all hand-built
Illusion of Movement
Stop-motion animation is created by taking a series of still photographs, one at a time. Objects are repositioned between each frame and photographed again, thereby creating the illusion of movement. Instead of a conventional movie or video camera, LAIKA animators shoot with a still camera. ParaNorman was filmed with a DSLR Camera, which generated 20 hours and 29 minutes of total footage that amounted to 1,770,601 frames.
ParaNorman has nearly three dozen unique locations, all hand-built