Once filming is completed on a live action movie, there’s still quite a bit of work to be done in postproduction. A lot of time is spent editing and cutting together the same scene shot from multiple angles, in addition to adding sound effects, special effects, the musical score, overlayed songs, and rerecording dialogue. In stop-motion, much of this work is done at the beginning during the storyboarding process. There is no cueing actors or any “Quiet on the set!” needed, and dialogue and songs are recorded beforehand. Director Henry Selick went over the script of Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas with the story department, painstakingly drawing out each scene. He said, “Very often I’d have people do fifty or a hundred drawings of a sequence. Then I’d go back, rework it, pull shots, shift them around. When I agreed on the sequence, we’d shoot the drawings on film and edit those. Then we’d redraw and rework the sequence and start all over again.” By choreographing the animation and camera angles up front, animators would save time in the long run during the slow process of filming.

Inspired by recognizable motifs and characters from Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas like Spiral Hill, a pumpkin, Jack, and Oogie Boogie, these charming ornaments are the perfect complement to your Halloween décor. Keep them out and transfer them to the Christmas tree, or better yet, leave them out all year long! Worked in the round from the bottom up on DPNs and rounded out with craft stuffing, each chart motif is repeated four times across and topped with a crochet chain hanging loop. Want a bigger ornament? Simply size up the yarn and needle size!