Stock motion animation
Chapter 1: What is stop motion animation?
Stop motion is an animated-film making technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion when the series of frames is played back as a fast sequence.
Types of stop motion: puppets, plasticine, post-its, claymation, pixelation
Clay animation, puppet animation, cut out animation, pixilation, object animation, silhouette animation
Chapter 2: Techniques/terminology
How is the illusion of movement created?
The ability of our brains being tricked into thinking we are seeing fluid movement on screen when in fact we are watching a quick succession of 24 frames per second. The moving pictures in movies don't actually move.
How many frames can the human eye see?
The human eye detects 10-12 separate images per second, retaining up an image for up to a fifteenth of a second a subsequent image replaces it in this period.
24fps – this is the standard for movies and TV shows, and it was determined to be the minimum speed needed to capture video while still maintaining realistic motion. Even if a film is shot at a higher frame rate, it’s often produced and displayed at 24fps. Most feature films and TV shows are shot and viewed at 24 fps.
30fps – this has been the standard for television since the early days, and is still widely used despite producers moving toward a more cinematic 24fps. Videos with a lot of motion, such as sports, will often benefit from the extra frames per second. The reasons for using 30fps is strangely complicated and it mainly has to do with television and electricity standards set a long time ago.
60+fps – anything higher than 30fps is mainly used to create slow-motion video or to record video game footage.
is a unique form of stop-motion animation that uses figures made of clay. It involves sculpting characters and background sets out of clay.
is a technique that incorporates the animation of still puppets. Similar to claymation in many ways, the characters and sets are already made in full forms instead of being made while the animation is being shot.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii11-GmCqR4
Cut-out animation
is a technique of producing animations using flat characters, props and backgrounds cut out from various materials such as, cardboard, stiff photographs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEoseZw_tok
Pixilation is one of the most difficult forms of stop-motion animation. In this form live actors change their movement in each frame of the animation. They pose while multiple frames are taken and the position changes slightly in each frame.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_HXUhShhmY
Object animation involves the animated movements of non-drawn objects such as toys, blocks, dolls, etc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBjLW5_dGAM
Silhouette animation involves characters who are only visible as black silhouettes. This is usually accomplished by back-lighting detailed cardboard cut-outs, though other methods exist. It is partially inspired by shadow play.
Chapter 3: Pioneers/Contemporary Users - Case Study (scroll down below for remain)
Norman McLaren
Norman McLaren is the most honored filmmaker in Canada. In his lifetime he received literally hundreds of awards and prizes for his work. McLaren was born in April 1914, in Stirling, Scotland, he grew up fascinated by motion and imagery and went to the Glasgow School of Art where he studied design and made his first, short, student films. In 1939, McLaren moved to North America, to go to Solomon Guggenheim Foundation. He spent two years in New York, making another four drawn-on-film animated works before moving once again. Today, McLaren is remembered mostly for his experimental work of combining sound and video – creating several unique and ground-breaking techniques that are still used. He also got Canada’s National Film Board renamed its Montreal Head Office building in honour of McLaren.
Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was born on December 5, 1901, in Hermosa, Illinois. He and his brother Roy co-founded Walt Disney Productions, which became one of the best-known motion-picture production company in the world. Disney was an innovative animator and created the cartoon character Mickey Mouse. He won 22 Academy Awards during his lifetime and was the founder of theme parks Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Disney hired an ink-and-paint artist named Lillian Bounds, After a brief courtship, the couple married.
The Walt Disney studio dabbled with puppet object animation in 1959 with the release of a 21-minute experimental short, Noah's Ark, nominated for an animated film Oscar for that year. Disney once again experimented with several stop motion techniques by hiring independent animator-director Mike Jittlov to do the first stop motion animation of Mickey Mouse toys ever produced for a short sequence called Mouse Mania, part of a TV special commemorating Mickey Mouse's 50th Anniversary called Mickey's 50th in 1978.
Max Fleischer
Max Fleischer was an animator, director and inventor, He is best known for creating animated cartoons featuring popular characters including Betty Boop, Popeye the Sailor Man and Superman. He is considered one of the three major pioneers of American animation of the 20th Century, along with Winsor McCay and Walt Disney.
He was born on July 18, 1883, in Krakow and arrived in New York City at age five. His father established a successful tailoring shop which catered to wealthy clients. Then he attended public school, and after graduating from Evening High School.
The first releases (1918-1921) were produced at the pioneering Bray Studios, included in the Bray-Goldwyn Pictograph film magazine series. Several of the early Song Car-tunes were released with soundtracks between 1926 and 1927, prior to the official start of the “talkie era” and preceding Walt Disney’s Steamboat Willie as the first sound cartoon by two years.
(talk about a piece of his work)
Contemporary work: The Brothers Quay
Stephen and Timothy Quay, identical twins, were born in Norristown, near Philadelphia, in 1947. After graduating in 1969 from the Philadelphia College of Art, where they studied illustration and graphics, they won a scholarship to the Royal College of Art, London.
Recent collaborations with the choreographer William Tuckett and their small insert in Julie Taymor's Frida (US, 2002) have introduced wider audiences to the Quays; while The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes(Germany/UK/France, 2005), a live-action fairy-tale where a piano tuner attempts to rescue an opera singer from the clutches of a mad doctor in the Carpathian Mountains, is so bizarrely beautiful in its foggy, artificial, de-colourised way that is sure to attract new admirers.
Recent collaborations with the choreographer William Tuckett and their small insert in Julie Taymor's Frida (US, 2002) have introduced wider audiences to the Quays; while The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes(Germany/UK/France, 2005), a live-action fairy-tale where a piano tuner attempts to rescue an opera singer from the clutches of a mad doctor in the Carpathian Mountains, is so bizarrely beautiful in its foggy, artificial, de-colourised way that is sure to attract new admirers.
Stop motion animation evaluation
The type of stop motion I decided to do was model animation.
Model animation created to interact with and exist as a part of a live-action world.
What do you think of this type?
This was my first time ever doing stop motion animation and I thought that is an interesting activity but I do think its something that you have to be good at to enjoy it, I'm not that good at it, therefore, I didn't like it as much as someone who is.
WWW:
For most of the time, I felt that for my first time I held the camera fairly steady and the movement seemed to flow a little. The frames at the beginning of the test flow a lot smoother in the clip because the movement of the dog was more realistic.
EBI:
The next time I do stop motion animation I won't bump the camera changes your camera settings or alter your lighting. There’s nothing worse than being 40 shots into a 60-shot scene when you suddenly drop your camera or model. The cardinal rule is it takes time to save time.
I don't think that I would use this type of stop motion for my final piece because it was difficult manoeuvring the model that I was working with and the figure that I was using was stiff therefore couldn't move a lot
Chapter 6: Genre & Form
TV SHOW - Wallace and Gromit
Wallace and Gromit is a British stop-motion comedy animation series created by
Nick Park of Aardman Animations. The series consists of four short films and a
feature-length film. The series centres on Wallace, an absent-minded inventor
and cheese enthusiast, along with his companion Gromit, a silent yet intelligent
anthropomorphic dog. Wallace was first voiced by veteran actor Peter Sallis.
Actors: Peter SallisPremiered: 1989-06-03
CHANNEL INDENTS - Sky Movies
Certainly my favourite modern ident, and possibly my favourite ident ever. A 360°
panorama of various cinematic landscapes (the Wild West, a futuristic cityscape,
a New York street, an 18th-century garden, and a frozen ocean with a pirate ship),
accompanied by an epic musical montage. Shortened versions of the panorama
are used to introduce genre movies (action & adventure, sci-fi, comedy etc.). The
ident really captures the excitement of being transported into the world of the
movie and creates an atmospheric setting before the credits roll. Sometimes I'll
even put on a movie I hate just to see this ident
CINEMA - The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
There are two things to remember about this ghoulish gem, a mainstay of Halloween
(and Christmas) viewing. The first is that it's not directed by Tim Burton (he came up
with the concept and designs whereas Henry Selick actually helmed); the second is
it's one of the greatest stop motion achievements of all time. The wonderfully twisted
imaginations of both Burton and Selick offer fertile ground for all kinds of memorable
monstrosities as Pumpkin King Jack Skellington discovers Christmas, the rich detail of
the models from Skellington's spindly form to grotesque baddie Oogie Boogie offering
a showcase for stop motion in all its glory.
MUSIC VIDEO – “Walkie Talkie Man” (2004)
This Partizan production, which would go on to garner four VMA nominations as well
as a Grammy nomination for Best Short Form Music Video, was directed by Michel
Gondry. Ray Harryhausen is an obvious influence; a pioneer in this type of filmmaking,
he masterminded the development of a technique called “Dynamation,” later known as
“Dynarama” (how 60s are those names?!) which involved merging real live actors with
animations.
Task 2
Chapter 1: Initial Ideas
Why are you choosing the one you final choose (and why aren’t you taking forward the other ideas)
I am going to be doing my stop motion project on my second idea which is going to be me doing a 'Draw my life' stop motion whiteboard animation video. A draw my life video is a type of YouTube video in which people describe their life, or an aspect of it like their job or relationships, by drawing stick figures. The footage of the drawing process which can be sped up for the video or stop motion version (small increments between several individual frames so they will appear fluid motion), with an added voiceover explaining the drawings. These videos often depict how a person has grown and changed throughout their life. I didn't pick my first the idea because
I didn't do the last one due to lack of facilities and knowledge
What is Loose Moose?
Loose Moose produces films and television commercials; specializing in stop-motion animation and puppets,
although some of the directors also shoot live action and visual effects. It was founded in 1994, Loose Moose is
an independent production company, based in the heart of London’s Soho and owned by BAFTA Nominee producer
Glenn Holberton.
What is Loose Moose's target audience
Their target audience is focused on children and young adults since they like to show
a selection of animations at animation events
Techniques, audience, basic narrative points.
Stop-motion animation techniques include object animation, clay animation, puppet
animation, and cutout animation.
They produce commercials, short films, and music videos
My first idea was to base my stop motion project as a dance music video. It is going be based on the Nothin'On you music video. To achieve this I will need to take several images of the dancer dancing showing the narrative. My target audience is focused on children and young adults. Loose moose have loads of pixelations in their body of work.
My second idea is to do whiteboard drawings. It could be based'draw my life' video which is literally me drawing and narrating my life in a couple of minutes. To achieve this I will need to take several images of the whiteboard drawing story. My target audience is focused on children and young adults.
3rd
IDEA
My third idea was to do a stop motion dance video but this time with claymation or puppets. I would do this by maneuvering the puppet or clay to do the 'dance moves' whilst taking several images of the whole 'dance'. My target audience is focused on children and young adults.
4th
IDEA
My last idea was to do a milkshake advert using pixilations as Loose Moose is known for their adverts such as Dolmio and peperami. To achieve this it was going to be drwaings of how milshakes are made for it then to end with the milkshake in the bottle. Target audience would be for young adults and children (it would be fun for them)
2nd
IDEA
1st
IDEA
The intro will be INTRODUCTION
My stop motion video is going to be based around my life story with me illustrating my life on a whiteboard using a whiteboard pen.
CONCEPT:
What is the main storyline?
My idea is me drawing out my key moments in my life and narrating over it.
-The intro will be me illustrating the " Draw my Life"
-a second couple of seconds will be my mum giving to my sister Shenay then 6 years later my mum gave birth to me :)
- naming me Shanei yes very annoying I don't know why my Mum did that.
-when I was 8 my mum had my brother Dante and I was happy
-Then 2 years later I got Encephalitis and was very sick then my mum had my sister Leah the same time I was in the hospital so I remember going to floor she was on to see my little sister (through the door because my mum is very extra even though it's not contagious)-
-then we were all released
-it was my 10th birthday I wanted it to be big because I was turning double digits but my parents said no so I wasn't happy until it was the day of my birthday and they surprised me by renting out a theatre and everybody partied and had a good time
-unfortunately, once the party was done we had to go home and my mum was driving and a dominos pizza motorbike crashed into the side of the car
-everyone was fine but I told my mum we should have gotten free pizza for at least a year.
-now fast forward a couple of years
-my mum got married to her husband and had a big Turkish and Jamaican fused wedding
- that same year my dad got married may I add THE DAY BEFORE MY BIRTHDAY
then my bday was just meh a bit boring nothing special
-I did my GCSE'S blah blah...boring I passed them...most of them
This will appear to a young teen audience as I am discussing my life events appealing to people of a similar age (17). Tonally my piece is lighthearted because during certain sections such as my sisters' name and how it's very similar poking fun, joking about the little annoying struggles I had to deal with growing till this day.
TECHNICAL - geeky but essential breakdown.
Stop-motion animation is a simple way of making animated films. By gradually moving objects against a backdrop, and taking photos at each stage, you can create the illusion of continuous motion.
Whether this is with a photo camera, smartphone, webcam or camcorder in photo-camera mode.
Stop motion is filmed within 24fps in either single”ones” or double “twos” The 24fps “Ones” means you will have to take 24 pictures to make the 24fps where as the doubles you will only need to take 12 pictures as they will double to make the 24fps, so they will capture 2 images at a time. Therefore will be doing 12 frames per second in my project.
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Soundtrack
I will be using this audio as my background music because it's calming yet not distracting the audience from the story I will be telling. Whilst this will be playing I will be doing a voice over and narrating the story as the drawings go along. Even though there isn't narration in a stereotypical stop motion animation, my piece will do as I feel it will help guide the audience understand what's going on. the last type of audio will be my sound effects, I'm not 100 percent sure what sound effects I'm going to use but I will be getting them all off https://www.zapsplat.com/
StoryBoard
Task 3
Location Reece
Shot list
Evaluation
This unit was based on stop motion and I chose to make a draw my life stop motion video which is a short narrated video of me narrating and drawing my life story.
The specification for this animation was to make a stop motion animation for loose moose productions that was entertainment, and that would be shown at an animation event for children and young adults. The duration of the clip had to be 1-4 minutes long and use at least one stop-motion animation technique.
To create my stop motion I took the pictures on the stop motion app where I set up the camera, put on a timer for the app to take a picture every 2 seconds whilst I start drawing my draw my life on the whiteboard and overall took around 1200 pictures I had to edit down to 3mins 11 seconds. During the process I had to overcome some small difficulties for instance I had to ring in a phone holder to make sure that my phone wasn’t falling every time I would try to record other than that I never really had any issues on this.
-The remainder of chapter 3
Tim Burton
Every director has his own style, but the thing about Tim Burton or Wes Anderson is that they are two directors who are mostly known for their style, instead of the other way around. But no, Wes is not becoming Tim Burton. His movies have substance.
Tim Burton was born on August 25, 1958, and is an American film director, producer, artist, writer, animator, puppeteer, and actor. He's best known for his dark, gothic, and horror and fantasy films. He has worked on huge films, from comedies (Beetlejuice) to dramas (Big Fish) to thrillers (Sleepy Hollow), with a few big-budget blockbuster fares (Batman, Planet of the Apes). At this current moment, he has released a remake of the film dumbo with him being the director and executive producer. A famous stop motion piece of his is the night before Christmas which was made on 24 frames to a second, meaning they had to pose characters 24 times for each second of the completed film. That consisted of roughly 110,000 frames and the movie, therefore, took more than three years to complete.
Wes Anderson
Wesley Wales Anderson was born on May 1, 1969. His films are known for their distinctive visual and narrative styles. His best stop motion films were
Fantastic Mr. FoxWriter in 2009, Isle of DogsWriter in 2018 and is currently working on the French dispatch that will be released in 2010. He has wanted to make a stop-motion film for years he once said before he started FSF “One thing I’ve always liked in terms of stop-motion is animals with fur. I like the way the fur moves, the animators call it “boiling” because you can’t really keep it still." The puppets’ eyes are moved between clicks of the camera by way of a tiny hole in the center of each pupil. The animators stick a needle into the hole to adjust the direction and it took the production team of FMF one week to complete one to two minutes of footage.
William Horner (zoetrope)
William Horner was born on the 9th of June 1786 and was a famous pioneer. He was a British Mathematician and published a mode of solving numerical equations. Horner invented the Zoetrope in 1834 and was based on Plateau's Phenakistoscope.
William Horner’s introduction of the zoetrope in 1834 was a major progression in the evolution of animation, but it wasn’t the beginning. The zoetrope was influenced by different things from the 17th Century. To create an illusion of motion the drum is spun the faster the rate of spin, the smoother the transition of images. Someone can look through the wall of the Zoetrope from any point around it, and see a rapid progression of images.
Eadweard Muybridge
Eadweard Muybridge was born on April 9 in 1830 was an American photographer known for his pioneering work in photographic studies of motion and work at the beginning of motion pictures.
He once asked himself "When a horse trots or gallops, does it ever become fully airborne?" then he set out to find the answer in 1878. He developed a way to take photos with an exposure lasting a fraction of a second and supposedly arranged 12 cameras along a track on Stanford’s estate.
As a horse sped by, it tripped wires connected to the cameras, which took 12 photos in back to back and when he was studying the pictures revealed that a horse is completely raised with its hooves tucked underneath it for a brief moment during a stride. He also discovered that us humans can't see it with the naked eye but apparent through photography which marked a new purpose for the medium. Muybridge’s stop-motion technique was an early form of animation that helped pave the way for the motion-picture industry.
Lumière brothers
Auguste Marie Louis Nicolas (19 October 1862) and Louis Jean (5 October 1864) was born in were one of the first filmmakers in history,
The Lumières held the world’s first public movie screening on December 28, 1895, at the Grand Café in Paris. They get credited for the invention of films, they helped perfect the illusion of movement. They filmed a stream train coming in at a station and showed the film at a Nickelodeon and the viewers ran out the Nickelodeon in the early 1900s due to them never seeing a moving image before.
Chapter 3: Pioneers/Contemporary Users - Case Study
Do a case study on at least 3 of these animators (you can pick one that isn’t on the list if you want). MAKE SURE YOU PICK AT LEAST ONE PIONEER AND ONE CONTEMPORARY.
Pioneers: Joseph Plateau (phenakistoscope), William Horner (zoetrope), Emile Reynaud (praxinoscope), Edward Muybridge, Edison (kinetoscope), Lumière brothers, George Pal.
Contemporary work: The Brothers Quay, Tim Burton, Aardman Animations, Laika Studios
The case study should include: Name and basic details: birth, where they grew up and education, Early work, Development of style, Trademarks - what they are known for, Themes that might be included in their work, More recent work, Who they have been influenced by and who they have influenced.
Include - videos, links, and images to help you explain your point. Use examples of their work and makes links between animators.