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.