Abel Carbajal is a talented stop-motion animator who has worked as an intern and trainee at Laika. His stop-motion film, The Great Corelli, was recently selected as a semi-finalist at the Student Academy Awards! Read ahead to learn how Abel's love for magic as child grew into a love for animation!
Anisha: Tell me your story – how did you get started in film and animation, to how did you end up here? What inspired you to work in stop-motion?
Abel: Stop-motion was one of the first things I liked as a kid. I remember watching Nightmare Before Christmas and Chicken Run. Those movies were amazing! I wanted to know how they were done because they seemed like magic. I loved magic as a little kid; I did magic tricks for years. Later I found that stop-motion is another kind of magic. For me, it is a different way of creating an illusion. When you make things seem like they are alive, so that they not only move but also think, breath, and feel…it’s amazing.
I have always been really interested in animation. I read the Animator’s Survival Kit when I was thirteen years old, probably several times! I went to college in Barcelona. My intention was to major in film direction. But in my second year I started to think, since I liked animation and visual effects, maybe I should go for the visual effects major instead. I thought it would probably give me more opportunities to get a job after I graduate. So, I made that choice. It was really tough because there are a lot of people who want to get into the directing specialty. I had been working really hard to get into directing, but as soon as I found out I got in, I switched majors! It was one of the best choices I made in college. I learned a lot. Also, the visual effects major allowed us to make our own film, so I decided to make a stop-motion short film. It was one of the best things I could have done because that’s what gave me the opportunity to come to Laika.
"I loved magic when I was a little kid. I did magic tricks for years. Later I found that stop-motion is another kind of magic. For me, it was a different way of creating an illusion."
My school didn’t have a specialty in stop-motion, so I had to convince everybody to let me do it. It was a lot of work. I spent nearly two years working on that film. The animation alone took around nine months. I was going to the school on my own, seven days a week, even after graduating. Even on the weekends, I had an access card to get in. I was completely alone animating in the building!
Anisha: I like how you found animation through your love of magic! You did magic tricks and card tricks?
Abel: Yeah! That was something that I really, really loved when I was a kid...and I still like! But I find that animation is different. It’s also a type of magic because it’s an illusion, but it doesn’t have that intellectual or moral problem that magic has. You could say that magic is about trying to deceive or fool people into thinking you have some kind of power. I don’t like that part of magic. I like when we are all on the same page. When we know that we are watching an illusion. We know it’s fake, we know it’s trickery. But it’s still amazing. To me, that’s what happens with animation.
Anisha: Where do you see yourself next? What is your dream job?
Abel: Well, I see myself at Laika! *Laughs* I started there as an intern for three months. Then I was a trainee for nine months. I think I’ll be back soon! I really found a great place to be.
Some animators really like a more cartoonish and limited style of animation, but the stuff that is being done at Laika really resonates with me because it’s quite natural. I had very interesting conversations with other animators there. For instance, I had the chance to become really close with Jason Stalman. He’s one of the bests in the business! We had very interesting conversations about what animation should be, what Laika’s animation should be, how to get an expressive yet natural style. Those conversations have been really enlightening. I would like to keep working on that.
I like when animation is fluid and natural, but if it’s too similar to a human being moving and it seems like it’s motion capture or rotoscope, I don’t feel that’s what excites me about animation. I like it, and it’s very pleasing, but it’s very easy to fall into that. If you follow your reference too closely, then you’re basically rotoscoping. I’m not a purist, so I don’t think that’s wrong. It works. But for me, there has to be something else. There are the 12 animation principles that have been proven to make animation more interesting and visually appealing.
Anisha: What is the stop-motion industry like in Spain?
Abel: It’s definitely smaller. Right now, here in Portland, there are three movies happening. There’s always Laika, there’s Pinnocchio, and there’s also Wendell and Wild. It’s very exciting! I’m very curious about those! Portland is the place to be.
There is an industry in Europe. But in Spain it’s really small. There are a few studios that do mainly TV stuff. The only big things in Europe I would say are Aardman, and Qvisten, which is a studio in Norway. There are quite a few I don’t know much about because I am new to the industry. But it seems like the west coast is the place to be right now!
What I’m trying, and I know I’m not the only one because I’ve had the same conversation with other Laika animators, is to create fluid, natural, and believable animations, but also keep it interesting. I want to make interesting poses with the puppets, make good use of the animation principles, and put a little bit more thought into animation. Instead of just relying on the reference, I try to put a little bit of myself into the animation to spice things up!
"What I’m trying, and I know I’m not the only one because I’ve had the same conversation with other Laika animators, is to create fluid, natural, and believable animations, but also keep it interesting."
Anisha: What was your experience on your first day animating at Laika?
Abel: It was amazing! When you arrive there, the first week is orientation week so they walk you through all the processes, things you have to know how to use, how to navigate your benefits, you get to see the workshops, all that stuff. They gave us a tour on the first day. I was so blown away! At that moment I was remembering how I felt when I watched all the behind the scenes clips of Laika. That felt like a completely different planet! I always thought it was not for me! I thought I could never get to such a place. So to actually be there and see the people working there and creating these things…it was amazing.
I remember at 11 in the morning, they walked me to my desk unit, a small unit behind black curtains, and gave me a Gordon puppet, which is the puppet the use for interns. Then Brad Schiff came and just told me to start doing some poses with the puppet. I couldn’t believe it!
Anisha: What is your process like when you’re animating?
Abel: Well now, it’s pretty much the Laika process. We usually have three goes at every shot. The first thing we do is record ourselves. We shoot LAVs, which are Live Action Videos, where we try to recreate the action that we want our character to make. Sometimes we edit different takes together because it doesn’t matter if it has some cuts. You always try to pick the best take for each little gesture of your action.
First thing you do is block on threes or fours. That means you hold each pose for three or four frames so it’s very blocky and jumpy. But that gives you an impression of what the action is going to look like, what the poses are going to be. Then you get feedback on that. If they like it they may say, “Maybe you should go higher with your arm here,” or, “Maybe you should move this part a little bit.” Then you do your rehearsal, which is basically animating the whole shot on twos, 12 frames per second. That is your opportunity to make sure everything will work. Then they watch it and give you feedback. If everything looks okay, you move on to the hero pass on ones, 24 frames per second. It usually takes the longest.
Anisha: You animate the shot so many times, no wonder it looks so perfect!
Abel: It’s difficult not to lose momentum. When you start something, you’re really excited and you have everything in your mind. But when it’s the third time you’re animating it and you’re changing little things, you can get lost.
That’s another constant conversation between animators. How to keep it fresh. How to get the best results from your block. It’s very challenging.
Anisha: It definitely seems difficult!
Abel: I usually work eight hours a day. There are days you are able to only do fifteen frames or less a day. It has to be perfect. Imagine you have a full body shot of a character that has clothes, a face, eyes, and hair that might move. Not only do you have to animate all the limbs, fingers, eyes, eyelids, face, and legs, you also have to make sure the clothing moves consistently. So if you grab a puppet and distort the clothes, you have to carefully put it back where it was. If there’s something hanging, you have to make sure that it is also animated and flowing. Same with hair, you have to animate how it reacts to the wind or motion of the head. You have to scan all the little parts of the puppet and make sure they are moving the right way. If not, you have to correct it. We use tweezers, needles, and pins to make everything as nice as it can be.
"It has to be perfect. Imagine you have a full body shot of a character that has clothes, a face, eyes, and hair that might move. Not only do you have to animate all the limbs, fingers, eyes, eyelids, face, and legs, you also have to make sure the clothing moves consistently."
Anisha: How do you keep track of all those little details?
Abel: We use a software called Dragonframe which allows us to trigger and manipulate the camera remotely. We can see all of the pictures that we have taken and compare them to what we’re seeing right now in the live view. Usually we toggle between the last few frames and the live view. This way you can see if things are moving in an arc and if things are moving where they need to. If it looks off, you can correct it. So it’s not that you keep track of everything like a checklist, although some people do, but rather you pay attention to see if there are mistakes on the screen and then correcting them. You have to check all the time to make sure things are going well, and if they're not, you tweak them until it looks perfect.
Anisha: I’d love to hear about your film, The Great Corelli.
Abel: The Great Corelli is my graduation film from college. I invested myself and other people to make a seven-minute-long short film. We started working on that in 2017, writing it and thinking about what it was going to be. Then I went to Hungary for a stop-motion workshop where I met Heather Colbert. She is a wonderful puppet maker. She is super talented. I really loved her designs and how she worked. I asked her if she would like to design the puppets from my film remotely because she’s from Bristol. We started collaborating like that, but then we had the chance to bring her to Barcelona to work with me! Then we built the puppets together. We spent a month, seven days a week, twelve hours a day or more, in a closet doing stuff that we had never done before like molding, casting, sculpting, and wiring hands. All crazy things that we hadn’t tried in the past! It was very rewarding. I am really happy with the results.
Once I got the puppets and Heather left, I started building the sets. I did a lot on my own, but I had some help from Miki Emes, a set builder from Barcelona. I was shooting and building sets at the same time. That’s why it took so long. As soon as I was done building one set, I had to build the next one. I didn’t have enough people or time to build all the sets first and then shoot, so I was building and animating every day. It was a lot of work.
Anisha: What inspired the film?
Abel: This was not the first idea we had for this short film. We were working on something that didn’t have any kind of personal element to it. I can’t remember how or when we thought of this, but suddenly it made sense for me to make a short film about a magician, success, and failure. That’s what the film is about. I think it really fits! The magic of stop-motion, and the magic of the story itself. It’s something that gives more personality to the film. It makes it very personal in terms of what magic means to me and what animation means to me.
"It made sense for me to make a short film about a magician, about success, and failure. That’s what the film is about. I think it really fits! The magic of stop-motion, and the magic of the story itself. It’s something that gives more personality to the film."
Anisha: What’s the hardest thing about your job/the industry?
Abel: Technically, stop-motion is very difficult, but that’s not surprising. There are many other jobs that are technically challenging. But something that we don’t usually think about is the fact
that animators work for very, very long hours between black curtains completely alone. They are completely isolated from the world. It’s a great time to get into your own head. But you need another outlet to stop thinking and having inner monologues. You need to interact with people and the world.
When the pandemic started, some people thought that stop-motion animators are already used to isolation! But I think we need to get out and get some sunlight! That’s probably the hardest thing I’ve experienced so far. During the winter it gets dark too soon, so I was only seeing the light (I won’t say sunlight because we’re in Portland! *Laughs*) for half an hour on my way to work. Then I was working in the dark for eight hours. When I got out at six, it was already dark. And it’s like that for weeks and weeks.
Anisha: What is your favorite part of animating?
Abel: If you had asked me that question in the past, I might have said that my favorite part of animating is coming up with the performance or something like that. But now I know for sure that my favorite part of animation is watching it. Pressing the spacebar. Playing back the animation. When I animate, my motivation is to surprise myself. To fool myself into believing that there’s a real, living, breathing, feeling character. When I get that, it’s amazing. But the thing is, you don’t always get it. So that’s what is pushing me all the time to try and be better. I want to get that feeling of, “Oh my god. I can’t believe I did that!”
"I know for sure that my favorite part of animation is watching it. Pressing the spacebar. Playing back the animation. When I animate, my motivation is to surprise myself. To fool myself into believing that there’s a real, living, breathing, feeling character. When I get that, it’s amazing."
Anisha: Any advice for someone interested in stop-motion?
Abel: I am very, very new to this industry so I can’t give as much advice as the people who have been working for thirty years can. But the only thing I can say is that if I made it, anyone can make it. It’s true! The important part is to put in the work and the hours, and then not be afraid of putting your work out there and getting opinions.
Me getting into Laika happened basically because I was encouraged by an animator, Thiago Calçado. He saw my work and encouraged me to apply. I didn’t even consider Laika after graduation. That wasn’t in my plans! I was going to try to go for smaller studios and make a bigger reel so that in maybe ten years I could apply to Laika. But he encouraged me to apply and I did. It turned out great! Sometimes it’s just a matter of doing it.
Don’t be afraid. Put in the work. And specialize! It’s tricky to make those choices sometimes, but when you really specialize in something, or at least market yourself as a specialist, I think that helps. It may seem that a broader skill set may be more appealing to recruiters, but I think what they want to see is that you consider yourself a stop-motion animator instead of a stop-motion artist. Some people want to be able to do everything, but I think if you want to work in this particular industry or a studio like Laika, they value specialists.
Anisha: That’s great advice! I also love how on your Instagram you are always sharing behind the scenes clips and tips.
Abel: Thanks! I’m very aware that sometimes the behind the scenes content creates more interest than the final product. That happens! On Instagram, on YouTube, we are looking for how the magic is being done. That’s the beautiful part of animation which magic doesn’t have. In magic, you’re not supposed to reveal your secrets, so people never get to see what’s going on. They never get to see the beauty behind the methods. And in animation, there is a lot of beauty behind what is going on! I think it’s a big part of it. That’s why I like to share how it’s done.
Anisha: Anything else you would like to add?
Abel: I think we need more diversity in every industry. I would encourage everyone to apply and to see animation as a plausible career. We need more diverse voices, and more representation of minorities. If I could just send one message of encouragement to anyone who is considering this as a career, that would be it. This is a career for everyone, and it’s in our hands to change things!
"That’s the beautiful part of animation that magic doesn’t have. In magic, you’re not supposed to reveal your secrets, so people never get to see what’s going on. They never get to see the beauty behind the methods. And there is a lot of beauty behind what is going on!"
If you would like to learn more about Abel Carbajal, check out his links below:
Instagram: @abcarbajal
Youtube: www.youtube.com/AbelCarbajal
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