Assignment 1
Stop Motion started in the late 1800's, where the illusion of movement to inanimate materials was created. The history of stop motion and how it began led many creations of high significance which shaped Stop motion today and led to many films, series and adverts which we see day to day as entertainment or for other purposes.
Stop motion is based of something simple. You can create a illusion of movement by putting an object infront of your camera and then expose one frame of film, move this object slightly and then take another picture. This exposes a second frame. This is repeated and then played in a sequence to show movement. Movies are more complicated then this as there are so many vast movements that have to be made.
In the beginning there were many inventors that came up with different ideas which led to the future of animation and movies such as The Nightmare Before Christmas, Wallace and Gromit and the Lego movie.
Stop motion is based of something simple. You can create a illusion of movement by putting an object infront of your camera and then expose one frame of film, move this object slightly and then take another picture. This exposes a second frame. This is repeated and then played in a sequence to show movement. Movies are more complicated then this as there are so many vast movements that have to be made.
In the beginning there were many inventors that came up with different ideas which led to the future of animation and movies such as The Nightmare Before Christmas, Wallace and Gromit and the Lego movie.
Techniques
How do these techniques and early pioneers impact on the future of stop motion?
How do these techniques and early pioneers impact on the future of stop motion?
Persistence of Vision
Persistence of vision theory was first discovered by Aristotle, when he could still see the sun after he stopped looking at. This theory is of drawings, showing the stages of an action were shown quickly, the human eye would see them as a continuous movement. This was then developed to pictures being taken of the objects and as they moved a tiny bit, then another photograph was taken. Once many photographs are occupied, pictures will be put together to create the illusion of a moving image. This then led to films and animation today. Persistence of Vision led to the movies we watch today a now we have the ability to receive a sequence of frames as a continuous moving picture.
The advantages of this is at the time this was a big breakthrough for inventions. This also became an entertainment feature for all, especially children and led people to become more creative. At this time entertainment methods for children would of consisted of playing with eachover and toys, so to have this new invention would of been very thrilling for the population.
This also helps animators now as understanding this technique means that animators can create smooth and lifelike animations in efficient ways as studying this will help the animators to perfect the right amount of frames.
Persistence of vision theory was first discovered by Aristotle, when he could still see the sun after he stopped looking at. This theory is of drawings, showing the stages of an action were shown quickly, the human eye would see them as a continuous movement. This was then developed to pictures being taken of the objects and as they moved a tiny bit, then another photograph was taken. Once many photographs are occupied, pictures will be put together to create the illusion of a moving image. This then led to films and animation today. Persistence of Vision led to the movies we watch today a now we have the ability to receive a sequence of frames as a continuous moving picture.
The advantages of this is at the time this was a big breakthrough for inventions. This also became an entertainment feature for all, especially children and led people to become more creative. At this time entertainment methods for children would of consisted of playing with eachover and toys, so to have this new invention would of been very thrilling for the population.
This also helps animators now as understanding this technique means that animators can create smooth and lifelike animations in efficient ways as studying this will help the animators to perfect the right amount of frames.
Stop Frame
The advantages of Stop frame is that this led a trend in all the different methods/ genres of animations being made. Stop frame has turned into many forms; starting off as pictures, turning into Plasticine and pictures, then venturing off into props such as food, animals, people etc.
This technique also impacts the future of stop motion as it now has a high educational purpose and leads unique marketing strategies. Its educational as Stop frame can show clear instructions/ information in a fun way and this makes learning more interesting and engaging. As for marketing, Stop frame allows adverts to be unique as they are fun and not many adverts will do stop motion so when they do it is guaranteed to stay more in peoples minds.
Frame rates
The advantages of frame rates and how important they are is because frame rates impact the viewing experience and style of a video. Frame rates have created different viewing experiences for people and how realistic what they are watching looks.
For example movies that are shown at 24 fps are very realistic and are similar as to how we see the World. Sporting videos or video games will have a higher frame rate then this as there is a lot to follow and a lot is happening at once so frame rate is important to keep the details of the motion looking smooth and crisp.
Development- Pioneers
Joseph Plateau (phenakitoscope)
Fascinated by his discovery, Joseph Premordmed an experiment in which he gazed directly into the sun for 25 seconds of which he then lost his eye sight later. He then died on Setember 15 1883 but his work was continued and developed for many years after.
Emile Reynaud (praxinoscope)
After his discovery, he demonstrated this device to an audience in a theatre by making his own handmaid film called 'Un Bon bock'. Reynaud made more of his own hand painted films and continued to show his work to an audience. This was successful and led to him being signed by a big business. This began to become more popular and awareness spread so more people would want to see the animated movies. This helped the Lumiere Brothers to advance their technology and unfortunately led to the Praxinoscope not being used as much. Reynaud closed his business and died in poverty in 1918.
Edward Muybridge
Edward was a photographer and film maker. At this time, speculation for years was about if all four hooves of a running horse left the ground at the same time. Unfortunately you could not tell with the human eye. So in 1879, Muybridge started photographing horses in motion and developed a galloping horse sequence. He then had proven that they do have all four hooves off the ground when running.
He was so loved for these photographs that he was given funding to continue his research, so that he could develop a more complex way to picture the horses in motion. He then went on to putting it on screen and some say he made the first ever moving picture. His work was extremely big at the time and because his audience enjoyed his photos, advances in cameras to capture stop motion in photographs was made like the zoopraxiscope.
He was so loved for these photographs that he was given funding to continue his research, so that he could develop a more complex way to picture the horses in motion. He then went on to putting it on screen and some say he made the first ever moving picture. His work was extremely big at the time and because his audience enjoyed his photos, advances in cameras to capture stop motion in photographs was made like the zoopraxiscope.
Developers
Willis O’Brien
Wills O' Brien influences the film industry massively with the CGI he added. He allowed huge beasts to come to life and to be with humans in the same shot. He made the impossible, possible and many ideas spark from his movie. Animals and humans are widely used together from this moment and some scenes he has created are greatly remembered to this day, for example the scene where Kong is face to face with the Dinosaur beast and you can sense how dramatic and scary the scene will be. The CGI of King Kong gave life to more movies of this style.
Ray Harryhausen
Ray Harryhausen was many things including a writer, director, artist and visual effects creator. He was inspired by the movie King Kong and wanted to understand the effects of the movie and this led him to become a motion picture, specialist effect King. He was famous for creating the technique of dynamation which was used to make the actors on film look like they are communicating with animated models. He is well known for doing the special effects for the Clash of the Titans movie in 1981. In this film, there is humans and animated characters shown, along with many effects. This all works well together through animation. In the film, monsters appear to be scary and dangerous and this is due to the sizing and detail of them- the monsters are made to look huge due to the small landscape contrasted with this. The monsters having a n animated effect also looks good because of their mobility too. They move unsteadily and different compared to the humans, giving them a un-natural feel to the film.
This led to another Clash of the Titans movie being remade in 2010 and many other movies being successful like the planet of the apes.
Jan Švankmajer
The film he named called Alice is a surrealist version of Alice in Wonderland. There is only one human character in the film and the other roles are voiced by Alice however are different objects, such as clay, puppets and meat. There is a similar storyline to Alice in Wonderland and involves Alice falling asleep by a river and following a stuffed rabbit in to a magical realm, where she meets many different characters and befriends them. This film won many awards and was nominated in a large amount of film festivals.
Alice is a brilliant picture and is made so well. Watching this brings me back to a childlike mindset where everything is chaotic and hypnotic but in a good way- before the normality of reality kicked in. Its beautiful and bizarre and gives a different style to animation films.
Contemporary
Tim Burton
A lot of Tim’s movies have dark humor/ themes which wouldn’t be suitable for young children therefor Tim's audiences would have been older children too teens, a Pg. He also worked for Disney who generally have a younger target audience. His audience would have been any gender too as his movies aren’t targeted at a specific gender because the movies are suited to anyone.
Burtons audience is children and teenagers of both genders. This is thought to me as most of his films have this age rating and what he portrays in films lets me think this. In Alice and Wonderland he makes the atmosphere very bright, colorful and fun with many different themes and natures that younger children would not understand however teenagers would. He makes the setting very lively which appeals to his audiences of both genders. He has a tendency to make his characters appear mad or crazy - The mad hatter and Edward Scissor Hands, which is humorousness. Tim Burton's work is very unique as the artwork in the films he has made and the style is very distinctive. He also likes to defeat gender stereotypes by allowing The mad hatter who is a man to wear makeup and dresses. By continuously doing this he has gained a large popularity along filmmakers and is very well known.
Burtons audience is children and teenagers of both genders. This is thought to me as most of his films have this age rating and what he portrays in films lets me think this. In Alice and Wonderland he makes the atmosphere very bright, colorful and fun with many different themes and natures that younger children would not understand however teenagers would. He makes the setting very lively which appeals to his audiences of both genders. He has a tendency to make his characters appear mad or crazy - The mad hatter and Edward Scissor Hands, which is humorousness. Tim Burton's work is very unique as the artwork in the films he has made and the style is very distinctive. He also likes to defeat gender stereotypes by allowing The mad hatter who is a man to wear makeup and dresses. By continuously doing this he has gained a large popularity along filmmakers and is very well known.
Nick Park
Nick Park's work demonstrates many examples of the early film techniques such as the persistence of vision, stop frame and frame rates. Nick Park has used these techniques to his advantages, especially when making the movie and series Wallace and Gromit because he and his team make small movements to the clay which is repeated tonnes of times for the length and smoothness.
Nicks target group would be a U rating as he aims his movies at young children because they contain simple humor which can be easily understood and is family friendly. The plots are also quite humble and no reading behind the lines has to be done. In wallace and Gromit, Nick makes sure that all the characters used hold extreme facial expressions and a atmosphere that constantly works with this. Some of Tim’s animations are aimed at an older audience for example the movie Angry Kid.
Purpose
To educate
Using animations to educate can make educating easier because diagrams and content can be showed that may be very difficult to show with just filming alone. This can also give a wider perspective and make the educating more interesting to watch due to the extra amount of information it may have or the extra colours and backgrounds.
Most movies have educational aspects to them, for example Wallace and Gromit The Curse of The Rabbit, is educational stop motion because throughout the movie, teamwork between the pair trying to solve the mystery is shown, therefor showing viewers at the end of the movie what teamwork and love can get them. This can be important for children to watch movies like this because they can learn morals at a young age. The characters are all very friendly to eachover too and by them being funny and a bright/ vibrant background being used, the children will be more entertained and interested.
To Entertain
A example of an entertaining stop motion is the Shaun The Sheep movie. This appeals to younger audiences as the sheep doing funny things like doing anything to get out of work will make younger children laugh. This could then interest the viewers of the movie to have a bigger interest in Shaun The Sheep. The mix of vibrant, happy colours, sound effects and the animations give a fun approach of a film to children.
To inform
The purpose of informing a audience could be to make people aware of a subject, This could be about ethical issues or political issues that is happening or could happen. Informing could also be done to give advertise a product or brand and inform audiences about it.
A example of this is is a dinosaur documentary made in 1985 and currently on YouTube, which is made in stop motion to inform audiences about the history of dinosaurs as it’s a very interesting subject which is not spoken about much. This could have factual information that Is stimulating and make spectators want to know more about it.
A example of this is is a dinosaur documentary made in 1985 and currently on YouTube, which is made in stop motion to inform audiences about the history of dinosaurs as it’s a very interesting subject which is not spoken about much. This could have factual information that Is stimulating and make spectators want to know more about it.
Uses and audiences
Music Videos
Music videos are a great way to get audiences to listen to music then enjoy it more as now they can watch an entertaining video at the same time. Music videos are aimed at all different audiences, but mostly focusing on children, teens and young adults as this is where the bigger market is. A whole Animated music video is not the most popular way of making a music video in the modern world, however many animated effects are now used in videos with people. When a whole music video is animated, they can be very effective and entertaining to watch. This is due to how different of an approach this is, compared to always having people in videos and the fact that many more styles and effects can be showed in an animation
An example of a stop motion music video is called Sledgehammer by Peter Gabriel. This was made in 1869 and is very effective as not much stop motion in music videos had been shown before so this led to more audiences enjoying this different aspect of video making. The audience for the video would be Peter Gabriel fans in the 20’s- 50’s and this would have been spectacular video to watch as it had mainly been used in movies.
By this music video having such an entertaining animation, it bought in a larger audience- some that may of not even listened to his music and therefor was a very clever strategy to use. This is now used more in modern music videos, however is still not very common as this can be very expensive.
By this music video having such an entertaining animation, it bought in a larger audience- some that may of not even listened to his music and therefor was a very clever strategy to use. This is now used more in modern music videos, however is still not very common as this can be very expensive.
Computer games
Computer and video games are very entertaining and addictive to many people but they are generally targeted at children/ teenagers. Some genres of computer games will be for 18+ like call of duty as that will contain violence and bad language. However games like Mario kart will be aimed at pg 13.
A Big example of an early animated game is Pack Man, created by Toru Iwatani in 1980. This was where a animated character- Pacman eats dots and tries not to die. At first the game was thought to not be a success, however it soon blew up as at the time games were aimed to male but this game appealed to both genders. This led on to many more games appealing to females and simple mobile games today that are very effective and fun. Now you can get Pack Man on every platform and device and it is still widely loved today. Current games now are call of duty, Minecraft and Siege( aimed at teenagers), which wouldn’t of been made without early animations.
Due to the success of early animated video games, over $2.4 billion dollars was made in 2018. This shows have successful each video game was because it allowed the next game created to develop and improve to make games like Mario Kart, Fortnite and Call of Duty today.
Adverts
Adverts are targeted at whoever would be interested in the product/ service which is being sold. Animation adverts are mainly used to have a more creative take to selling a product/ service, which then allows customers to have a better remembrance of it because the advert was so unique. Animation adverts are more widely in recent times because of how interesting they can be compared to non animated adverts. Children can be targeted for adverts to, due to the bright colours and characters that can be used.
There can also be serious adverts where a issue needs to be made aware of for example dangerous driving, hazards or what could happen. These usually wont have music and are very dramatic to hook you in and scare you a little to drive safely. By doing an animation, it could show you in more depth the dangers of driving bad and in a less graphic way. Other more uplifting adverts like Cadburys adverts, have a gorilla playing the drums. This can make you laugh or remember the advert better and therefor make you want to buy the product, especially when you go in store and see it. These are both very effective as a business wants people to talk about their advert and if it Is appealing/ funny or memorable people will. The cadburys advert is also very effective by using animation because this would not of been possible to do without it.
Techniques and formats
Claymation
This involves clay made background, sets and characters to make a stop motion animation and this is very effective as you can make small details and express different facial expressions on the characters when filming a Claymation animation. The clay is malleable to it can be shaped and bended to make any object.
The most known Claymation around is Wallace and Grommit. This was made by Nick Park who is a British film maker and he made this on the 4th of November 1989. From all the small details to a bigger picture, this was a beautiful film which showcased claymation and made people speculate at how much work would of gone into it and how the results of the programmes and the movie are spectacular. Wallace and Grommit was so popular that it ended up turning into a series and many films were made out of this.
The reaction and love from the audience of the claymation technique was also because of how different this was to other styles of film making, yet so effective. Many more highly popular films and series was made after this, including Timmy Time and Shaun the Sheep.
Pixilation
This Is where humans and objects are used as the animated characters. It is where live action is used to capture motion and each frame is captured by playback mechanisms. This makes the animation look very real and gives the film makers to be extremely creative and different. This is a interesting technique as you can make objects interact with humans which isn't seen being done much. Although it can be hard to make movements like running or jumping however if done correctly can look amazing.
This can be made in film by moving the actors or the objects little by little in each shot, one frame at a time, then playing this in a sequence. This can also be done in drawing.
An example of this being used is in the film Neighbours in 1952. This is a short film and was directed by Norman McLaren who was Canadian. This film shows power and conflict, division of human relationships in a surreal way. This challenged convetnional film making and by using pixilation, it adds to the tension of the cahraters. This makes the film three dimensional and gives the characters a robot like feel to them, portraying them as the same as everyone else, so that people can understand this perspective on a wider level. The grunge background, paired with the intensely growing music helps to create the surrealist effect and have a bigger impact. This was also one of the first films to use pixilation and the use of this allowed the film to win many awards.
Time Lapse Photography
This is a technique that shows high speed movement of a long process of photos. The series of still frames are captured one by one and then gathered together. This will then look like a film even though it is only photographs as when each photo is played fast it will give the illusion of movement. Time that then passes through each frame can then be shortened from hours to seconds. This means that a lot of photos would need to be taken in order to get a few minutes of movie, around 100 photos could only give you a few seconds if sped up very fast.
This is one of the easiest forms of stop motion animation as it only involves taking pictures and does not necessarily need much detail depending on what you are capturing. This is generally done with nature as it can be shot beautifully with examples from Landscapes: Volume 4k by Dustin Farrell, which shows a sunset, space and different various parts of nature which is very effective as it makes views not able to look away and only admire the work.
Bibliography-
websites where I gained information from
https://www.lomography.com/magazine/127612-a-short-history-of-stop-motion-animation - history of stop motion
https://study.com/academy/lesson/the-history-of-stop-motion-animation.html - history of stop motion
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Park - nick park
http://blog.getnarrative.com/2015/01/10-must-see-stunning-examples-of-time-lapse-photography/
https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2014/03/calarts-animation-1970s-tim-burton- Tim burton
https://vanillavideo.com/blog/2012/history-frame-rates-why-speeds-vary
Computer and video games are very entertaining and addictive to many people but they are generally targeted at children/ teenagers. Some genres of computer games will be for 18+ like call of duty as that will contain violence and bad language. However games like Mario kart will be aimed at pg 13.
A Big example of an early animated game is Pack Man, created by Toru Iwatani in 1980. This was where a animated character- Pacman eats dots and tries not to die. At first the game was thought to not be a success, however it soon blew up as at the time games were aimed to male but this game appealed to both genders. This led on to many more games appealing to females and simple mobile games today that are very effective and fun. Now you can get Pack Man on every platform and device and it is still widely loved today. Current games now are call of duty, Minecraft and Siege( aimed at teenagers), which wouldn’t of been made without early animations.
Due to the success of early animated video games, over $2.4 billion dollars was made in 2018. This shows have successful each video game was because it allowed the next game created to develop and improve to make games like Mario Kart, Fortnite and Call of Duty today.
Adverts
Adverts are targeted at whoever would be interested in the product/ service which is being sold. Animation adverts are mainly used to have a more creative take to selling a product/ service, which then allows customers to have a better remembrance of it because the advert was so unique. Animation adverts are more widely in recent times because of how interesting they can be compared to non animated adverts. Children can be targeted for adverts to, due to the bright colours and characters that can be used.
There can also be serious adverts where a issue needs to be made aware of for example dangerous driving, hazards or what could happen. These usually wont have music and are very dramatic to hook you in and scare you a little to drive safely. By doing an animation, it could show you in more depth the dangers of driving bad and in a less graphic way. Other more uplifting adverts like Cadburys adverts, have a gorilla playing the drums. This can make you laugh or remember the advert better and therefor make you want to buy the product, especially when you go in store and see it. These are both very effective as a business wants people to talk about their advert and if it Is appealing/ funny or memorable people will. The cadburys advert is also very effective by using animation because this would not of been possible to do without it.
Techniques and formats
Claymation
The most known Claymation around is Wallace and Grommit. This was made by Nick Park who is a British film maker and he made this on the 4th of November 1989. From all the small details to a bigger picture, this was a beautiful film which showcased claymation and made people speculate at how much work would of gone into it and how the results of the programmes and the movie are spectacular. Wallace and Grommit was so popular that it ended up turning into a series and many films were made out of this.
The reaction and love from the audience of the claymation technique was also because of how different this was to other styles of film making, yet so effective. Many more highly popular films and series was made after this, including Timmy Time and Shaun the Sheep.
Pixilation
This Is where humans and objects are used as the animated characters. It is where live action is used to capture motion and each frame is captured by playback mechanisms. This makes the animation look very real and gives the film makers to be extremely creative and different. This is a interesting technique as you can make objects interact with humans which isn't seen being done much. Although it can be hard to make movements like running or jumping however if done correctly can look amazing.
This can be made in film by moving the actors or the objects little by little in each shot, one frame at a time, then playing this in a sequence. This can also be done in drawing.
An example of this being used is in the film Neighbours in 1952. This is a short film and was directed by Norman McLaren who was Canadian. This film shows power and conflict, division of human relationships in a surreal way. This challenged convetnional film making and by using pixilation, it adds to the tension of the cahraters. This makes the film three dimensional and gives the characters a robot like feel to them, portraying them as the same as everyone else, so that people can understand this perspective on a wider level. The grunge background, paired with the intensely growing music helps to create the surrealist effect and have a bigger impact. This was also one of the first films to use pixilation and the use of this allowed the film to win many awards.
Time Lapse Photography
This is a technique that shows high speed movement of a long process of photos. The series of still frames are captured one by one and then gathered together. This will then look like a film even though it is only photographs as when each photo is played fast it will give the illusion of movement. Time that then passes through each frame can then be shortened from hours to seconds. This means that a lot of photos would need to be taken in order to get a few minutes of movie, around 100 photos could only give you a few seconds if sped up very fast.
This is one of the easiest forms of stop motion animation as it only involves taking pictures and does not necessarily need much detail depending on what you are capturing. This is generally done with nature as it can be shot beautifully with examples from Landscapes: Volume 4k by Dustin Farrell, which shows a sunset, space and different various parts of nature which is very effective as it makes views not able to look away and only admire the work.
Bibliography-
websites where I gained information from
https://www.lomography.com/magazine/127612-a-short-history-of-stop-motion-animation - history of stop motion
https://study.com/academy/lesson/the-history-of-stop-motion-animation.html - history of stop motion
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Park - nick park
http://blog.getnarrative.com/2015/01/10-must-see-stunning-examples-of-time-lapse-photography/
https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2014/03/calarts-animation-1970s-tim-burton- Tim burton
https://vanillavideo.com/blog/2012/history-frame-rates-why-speeds-vary
