STOP MOTION ANIMATION

What is Stop Motion?

Stop Motion Animation is a type of animation that consists of objects moved in different places, and then captured as a photo at different frame rates to be then played as a continuous sequence to give an illusion that the object is moving depending on the frame rate, for example a slow frame rate 2 frames per second would make the animation run slow compared to 10 frames per second making the animation look fast.

Here are some examples of rules needed in animation as a whole.

History of Animation

The first kind of animation was founded around 5,000 years ago. An Egyptian burial chamber

showed a sequence of images drawn on the walls of wrestlers fighting.  Images like these were found all around the world consisting from being painted onto walls or on pottery to tell storys. For example an Iranianian pottery that was dated around 4th millennium was discovered and on each discovery they had pictures of wild goats jumping. This inspired many people around the world and slowly animation began to evolve to what it is today.  

Stop Motion genrally is a technique that requires patience and to be able to create an animation over a couple of days rather just one day because, stop animation is a very  time consuming and animation that can not be rushed due to the length of motion needed to create a smooth animation. Animations can consist of 300 images all with a sequenced patter that is then sequenced together to give an illusion of movement. 

Stop Motion animation has a every long history in film. It was often used to show as if by magic was appearing through the usage of stop motion and creating the illusion of movement. Stop motion techniques were created by Albert E Smith and J Stuart Blackton for creating the Vitagraph's The Humpty Dumpty Circus and it was created in 1897 in which the a toy circus of acrobats and animals comes to life.

In 1902 the film Fun in a Bakery Shop used the stop trick techniques in the ''lighting sculpting'' sequence. The French trick maestro  Georges Méliès used true stop motion to produce moving title- card letters for one of his short films, but he never used this technique on his other stop motion films.

The Hunted Hotel made in 1907 is another stop motion film by J. Stuart Blackton and this stop motion film was a huge success when it was released to the public.    

Different types of Stop Motion Animation

Clay animation involves sculping and animating a character mainly made out of clay. Here is an example of a clay mation video piece created by Eric Fogel "Celebrity Death Match".

Toy-Mation

Toy-mation uses a toy, such as an action figure or a Lego figure as the model used for animation. Here is a lego animation called Matrix Trinity Help.

2-D Clay Animation

In 2-D clay animation, a flat clay character is laid on a flat surface such as a table and made to look like he is standing. Here's an example from a short Marc Spess made using 2-D claymation.

Paper Animation

Paper animation utilizes the same concept as 2-D clay animation. The only difference is that the animator uses paper cutouts instead of a clay figure. Here is a great animation, made by Megan Brain for a United Airlines commerical during the Summer Olympics.

A well known stop motion effects and director is a man called Ray Harryhausen, Born June 29th 1920-2013. Ray was an American visual effects creator and producer for well know films that consisted of stop motion animation. For example Ray uses skeleton characters within the techniques of stop motion, Then projecting the animation on a back drop and was acted over to produce a layer and a stop motion CGI effect when he created The clash of the Titans. Here is a list of fils that Ray has helped create or produce using the elements of stop motion animation.

Nick Park born in Preston, Lancashire, another stop motion artist born 6th December 1958. Nick is famous for his well known clay mations such as Wallace and grommet. Also well known for Shaun the sheep and his feature film chicken run.  

 

 Tools of Animation

• Zoetrope created by William George Horner 1786-1837. William was a British Mathematician who created the Zoetrope. The Zoetrope is a device that rotates a line of images all with different movements and a black shutter. This gives an illusion of movement as the Zoetrope rotates. Here is an example of a Zoetrope that i came across during my trip to Birmingham at the Sea life Center.

• The Phenakistoscope created by a Belgium Physicist Joseph Plaeau in 1801-1883. Joseph was most know for being the first person to demonstrate the illusion of moving image in small increments of motion that was spaced with slits.

• The Thaumatrope which was created by a British Physician born 1785-1856. He was well known for his big invention which was used to demonstrate persistance of vision to the Royal College of Physicians. This device worked by an image on either side of an object and has string on either sides. When the Thuamatrope was spun it would create a small illusion of movement/ Animation.

The flip book created by John Barnes Linnet in 1868. A flip book consisted of a book mostly filled with springy pages that had an animated sequance of images printed on each page. The spectator would bend the pages of the book so that each page would pass by and then the image on each page would create a short illusion of animation.

Here is some stop motion terminology

3-2 pulldown: Digital process required to extend 24 'fps' to 30 'fps' when converting from 'PAL' to 'NTSC' for US viewing.

Accent: In timing a scene or shot, the most important action is called the accent. In animating, the most emphatic pose of an action is the accent. Both are often related to the soundtrack, eg. the downbeat of a conductor's baton.

Anticipation: A movement that anticipates a specific action, often in the opposite direction of the intended action. Eg. when a golf player is about to to hit the ball, the backswing anticipates the main action.

Arc: The path of an action. Most movement follows some kind of arc, as opposed to a straight line from A to B.

Aspect Ratio: The relationship of width to height of a film or video frame. Specific examples include: Standard Widescreen cinema format is 1.85:1; High Definition TV and Widescreen TV is 1.77:1 (or 16:9 width to height); Regular Television (aka Standard Academy) is 1.33:1 (or 4:3). For a lot more information about aspect ratios and projection.

Bar Sheet: A chart marked up in frames and seconds on to which the 'track breakdown' can be transferred by the Editor. This is often used by the Director to plan scenes/shots.

Boiling: Movement of lines or fluctuating colour, sometimes a deliberate style but often due to inaccurate inbetweens or uneven application of colour.

Bouncing Ball: A preliminary animation exercise to study weight, timing and the basics of 'Squash and Stretch'.

Breakdown: The middle drawing or pose between two keys.

COSHH: Control of Substances Hazardous to Health. These regulations are very important in Model Making and Stop Frame.

Camera Shake: Vibration created by filming artwork or models with calibrated degrees of camera movement in alternating directions.

Clean up: Cleaning up or re-drawing the rough animation, referring to models sheets to ensure that the animation is 'on model', and preparing artwork for scanning or tracing.

Comp-ing: Compositing or combining various elements to create the final image.

Cycle: Continuous action created by repeating a sequence of drawings or images, typically used for walks and runs. Cycles are also used in Effects Animation, eg. rain, snow, flags, etc.; in fact, anything that is repeated action.

Describe the Curve (aka follow the arc): Follow a path of action. See 'Arc'

Dope Sheet (proper name: Exposure Sheet. aka: X Sheet or Worksheet): Chart used by Director and Animator to time out action, identifying the numbering of the animation and giving all instructions relating to action planning, animation levels, camera moves, exposures, etc. There is one Dope Sheet for each 'shot or scene'.

To Dope: To enter information on to a 'dope sheet'.

Double bounce: In a normal walk cycle, there is only one pose per step in a downward position. For a double bounce, there are two down poses per step which gives a syncopated type of movement. (e.g. Mickey Mouse.)

Extremes (see 'Keys')

Facility House: Post-Production Company

Fettling: Trimming and making seams on models or puppets after the moulding process.

Doubles (aka Twos): Creating one image to be exposed for two frames of film. The standard way of working for good drawn animation. See 'Singles' for examples of when not to use Doubles.

Field: In 2D drawn animation, the area of the drawing to be seen by the camera is referred to as the field size. The format of the field depends on the screen ratio at which the material is being shot.

Field: A very basic explanation for the meaning in video is that there are two fields for each frame of film. One field contains the odd scan lines of the frame, the other contains the even scan lines. When run at the correct speed, a complete image is seen. (UK television runs at 25 fps, i.e 50 fields per second; U.S. television runs at 30 fps, i.e. 60 fields per second).

Animation then and animation now

Animation during 1980s was very old fashioned and during those time animation was very limited because of the technology during those times. An example of animation during those times is a video clip from Clash of the Titans which was created By Ray Harryhausen.

Todays animations consist of a variety of technology and can feature many skills such as CGI to create an illusion of clay motion or the usage of visual 3D effects to bring the animation to life. The two different links between then and now is that we have become more advanced in our technology to create more animation from a variety of skill sets. Here is a latest example of a stop motion animation from Youtube called Iron man vs Bruce lee which consists of stop motion and Green screen CGI.

By using my influences that i had researched in my sketch book i was able to create my own stop motion piece. I was influenced by many Youtubers such as Counter656 and Mike diva.

With these two main influences i was able to structure my own animation. Rather than just creating a stop motion using a DSLR and editing each image frame by frame, I found that i was able to create a stop motion animation by using an application from my phone. From this i was able to export the file from my phone to Final Cut Pro X to create a smooth stop motion. To make the animation more effective i added music (DUBSTEP) to help structure the animation more better. Here is the Stop motion piece i created for my stop motion animation assignment.