Stop Motion Animation

Stop Motion Animation

Model Based 

The first week we looked at clay/model based animation. This is a stop motion technique where either the models are all made out of clay or use inanimate objects. You then take a photo of one frame and then change the position of shape of the clay and take another photo. This then builds up to create a full animation sequence. For the example I created see Chris Palmers blog. Here is an example I created last summer as part of an introduction to the course.

The example we looked at was Morph:

This simple animation follows the adventures of the clay creation called Morph. This is created by making a model out of clay and putting a wire inside. Then an individual photograph is took. For each frame the clay is moved or shaped into something else. Then another photograph is took, when put all together it makes it look like the creation of movement due to the perception of the human eye. Morph was originally created in in 1977 by Peter Lord. The animation is also made by Aardman Animations and has been seen on TV and online. Aardman has also done other things such as Shaun the Sheep and Wallace and Gromit. Here is a clip from Wallace and Gromit a clay based animation.

Another model based animation is Game Over by Pes:

Pes uses a series of house hold objects to create a model based animation. For instance there is a scene where a candle holder shoots out candles to destroy cupcakes as if it was a Space Invaders game. They also recreate Pacman by using pizza, pretzels and wooden balls.  Last of all, in one scene he recreates the Crossy Road style of game. Where a frog must avoid the traffic and rivers to get to the end. The movement shows the frog moving, the traffic moving and items moving in the river acting as lily pads. This was made available online from 6 years ago on Youtube.

The last example we will look at is an extract from Community's Christmas episode.

Community, created by Dan Harmon, normally focuses on using live action to create there episodes. Although, on occasional episodes they will try a series of new techniques, such as making the episode look like a video game or using the techniques of Glee. In this extract the whole episode is made out of models and uses stop motion techniques. In this case, it looks like the use of clay. Using the techniques of claymation. Theres a lot of motion in this extract as there is Jeff, bee's and the other characters moving at the same time.  This made in 2010 and was shown on TV as well as being available on Yahoo and Netflix. 

Persistence of Vision

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The persistence of vision is an theory based up the idea that after viewing an image our eyes (specifically the retina); will retain an image. It is said that the eye will keep/retain 1/25 of a second (0.04 seconds) at a time, which is an explanation of how we perceive motion. This means that no matter what we see, it is a blend of what just happened and what is currently happening.  So if we have an animation that uses 25fps (frames per second) our brain will not be able to tell that there are 25 separate images , which creates the illusion of continuous movement.  This theory is one of the possible explanations to how our eye creates the illusion of movement.  

A good example of this, is when you rub two coins together. If done quickly, it creates the illusion that there are 3 coins. This is because our brain only see's 1/25 of a second so when we see both coins move, our brain displays one of the coins in the middle during the movement,then blends them together. Creating the illusion of 3 coins.

Early Pioneers

George Melies

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George Melies, who was a magician, was at the Lumiere brothers screening in the grand cafe. He tried to buy a cinematograph for 10,00 francs from the Lumieres. Although they viewed Melies as a threat so the offer was denied. Instead of buying the french device, Melies bought an english device called the, Animatograph. He then modified the device using his knowledge of mechanics and reversed the devices process to make his own camera; and it only cost 1,000 francs. A couple of weeks after the screening, Melies had turned himself into a filmmaker and showcased his films during his magic act. 

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In 1896, whilst out filming the film in his camera jammed after shooting a bus coming out a of tunnel. After sorting the jam, he began to crank his camera again, although the bus had gone and a hearse replaced the bus. After the shoot, he developed the film and witnessed that the bus had turned into the hearse as if it was a special effect. Melies had also did this to turn men into women, on screen. This technique got given the name of a "jump cut" which Melies started to use in his work. It seem that his favorite time to use this was for appearing and disappearing people. I.E dropping a smoke bomb and poof, your gone. Here is an example of this being used in his film, "The Temptation of St Anthony"

Although his films were shot at the same angle and appeared more as a stage show, in turns out that after all his films/animations he never moved the camera once. In one of Melies famous movies, " A trip to the Moon" a series of pulleys and mechanics were made to make a rocket go into the eye of the moon. If he decided to move the camera instead; it could've saved a lot of time and ease. There are also lots of effects that we cannot explain today. 

Norman McLaren

McLaren took the concept created by Melies and used it with people. He would take photos of humans for animation. This is known as Pixilation. As it uses the same principles of claymation but using humans instead.  For instance in his film "Neighbours" which was created back in the 60's: 

The film starts of being a normal film. Although the houses appear to be moving and the neighbours slide across the floor. This will have been done by taking photos frame by frame. So the actor would lay down and get a photo took. Move slightly and take another. Repeatedly doing the process until you have all the frames required. For instance in this case, it appears the people are levitating across the screen. Although in fact the actor would need to jump and get the photo took at the right time. I.E this is why it is called pixilation. This was seen as a marvel at the time, but is now easy to do due to advances in technology. For instance in the example we created, all it took was a webcam and clicking a button. 

Pes Pixilation 

In this other video by Pes, he creates the impression that a human is being used as a skateboard. The sound effects make it sound disturbing as it looks like a human is being dragged across the floor. Although the images will have been taken frame by frame and the actor would't of been harmed in the making. The same technique is done when spinning the "skateboard" around. Although it is still very disturbing. This was made 7 years ago.

This animation made by youtube user CehNehhDeh in 2011 uses pixilation to use the movement of hands to reproduce more and more people. These people are also animated and do things such as duplicate themselves. The people also interact with the hands. For instance in one part of the clip the hand pushes the human in the middle from the left side of the screen to the right. A group of people are also pushed to the fall as if they are being squished. Only to remerge with twice the people.

Cut Out Animation

Using the technique of cut out animation, we created a small animation in groups. The process was similar to the other techniques tested; although this was 2D/flat only. So you will cut out the figures from either a piece of printed paper or a standard newspaper. The background will also be stuck down to a table of which the animation will take place above it. For each frame you will move the cut outs to create the illusion of movement. Here is the animation we created:

I then looked into 3 different cut out animators.

Lotte Reinger

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Lotte Reinger was another animation artist who used black and white silhouettes in her animations; which often consisted of interpretations on myths and fairy tales. As a teenager, she discovered a hobby for cinema and took inspiration from George Melies.

Reinger was German and specialized in her silhouette animation, which she did by inventing a technique of cutting out sheets of lead and cardboard. These could then be placed on a light which would enhance the silhouette style nature. Each figure had a series of pivots, which meant the arms and legs could move separately to the body. To create the illusion of movement, Reinger would put the figure in one position and take a photo, then move the figure slightly and take another photo. All the photos combined created the illusion of movement. Here is a video which demonstrates the technique Reinger used to create her animations:

One of Reinger most well known works, is her feature length film "The Adventures of Prince Achmed which was released in 1926. The film was in production for 3 years from 1923 - 1926 and used 24fps (frames per second). Because the film was 65 minutes long, that would mean that 93, 600 photographs were took to make the  overall film sequence. (65 in seconds = 3900. 3900 x 24 = 93,600).  This was the first full length animation before Disney s "Snow White",  the film was based on  the book "The Arabian Night". The film follows the story of Prince Achmed who is tricked by a sorcerer to mount a flying horse; over the course of the film he joins forces with Aladdin and battles several mythical creatures. He is a snippet from the film: 

After the great success of her first feature, she created a second "Doctor Dolittle and his Animals " which consisted of 3 shorts. The films follows the journey of Dolittle and his acts of good nature of in the continent Africa. During her life time she also created a whole series of short films, such as "Hansel and Gretel", "Jack and the Beanstalk" and "Aladdin and the Magic Lamp". Here are some clips which come from these films:

Lottes work was groundbreaking, she had incredible skills with scissors. Unfortunate Reinger died in 1981 but her work didn't go unnoticed.  Her work created inspiration for many animators in the current day. In fact "The tale of 3 Brothers" scene in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows took inspiration from Reingers technique. In fact the animation supervisor, Dale Newton states "Newton: One of the things that got me excited about it in the early stages was the question of what it should look like. We knew it was going to be stylised, but not exactly how. The producers came along with the suggestion of creating something in the vein of Lotte Reiniger, an Austrian-born animator working in the 1930s and 50s doing silhouette style animations. "

Terry Gilliam

Terry Gilliam, one of the many Pythons from Monty Python, had his go at creating a stop motion cut out animation. This was before he moved on to direct feature length films. Here is a clip from his animation "The Miracle of Flight" which uses a similar style to Monty Pythons Flying Circus. 

Created in 1971, Gilliam uses recurring backgrounds and characters to tell a story out of paper cut outs. For instance the first shots of the animation are of the cloud background which is used not only for the flying birds but for the background of the mountain. The animation explores the antics of man discovering flight; but does so in a comical and slap stick way. The animation also harness the power of sound and narration; to create a compelling animation. This will have been done in the same way we created our animation, by having a series of layers. With each one being moved separately until the stills are put together and uses the illusion of movement to create a moving image. 

South Park

Last of all for this section, lets take a look at a TV show that harnessed this technique. The show was created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone back in 1997. Although the modern day episodes have moved onto computer systems; the first episodes were created by using paper cut outs. For instance if we look at the pilot episode:

Warning there is strong language used in the animation, as this is aimed at an adult audience and will often mock over shows and current events. For example, South Park had a whole episode dedicated to slandering a typical episode of Family Guy. In the pilot you can how the faces have been drawn onto the papers. In order to get the facial expressions they will have used the same templates over and over but they will draw on different faces and  body movements. Such as an eye moving or raising of the eyebrow. In between taking the photos, they will switch out the faces to make it look like they are talking. 

How to set up Time Lapse

Timelapse is a technique used to compress/speed up time which is opposite to the slow motion technique. This technique is created when the intervals of the film frames (which is normally 24-30 fps) are captured at lower points, such as 6 frames per second.  When this footage/series of images is played at normal speed it gives the appearance that its moving much faster than normal, which creates the effect of lapsing time. This means your general recording time will be much longer, as more frames are needed to match the normal rate. I.E in one second you can record at 24fps, but using the mode of 6fps it would take 4 times as long to get the same amount of frames and seconds. This is done by taking photos and putting them together in post production. So you might take 6 photos every 10 minutes or a 10 seconds to depending on the effect you want/shutter speed.

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This is often used to film things that are slow moving when we see them and don't notice their movements. This can be applied to things such as clouds moving in the sky, to a sun set or a flower growing. This technique can be seen in "Just Like You" by Bosley:

Just Like You

Not only is the timelapse synced up with the lyrics, the whole video took 9 months to take. So the artist had to be in the same place everyday for 9 months without moving the camera. It also counts as a timelapse as time is compressed over a long period of time. In fact to stop the camera from moving the tripod/camera was cemented in place and a building put round it, to stop people from stealing it. We see the garden go through several seasons with the most prominent being the garden going from winter to spring. 

House of Cards

Timelapse can be seen in the introduction to the Netflix original series, House of Cards. Based on the UK's version, the show follows Frank Underwood's journey from congressman to higher ranks. The timelapse is used for the movement of clouds and vehicles in this introduction.  It also goes from day to night, showing sun rise and a flag being covered in the moons shadow. This is used for all the introductions to the show with only the music changing between the seasons.  Shots also include the traffic lights changing between colours whilst the traffic builds up and clears. This would of been done by taking a photo every couple of seconds and then moving the camera every now and again to get the wide depth of the timelapse. 

Simpsons

Last of all, timelapse can be used to track the growth of humans. For instance if you took a photo everyday and put them together in a timeline you could track your life from being a child to adult. In a comedic take by the animated show the Simpsons, the show follows the family getting up to all sorts of mishaps making the audience laugh along the way. The family is made up of: Homer (A bumbling husband), Marge (A caring housewife), and Bart (A kid who likes to create trouble, Lisa (The brains of the family), Maggie (A young infant) and the pets (Santa’s little helper and Snowball). In this timelapse you see key points of Homers life so far from birth to adult. 

Cel Based Animation

What is Cel animation? Cel animation is a form of of traditional animation where you draw on clear sheets of plastic frame by frame to build up an animation. Like every other animation you need 25 frames per second to create the illusion of movement. Each cell will be different, but key things like backgrounds will often be copied and the characters changing slightly.  Shows like Scooby Doo would often copy simple movements such as running whilst changing the background; which would reduce production time. Cel is a transparent sheet of celluloid plastic which is similar to film, this can be drawn on like stated above to create an animation.

Walt Disney

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Walt Disney was one of the biggest pioneers in the cartoon industry. His full name is Walter Elias Disney but was shortened down to Walt Disney. He was born in 1901, in the state of  Illinois and had 4 siblings, 3 brothers and a sister.  As a child he would draw, paint and sell pictures to his neighbors and family.  Disney went to McKinley School which was in Chicago and specialized in drawing and photography.  He was also a cartoonist for the school his cartoons focused on topics relating to WW1, he also took up night classes at a local art institute.  At the age of 16 Disney dropped out of school to try and join the army, but because he was underage he was rejected. Instead he spent a year in France, driving an ambulance for the Red Cross.

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When he returned from France, his brother Roy got Disney a job at the Pesmen-Rubin Art Studio, were he met cartoonist Ubbe Eart Iwwerks or Ub Iwerks for short. To earn some more money, Disney worked for the Kansas City Film Ad Company. The adverts used the animation technique of cutout animation. Although after readings "Animated Cartoons: How They Are Made, Their Origin and Development" Disney started to consider using the cel animation technique rather that the cutout method. This was the process where you actually drew onto the frames of film, you could also draw on paper and copy it across onto the film.

From this he opened his first company and started producing his first cartoon series "Laugh O Grams" with his employee Fred Harman. Because of the success who opened his own studio which was also called "Laugh O Gram". He then hired Ub Iwerks and a series of others to work for him. 

Although after becoming bankrupt, Disney, Roy and Iwerks relocated to Hollywood where they began the Disney Brothers Studio. During this they invented a character called Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. They were distributed by Margaret Winkler who was from New York and they earned around £1,500 from each short. Although years later, it happened that Winkler had took the rights of Oswald the Lucky Rabbits and all the staff apart from Ub Iwerks. Here is a clip from the first Disney Film:

After this event, Disney needed a new character, this was where Mickey Mouse came in. The first animations to feature Mickey were the silent films "Plane Crazy" and "The Gallopin' Gaucho" 

After this came the world famous, "Steamboat Willie". Mickeys voice was actually Walt Disney and was animated by Ub Iwerks and others. This was the first debut of Mickey as the other 2 shorts were not distributed. It is also said to be the first cartoon that has synchronized sound. 

For the rest of Disney s life he continued to make animations using the cel technique. Creating other characters such as: Donald Duck, Pluto and Goofy. In 1937 the first ever full length animated film (not included Reingers film) film was released "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". There were also more feature films such as Dumbo and Bambi. To this day the Disney franchise carries on, with living memory to Walt Disney who sadly died of Lung Cancer in 1966. Although Disney no longer focuses on just animation, it is still the core to the company. 

Walt Disney - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

In 1937 the first ever full length animated film (not included Reingers film) film was released. It was known as the first full length animation as it was a success, this was  "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs".  This was created by Walt Disney productions, and was produced by Walt Disney. The content focused on Snow White living with Seven Dwarfs to avoid her evil step mother, the Queen.  The themes had lots of interaction with nature and focuses on how the innocent are targeted by the powerful. The target audience was for young children which was a new idea at the time, as the first animations focused on adult themes. This used the cel animation technique.

Walt Disney - Dumbo

Walt Disney also created Dumbo and released it in 1941 and was the 4th feature film by Disney. The content focused on a baby elephant who works in a circus, he is laughed at by his friends and his mother is locked up as she is thought to be mad. The themes also focus on those who are mocked to be successful and better off in the end.  This is also aimed at young children, like all animated movies released by Disney. 

Tom and Jerry

As television wasn't around at the time, short cartoons were often shown before feature length films. These shorts were often 5-10 minutes long. A good example of this was Tom and Jerry which was produced in the 40's by William Hana and Joseph Barbera. This focused on the combat between the mouse Jerry and the cat Tom.  The shorts follow the mishaps of the pair, such as playing with a fridge settings to form an ice ring. The two always fight and no blood is ever shown, although Tom has died a couple of times. The target audience was also aimed at children as is often shown on TV channels today.

Wacky Racers

Wacky Racers was another cartoon created by Hannah Barbara. The show focuses on the Villains who you love to hate, Dick Dastardly and Mutely. In every episode the pair try and fix the race so they win, but they lose every time and often come last. The same characters are used in every episode with some famous regulars being the "Captain Cavemen" team. The target audience is also children but is appreciated by older audiences today. 

Gertie The Dinosaur

In 1914 McCay created "Gertie The Dinosaur" Which showed Winsor McCay interacting with Gertie and was the first character not based on one of Winsor's cartoons. The interactions included such things as McCay asking Gertie to move her left foot; the animation would then show her completing the action. 

Each film had more than 10,00 drawings with were all drawn by McCay. All the backgrounds and other items in the frame had to be copied as there was no way of keeping them. Though his films were big hits, he had to spend his time working on cartoons as he was told by his boss, who was still William Hearst. The last two animations McCay produced before his death, of a stroke , in 1934 were "The Sinking of the Lusitania" and "The Flying House".  "The Sinking of the Lusitania" was one of the first films to use the cel animation process, where the animation was drew on a celluloid sheet/ raw film which could duplicate frames. This meant you could use the same background without redrawing it.

For more information on the development of Animation, check the link here.

My own Animation 

After looking into all the different techniques, I will need to decide on what theme I want to approach. The easiest one to complete was the timelapse as all you need to do was set up the camera and then press play. Moving your body every couple of seconds which then builds up to create a full sequence. Although, I don't think I will be able to fully explore my creative side by using this method.

Clay animation was also fun to do and is an area I might use for my animation. As you can create anything out of the clay, although this will take a long time to do correctly. This is one of the areas I am considering as I like creating the models and moving them frame by frame. I could also stick to using models, which requires me to move their position. One idea had was to recreate a Tetris game using stickers. This method is also very similar to cut out animation which uses flat cut outs instead of a 3D model. This was also fun to do as you could mix and match images to create a funny animation. Although, I still prefer using the models as there appearance is easy to change. 

Last of all, Pixilation was really fun to do. As you could use the human body to create an animation you would never think is possible. This was very similar to models, apart from the models are alive. I might consider this option as a viable one for my animation as I like the creative process. Yet, at the minute I am still wanting to do a model based animation. 

Matching theme to audience

Last of all, it is important to match the correct animation towards the audience. Animation techniques such as cut outs (Charlie and Lola), models (Wallace and Gromit) and Cel based animation (Scooby Doo) are generally aimed at younger audiences. As the simple animation appeals to the audience. Although other audiences may enjoy these animations, cut outs such as South Park are aimed at adult audiences because they contain adult themes and content. 

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Also, techniques such as timelapse aren't  used for children's cartoons. Instead timelapses are either used as part of animations or are put into films and TV. For instance, we saw how the House of Cards timelapse is used for the shows opening only. A timelapse was also used in the TV show Top Gear when the presenter James May had to make a car advert. Timelapses also appeal at older audiences as they understand whats going on and what its showing. Where the bright colors in childrens cartoons are used to draw in an audience. Pixilation is also aimed at the younger audiences as it is often used for comedic purposes and the use of may be disturbing to young children. For instance the skate board animation may put some viewers of as they think a person is actually being dragged across the floor. For more details on this subject, see the individual sections. Information on the influences are also included in the individual sections of this blog and the blog of 2D animation. 

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