STOP ANIMATIONCHARLOTTE TURNER

WHAT IS STOP FRAME?Stop Frame: Stop motion (also known as stop action or frame-by-frame) is an animation technique used to make a physically manipulated object appear to be moving on its own. Aardman has made this technique very famous; this company has been producing stop motion animation since 1976 when Morph first appeared on TV. The object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence. Dolls with movable joints or clay figures are often used in stop motion for their ease of repositioning. Stop motion animation using plasticine is called clay animation or “clay-mation”. Not all stop motion requires figures or models; many stop motion films can involve using humans, household appliances and other items of comedic effect.

WHAT IS FRAME RATE?

Frame Rates: Frame rate, or frame frequency, is the frequency (rate) at which an imaging device produces unique consecutive images called frames. The term applies equally well to computer graphics, video cameras, film cameras, and motion capture systems. Frame rates can effect how the production can be viewed, this can be the difference between it being very smooth and the jittering. Jittering within the production can also show you where the frame starts and finishes, this effect can sometimes work well but there are times this doesn’t work well.

WHAT IS PERSISTENCE OF VISION?

Persistence of Vision: Persistence of vision is the phenomenon of the eye by which an afterimage is thought to persist for approximately one twenty-fifth of a second on the retina. Persistence of vision is a relationship between the eye and the brain, almost as if we are being tricked into believing what is going on with the animation on screen. The image below is an example of this technique, it almost appears as if there are multiple coins when in fact it is only the one moving at a fast rate.

PIONEERS – WILLIAM HORNER

William Horner was an animator pioneer who created one of the original animations of the zoetrope in 1834. A zoetrope is a device that produces an illusion of movement from a rapid succession. This allowed animation to be viewed easier due to the slits in the side which allowed the person could look inside and produce a better effect than the phenkitascope.

PIONEERS - EDWARD MUYBRIDGE

Edward Muybridge, in 1878, took 20 simultaneous photographs of a horse jumping. These photographs shocked America when they were first released as they were the first of the time. This form of photography would usually have taken a minuet, he used a more developed camera allowing him to take 1 picture every 0.5 seconds. This allowed him to take the 12 quick image. After developing these images he was looking through and then repeated this with a bit more speed which made it appear as if the images were moving.

DEVELOPERS – RAY HARRYHAUSEN

To those who do know him, his name stands out as a landmark in the history of a genre and cinematic art, the art of dimensional stop-motion animation. Ray made his name known by developing fantastic stories and creatures based on legends and mythology and creating a unique genre of fantasy films during the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s that took the movie making world, and the public, by storm.

DEVELOPERS - JAN SVANKMAJER

One of the great Czech filmmakers, JAN SVANKMAJER was born in 1934 in Prague where he still lives. Svankmajer made his first film in 1964 and for over thirty years has made some of the most memorable and unique animated films ever made, gaining a reputation as one of the world's foremost animators, and influencing filmmakers from Tim Burton to The Brothers Quay.

CONTEMPORARY ANIMATORS – TIM BURTON

Tim Burton is an American film director, film producer, write and artist. He is famous for his dark, quirky-themed movies such as Beetle Juice, Edward Scissorhands, Corpse Bride and Dark Shadows. He is also known for blockbusters such as Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, Batman and Batman Returns. was Burton's first full-length stop-motion film as a director, featuring the voices of Johnny Depp, as Victor, and Helena Bonham Carter (for whom the project was specifically created) as Emily. In this film, Burton was able to continue using his personal quirky styles and trademarks, such as complex interactions between light and darkness and of being caught between two irreconcilable worlds.

CONTEMPORARY - AARDMAN ANIMATIONS

Aardman was founded in 1972 as a low-budget project by Peter Lord and David Sproxton, who wanted to realise their dream of producing an animated motion picture. One of there very first productions was morph. Leading up to the millennium they had created a whole range of different stop motion animations. This also includes advertising. In 2000 they then produced there first full-length feature movie ‘Chicken Run’. This was a giant hit for Aardman and since then they have produced and worked on more movies such as Flushed Away.

BROTHERS QUAY

Stephen and Timothy Quay are American identical twin brothers better known as the Brothers Quay or Quay Brothers. They are influential stop-motion animators. They are also the recipients of the 1998 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Set Design for their work on the play ‘The Chairs’. They reside and work in England after moving here in 1969 to study at the Royal College of Art in London. There body of work includes ‘Punch and Judy (Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy)’ in 1980 and ‘Rain Dance’ which was a small film for Sesame Street in 1990.

DIFFERENT TECHNIQUES

Stop frame: Stop frame animation is a long process of photographing a model, moving it a miniscule amount, then photographing it again. Finally, you string the photographs together and the tiny movements appear to be action. This form of animation is the simplest to use and is great for beginners.

Cut Out: Simple animation used on TV is usually a combination of cutout and collage techniques. Cutout animation uses, literally, models or puppets that have been cut from drawing paper or craft paper. The pieces are then arranged loosely, or connected by fasteners and then arranged. Each pose or move is captured, then the model is repositioned, and shot again.

DIFFERENT TECHNIQUES CONTINUEDRotoscoping: Rotoscoping is used to capture realistic human movement by drawing over film footage of live actors. Perhaps this sounds like cheating, but adding an artist's vision to the movements of a human actor can create a unique storytelling medium that is just as stylistic as any other form of animation.

Cel Animation: When someone says the word "cartoon," what we see in our head is usually cel animation. Cartoons today rarely use the pure cel animation of the past, instead employing computers and digital technology to help streamline the process.

CGI: Computer Generated Imagery is also used for 2D and stop-motion animation. But it's 3D CGI animation that has become a popular form of animation. Beginning with Pixar's Toy Story, 3D CGI animation has raised the bar for the images we see on screen.

DIFFERENT FORMATSAnimations come in several different formats, this includes:

Music video’s – E.G Sledgehammer

Cinema - Feature length films E.G Corpse Bride & Chicken Run

Channel Idents – Defines or is important to the brand of the channel and acts as a moving image for that season showings. E.G Cbeebies use the moving images to make the channel appeal to a younger audience, during seasons such as Christmas they will make the logo more Christmas orientated.

Advertising – Stop animation is used in certain brands of advertising to make something appeal more, usually used within children’s TV as it catches their attention. E.G Xbox and Amazon