Supermarionation

From Conservapedia

Supermarionation is a form of puppetry first devised by Gerry Anderson in the 1960's. The term is a portmanteau of the words "super", "marionette" and "animation".

Contents 1 Overview 2 Other forms 2.1 Supermacromation 2.2 Hypermarionation 3 References 4 External links

Overview

The Supermarionation technqiue employed fibreglass marionettes one-third in scale to a human being, suspended by thin, metal wires. These wires, as well as providing suspension, also acted as cables for the solenoid motors within the marionettes to control lip and eye movements. The pre-recorded speech was converted into electronic pulses, which moved the lips of the marionettes in time with the speech, thus making the marionettes appear to be talking.^[1]

In terms of movement, the marionettes could not be made to walk convincingly, and so either a "chicken walk" was used for the marionettes, or in later series, the marionettes were simply filmed from the waist up and moved from side to side to give the impression of movement. Where complex hand movements were required, the film would switch to live-action shots of human hands opening doors, pulling switches etc.

The first series to use these techniques was the 1960 series Four Feather Falls, but as the term "supermarionation" was not coined until afterwards, the show is not officially considered a supermarionation series.

The full list of supermarionation series is as follows:

• Supercar (1960)

• Fireball XL5 (1962)

• Stingray (1963)

• Thunderbirds (1964)

• Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons (1967)

• Joe 90 (1968)

• The Secret Service (1969)

Following the failure of The Secret Service, Gerry Anderson ended his use of supermarionation and began work on live-action projects.

Other forms

In later years, Gerry Anderson returned to puppetry with newer shows, this time using newer techniques based on his original supermarionation series.

Supermacromation

Supermacromation was a form of puppetry used on the 1980's television series Terrahawks, and its usage appears to have been limited to that show.^[2]

Unlike supermarionation, where marionettes were suspended from metal filaments, the marionettes used in supermacromation were operated from below like conventional hand puppets, putting supermacromation on a closer par with the puppetry skills used in Sesame Street.

Hypermarionation

Hypermarionation is a term coined by Gerry Anderson to describe the animation technique used in Gerry Anderson's New Captain Scarlet, a 2005 re-working of the original supermarionation series.^[3]

Hypermarionation is essentially a combination of computer-generated imagery (CGI) and motion-capture techniques. Operators wearing sim-suits simulate the actions of the characters, and their motions are painted over to appear as though they are being performed by the CGI characters.

References

External links

• Fanderson - the official Gerry Anderson fan site