Stop Motion Models

Here is a character model i made out of clay which i am going to animate. I first of all moulded the body until eventually adding details such as facial features with tools. Here are pictures of the models which i created.

Time Lapse

Introduction

Time-lapse is a technique used within the application of stop motion. Due to the way in which it is done however it is often argued to be a photographic technique. Regardless, time-lapse can produce some quite stunning effects. The process is normally done by setting up a Digital camera usually on a tripod to keep it still. Then the camera is set to take a photo at regular intervals. The intervals can range from a frequency of taking a photo every minute to taking a photo every month. This normally done on a specific subject such as a fruit. Therefore, the finished product is and image which appears to be moving. For example if a photo would be taken every day of an apple the finished product would be a series of images of the apple slowly decomposing. When these photos are put together it uses the same principle of persistence of vision to appear that the fruit is decomposing before your eyes at a fast rate. In this post i will be discussing various examples of stop motion animation.

Koyaanisqatsi 

Koyaanisqatsi is a full feature film directed by Godfrey Reggio. It is a cult classic which is primarily created through the use of the time-lapse technique. Its shows a changing world in the country of the U.S. Most of the time-lapse techniques used are in cites such as new york. The videos below shows a few scenes from the film. In theses scenes a camera is left in a city centre. Then a picture is taken regularly to create the effect that thousands of people are zooming through the street at a fast pace.

Time lapse of progression

Time lapses can be often used to show a person or objects progression overtime. This is seen a lot in videos in which a fruit will decay for example. The video above shows a persons progression over a period of time. They created his effect by taking a picture of themselves each day in a different place. This shows the ageing process at a very high speed as well as hair growth.

Use in corporate video

Due to the rather stunning effects time-lapse can create it is often used in corporate videos. This will be usually done to show a project being completed. The use of a time-lapse will make it so you can see the development of the project in a short amount of time.

EXPLOSION !!! - My cut out animation

During

Explosions !!!!!!!!

Cut-out animation - Characters

After researching various cutout animators we began creating our own cut out style animation. Our idea was inspired by monty python as we have incorporated real images to the animation. Ours will include 2 characters with strange body parts and features added from different pictures of people. This will be similar to Terry Gilliams work as it will be strange,peculiar and random. Below are examples of our first character designs for the animation.

Above is my finished cut-out animation. I decided to follow a more 'Terry Gilliam' theme after doing extensive research. This meant cutting out images from newspapers and making a completely nonsensical piece of work. This is shown through my animation with it having no narrative. The production was rather awkward as i did not stick each part together. This resulted in pieces getting lost and a lot of tedious moving of various bit of paper.

Cut Out Animation

Terry Gilliam (Monty Python)

Terry Gilliam is best known for his work with the series 'Monty Python.' he uses the technique known as 'cut out animation' which is the process of animating using cut out pieces of paper. Normally Gilliam does this by cutting out images from newspapers such as political icons and animating them by moving each body part with separate pieces of paper. His style of animating is very distinctive and iconic in the world of animation. Here is an example of one of his most famous ones in the film 'monty python's flying circus'

This can prove a very tedious process unless you are well organised during production. By this I mean adding hinges to each part of the character to maintain good flow within the stop motion. This also means parts won't get lost during the process refraining from jumpy shots.

South Park

South Park is an American Sitcom which uses the technique of cut out animation for the whole of the show. At least this is how it used to be done. In the modern age the creators of the show use software instead. This software emulates cut out animation. Therefore, the show appears to have been done just through cut out animation. The show was created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone. Both animators were inspired by 'Monty Pythons Flying Circus'. Due to this they decided to create there own show based around the same methods. The first episode which was aired on 'Comedy Central' gained 980,000 viewers. At the time this was seen as very high for a cable t.v programme. The show gained massive popularity. So much that the show continued even into to now (2013) and a movie was also made out of the t.v series.



WARNING MAY OFFEND SOME VIEWERS

Independent projects

With the boom of technology it is easy enough for one to create a stop motion feature in the comfort of your own home. This is seen below in the 2010 independent film 'The Invention of Love.' As you can see cut out has come a long way since it's primitive days. With nicely flowing and realistic movement which looks almost surreal.

All in all, cut-out animation is a very efficient way of making creative pieces of animation. It is effective for creating very nice looking visuals and sett a rather surreal theme.

First clay animation

Here is a clay animation which i created out of the characters which i made. You can see these in a blog post further up mthe page. To create this i used 'Istopmotion' to capture each frame of the animation. I also printed of a background for scenery.

 

 This proved rather difficult due to the small time period which i had to produce it. Therefore, there are many imperfections such as the background as well as the movement. As you can imagine it was very rushed and this is shown through mainly the final sequences. I feel this could have whent alot better if i had spent more time perfecting each aspect.

Pixilation + class excersise

Pixilation 

Pixilation is a form of animation in which you use real people as models as oppose to inanimate objects or drawings. It will consist of taking an image of the subject. Then them slightly moving, then taking another photo. This done continually will result in a moving image if the frame rate is high enough. Almost like a piece of film or video. However, when doing it photo by photo you can do things not possible in film. These include effects such as character floating or objects disappearing. Many examples of pixilation have been seen throughout time. Norman Mclarean was who really started it of with his short film 'Neighbours' (Seen in other blog post)

The video above is a modern version of pixilation and show the sheer capabilities of the technique. As you can see this incorporates a mix of cut out with pixilation to create some visually stunning effects.

Class exercises

This was us trying out the mac software Istopmotion. We used a technique called pixilation which is the process of using human models in animation. An animator famous for using this was Norman Maclaren. This was created at 12 frames per second which is why the animation wasn't as smooth as it could have been. We exported as DV pal 16:9 then uploaded it to youtube.

I think it could have went better if we had spent more time on it. I feel that the first few seconds were smooth animation were as the rest of it was quite jumpy. This is because rather then consistently taking still images we rapidly took images whilst moving.

Animation 1950's-1970's

Introduction

The 1950's to 1970's was another ground-breaking era for the animation industry. They saw in the start of the popular 'Creature features' amongst other iconic pieces of animation. In this blog post i am going to be discussing three different types of animation in this era.

Beast from 20,000 Fathoms 



This was one of the first ever monster film created through the use of stop motion animation. This started a massive industry for "Creature feature' these were movies that usually used claymation to create the monster. This was there substitute for CGI or 'special effects'. Normally the plot lines of these movies followed similar concepts. Most were about a fight between humans and huge creatures or monsters. Some notable examples would be king kong, godzilla and of cause beast from 20,000 fathoms. Although, the Ray Harryhausen film Beast from 20,000 fathoms was the first of its kind it was no different to the rest that followed.

Jason and the Argonauts



The clip above shows one of the most iconic scenes fro  the acclaimed 1963 film 'Jason and the Argonauts.' This was revolutionary for the stop motion animation industry for many reasons. The main one being that it was one of the first of it's kind to incorporate live action into stop-motion animation or 'Clayamation.' Directed by Don Chaffey this is still credited as one of the most stunning pieces of film to date as well as one of the greatest pieces of early animation. Shot with an estimated budget of around $1,000,000  the film smashed the box-office with a gross of about $2,100,000.

Monty Pythons flying circus

As i have mentioned in another post Terry Gillian truly was the godfather of cut-out animation. He proves this in his 1969 production of 'Flying circus. A ridiculous piece of nonsensical comedy gracing our cinema screens. Although the film was primarily a Live action piece of cinematography it was filled with many segments utilizing Gillians spontaneous creativity and stop-motion abilities. This gave animations a different perspective in animation with the ideal that a narrative in animation is not a vital aspect. Rather the quality and entertaining, visual and creative value of the piece. Flying Circus is regarded as a well respected piece of stop-motion even now in the industry. This is due to the fact it is all cut out. As well as the high quality maintained regardless of the resources available at the time.

The 1950's and 70's was a very special time for animation. It had finally began to break through to a wide commercial market by being incorporated into live-action films. This era is truly what laid the groundwork for the animation which we see today by giving modern animators inspiration.

Animation 1930's - 1950's

Norman Maclaren

Norman Maclaren was a Canadian animator known mainly for his work with stop motion.He was born 11th April 1914 and died 27th January 1987. He was well known for creating abstract pieces of animation his most popular being neighbours (1952).This film used the technique of pixillation which was the process of using actors as the objects for animation.

Fleischer Brothers

The Fleischer brothers were two more critically acclaimed animated in this era. The were renown for being competitors wit the animator walt disney who was also a big animator at the time. Following the release of Disney's full feature length film snow white and the seven dwarves (1937) the Fleischer brothers tried to do this. The created the film 'Mr bug goes to town'. Although unlike snow white this turned out to be a flop at the box office. The film was done using cell shaded animation in which there are 25 images for each second of the film.

Walt disney

The animator walt disney was well known during this era for the creation of steamboat willie which was his début of mickey mouse. This was popular as it was one of the first of its kind to incorporate smooth animation with audio. it was produced on an estimated budget of $4986 with a very few amount of animators. It was a huge hit due to the fact it was the first animation to fully synchronise the sound perfectly to the film

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Persistence of vision

Persistence of vision

Persistence of vision is a technique used by animators were an image appears to be moving when in actual fact it isn't. It is done by quickly playing a group of separate images in a sequence. By making the after image of each photo slightly different than the previous it creates the illusion that the image is moving. A very early example of this is the 'zoetrope' which uses the same concept. It is basically a group of images inside of a machine which are flicked through rapidly to create the animation.

Here is an example of a zoetrope, one of the most early forms of animation. As you ca see each image on the wheel is followed by an image after it. each image has a slight change within it such as a character moving forward slightly. When all of this images are played rapidly in a sequence it gives the illusion that they are all on single moving image. When in actual fact, it is just a series of individual images which give the illusion of movement when played after one another.

The pioneers of animation

George Melies

George mellies was a famous film maker in the late 1800's and the early 1900's. He was renown for being an illusionist and discovering the stop and start trick by accident. This happened when his camera broke whilst recording upon trying to fix it he discovered that he had made two scenes continue after each other. This was a very early way of editing or special effects it became very popular in film making and was used alot in film making in the early 1900's. one of his most famous pieces of work was his short film a trip to the moon. During this film he used many of his innovative techniques such as painting scenery and the stop and start technique. He was also known to color in his films by hand which can be seen in scenes from trip to the moon.

Windsor Mccay

Windsor Mccay was well known to be one of the pioneers in cartoon animation with popular work such as gertie the dinosaur (1914). He began as an artist drawing comics until eventually creating animated cartoons. he did this by drawing an image and then tracing it. when tracing the image he would make the after image slightly different than the previous. This created the illusion of persistent of vision making the cartoons appear to be animated. He was also a master of showmanship by doing things such as interacting with his cartoons like petting his characters on the head.

Lotte Reiniger

Lotte Reiniger was another innovative animator who worked beside her husband carl coch. She was a german animator however her work was known throughout the world for her work with. She would cut out different coloured pieces of paper into shapes such as humans silhouettes or animals. Then using the same persistence of vision principle which other animators were using made the silhouettes appear to move. Her work was also known for being very abstract and artistic for example in her animation 'the adventures of prince achmed'. She was animating whilst walt disney was still experimenting with there short animations. Most of her famous pieces of animation was created in the era of 1923-1926.