Different Media genres that utilise Stop Motion

 

TV Animation

 

For a long time now Stop Motion has been used within the film industry creating many memorable classic films that have kept many generations entertained. The process is done through the use of cameras, taking thousands of stills frames and then in each altering the position of your photographed object slightly, in hopes of when they have been linked together and played it should give the appearence of natural motion. here is an example of one of the earliest TV Animations which was Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.  it was a Christmas television special produced in stop motion animation by Rankin/Bass, and directed by Larry Roemer and Kizo Nagashima. The special was based on the Johnny Marks song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" which was also based on the 1939 poem of the same name, which was written by Marks' brother-in-law, Robert L. May. Since 1972, the TV special has aired mostly on CBS television stations.

 

The PJs is an American stop-motion animation television series, that was created by Eddie Murphy, Larry Wilmore, and Steve Tompkins. It portrays the life of an urban public housing project, that was modeled after the Brewster-Douglass housing project in Detroit. The series starred Eddie Murphy, and was produced by Imagine Entertainment by Ron Howard and Brian Grazer, The Murphy Company and Will Vinton Studios in association with Touchstone Television.

The show aired 43 episodes during its 3-year running period. With each taking over 2 months to produce, this owed to the laborious stop-motion process having to film the each episode frame by frame to create a smooth and natural looking effect. Although After 2 seasons on Fox, the show had moved. Its high budget and declining ratings led to its cancellation in 2001; with its final 2 episodes not airing until 2003.

South Park is an American animated sitcom intended for a mature audience. it was created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central. its best known for its crude language and dark, surreal humor that satirizes a varied range of topics. The ongoing narrative revolves mainly around four boys Stan, Kyle, Eric, and Kenny and their bizarre adventures in and around the Colorado town. it was originally developed from two animated shorts they created in 1992 and 1995. With the latter becoming one of the first Internet videos to go viral, which in turn led to its production as an ongoing series. it debuted in August of 1997 creating huge great success, and earning the highest ratings of any basic cable program. The ratings have varied but it still remains to be one of Comedy Central's highest rated shows, and is slated to air through at least 2016. Although it has the appearence of a stop motion cut out series, it is infact only The pilot episode that was produced using cutout animation. All episodes created from then on were done utilising a software that emulated the cutout technique.





 

Channel Idents

 

A Channel Ident, or better known as a channel logo is what is mostly seen during a commercial break, or before something started, although mainly done through 3D animation or another means. Sometimes they have been created by stop motion animation for example on channels such as E4 they have used stop motion within some of there commercial breaks, before they became a more mainstream music channel MTV aso used stop animation in some of their Idents. not may channel idents use this process very often as it is highly time consuming, and can take months to produce due to the large amount of frames that are necessary. 

 

Advertising

 

 

Advertising is a key part of the media industry at this point in time as it is the main way to get recognised and makes people want to purchase your product , all thorugh bold and captivating visual imagery. now many adverts these days use either 3D animation or Drawn Animaton as well as live action which are all useful ways of advertising on television yet on occasion some will use Stop Motion animation which although takes a large amount of time due to the lengthy process, it can also be quite effective in advertising things for example, the video above shows a recent john lewis home insurance advertisement which was done through the use of stop motion animation. the animation was directed by Dougal Wilson and produced by Ewen Brown, and due to the scale of the project it took an incredible amount of time and effort to create.  

 

Music Videos

 

Music videos are highly popular within the media industry and can generate are large amount of profit and show a musicians artisitc and unique style through video. many music videos have been done in a similar manner to that of movies  although on occasion some will show through a different matter and utilise styles of animation such as Stop Motion which can be seen in the Music Video Sledgehammer by Peter Gabriel, which was produced by Danel Lanois. The video is highly eccentric and extravagant relying on a bold use of color and objects which is highly fitting with the style of the video along with the music. 

 

Another example of a Music Video that uses stop motion is in your arms by Kina Grannis (shown above), the video was made entirely through the use of jelly beans. the idea appears very complex and complicated due to the scale on which you have to work with. upon researching it appears that the video took approximately, 22 months, 1,357 hours, 30 people, 2 ladders, 1 still camera and 288,000 jelly beans to complete the final outcome.  

 

 

 Cell Phones

 

While researching into mobile phones i couldnt find anything in particular that utilised Stop Motion animation as a means of creating start up screens and in mobile technology. although within technology you can find many apps that allow you to create your own stop motion animations or give you tutorials on the processes and different ways on procducing this animation style.

 

 

 Websites

 

Similar to that of Cell Phone there isnt really anywhere spcific that utilises Stop Motion technology within its design, although ypu will fing many websits online dedicated to the work of stop motion for example some websites will have hndred of videos which have been created by users and then uploaded to the site, where as other websites will detail how you can make your own stop motions and how to become good at it by harnessing certain skills. in some areas you may even be able to download software to use on your system which will make creating your own mini film a lot easier.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aardman Animations

Aardman Animations, which is also known as Aardman Studios, is a British animation studio based in Bristol, United Kingdom. The studio is best known for its films made utilising stop-motion and clay animation techniques, particularly those that feature Plasticine models such as Wallace and Gromit. although It had entered the computer animation market with the release of the film Flushed Away.

 

Wallace and Gromit

 

Wallace and Gromit is a British stop-motion franchise. That was created by Nick Park from the company Aardman Animations, the series consisted of a series of four short films and one feature-length film. The series centres on Wallace, the absent-minded inventor who is enthusiastic about cheese, along with his friend Gromit, a silent yet intelligent dog. Originally Wallace was voiced by actor Peter Sallis, but this role has been handed down to Whitehead as of 2011. although Gromit remains silent, making communication through a means of bold facial expressions and simple body language.

Because of their high level of popularity, the characters have been described as a positive international icon of British culture in particular and British people. The News has called them some of the best-known stars to come out of the UK. Wallace and Gromit has now been translated into over 20 languages and is particularly big in Japan, as well as in its native Britain and across Europe and the United States.



Chicken Run

 

Chicken Run is a British stop-motion animated comedy film made by Aardman Animations studios and was directed by Peter Lord and Nick Park. It was the first feature-length film that Aardman had created and the first produced in a partnership with the company DreamWorks, which co-financed and distributed the film. Chicken Run received positive reviews, and was a box office hit.

The plot centred around a band of chickens who meet a smooth-talking Rhode Island Red named Rocky, who they believe to be there only escape from certain death when the owners of their farm decide to move onto selling chicken pot pies instead of selling eggs.

 



Tim Burton

Tim Burton was born August 25th 1958, and is an American film director, producer, and stop motion artist. He is widely known for his dark, gothic, horror and fantasy films such as Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Sleepy Hollow, and The Corpse Bride

 

Burton has worked may times with actors such as Johnny Depp, who he has become a close friend with since their first film together. He has also wrote and illustrated a poetry book known as The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories, which was published in 1997, and aswell as this a compilation of his drawings, sketches and other art, was released in 2009. He has directed around 16 films and produced 12 as of 2012. His latest film being the Big Eyesm, a biographical drama about Walter Keane and his wife Margaret.

 The Nightmare Before Christmas

One of his best known Stop motion pieces Burton wrote and produced although he did not direct, due to schedule constraints on Batman Returns, The Nightmare Before Christmas for Disney, it was originally meant to be a rhyming children's book. Which was directed by Henry Selick and written by Caroline Thompson, it was based on Burton's original story, world and characters. Receiving highly positive reviews for the film's stop motion animation, bold and eccentric musical score and original storyline creating a box office success, grossing $50 million. He had collaborated with Selick again for James and the Giant Peach, which Burton co-produced. The film helped to generate a renewed interest in stop motion animation.

 

 

James and The Giant Peach

In 1996, Burton and Selick reunited for the musical fantasy film James and the Giant Peach. Based on the book by Roald Dahl. The film created a combination of live action and stop motion footage, starring Richard Dreyfuss, Susan Sarandon among others, with Burton producing and Selick directing. The film had mostly been praised by critics, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Musical or Comedy Score.

 

 

Frankenweenie

In 2012 Burton remade his 1984 short Frankenweenie as a feature-length stop motion film, distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. He said, that the film was based on a memory that he had while growing up and his relationship with a dog that he once had. The film was released on October 5, 2012 and met with positive reviews. It is his fourth stop-motion film he has produced and the first of those four that is not a musical piece. the film tells the tale of a young boy named Victor who loses his dog Sparky, using the power of electricity he resurrects him, but is then blackmailed by his peers into revealing how he had done this. hoping to reanimate their deceased past pets and other creatures, which results in chaotic mayhem. The tongue-in-cheek film contains many a reference and parody related to the book, past film versions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Contemporary Stop Motion Animation

The Quay Brothers 

Brothers Stephen Quay and Timothy Quay are esteemed filmmakers, film directors and animators. They are identical twins most famously known as both either Brothers Quay or the Quay Brothers. Indeed their collaborative stop-motion animations are extremely well known for the ways in which they have been influential to the field.

when the brothers first moved to London from the States, their stop - motion films had introduced an entire generation of viewers to the lyrical darkness that was not often associated with animation. This was heavily Influenced by the Central European writers and artists reflecting the dark psychology resulting from a century of industrial warfare, and surrealist art. they have been heavily inspired by figures like the Polish killed by a German Nazi officer Bruno Schultz, it is also noteworthy has also influenced other famous noted individuals such as film director Tim Burton and the American-born British screenwriter, Terry Gilliam.

It is quite difficult to distinguish between the brothers on who exactly in the pair that make. as they are both deeply spread across the media industry, although by looking at their individual trade, one skill that separates them slightly is that Stephen has done acting on top of everything else.
In their later series of work, the Brothers have expanded on the use of stop - moton filmmaking by icluding it within live choreography involving installation, and even ballet. In there piece the Sandman, a televised ballet starring the Spanish prima ballerina Tamara Rojo and the Soviet-born dancer Irek Mukhamedov, the image-movements of puppets are reproduced in the jerky staccato forms of the dancers.

 

Introduction to Stop Motion Animation

What is Stop Motion Animation and How does it work?

Stop Motion, is the process of manually manipulated an object to appear as if it is moving. The creation of this process is credited to Albert E. Smith and J. Stuart Blackton for Vitagraph’s ‘The Humpty Dumpty Circus’ in 1897.

The process is done by moving your chosen object into slightly different positions  and taking a photograph each time as you do this . Which when you play these photos within a sequence it should appear as if it is moving. A good object to use within Stop Motion is either move able jointed dolls or clay models as they are easier to be used  due to the ease of their re-positioning.

If plasticine is used then the name used becomes Claymation which is a highly used method in the Stop motion technique and you can see this through many well known films e.g. Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run which was created by Nick Park and  Aardman Animations.

Within Stop motion it is not always necessary to use objects within your animations, this is because you can also use humans or household appliances which tend to be used to create some form of comedic effect. 

Where did the Process of Stop Motion Animation originate from, and How did it Evolve?

Joseph Plateau - The Process of Stop Motion began when a man named Joseph Plateau patented his device known as the Phenakistoscope in 1832. born October 14th 1801 and died September 15th 1883, he was a Belgian physicist who was the first person to demonstrate the illusion of a moving image. He created this by using counter rotating disks with a series of repeatedly drawn images each with small alterations of motion on one and then a series of regularly spaced slits so when they were both rotated at the correct speed the synchronisation of the windows created an animated effect. In 1829 he submitted a doctoral thesis to his mentor, it was only 27 pages by formulated a large amount of important conclusions. It contained the first results into the research of the effect of colors on the retina and also the mathematical research into the intersections of a revolving curve. When he investigating counter rotating disks he named these Anorthoscopic discs.

William Horner - Born during 1786 and died on the 22nd of September 1837, he was a British mathematician who looked extensively at functional equations and the approximation theory. Although known greatly for his mathematical abilities and studies he can also be attributed for the creation of the zoetrope, or in 1834 this was known as the Daedaleum. The zoetrope is a device that creates the illusion of movement from rapid rotation of static images. The term zoetrope was taken from the Greek language meaning ‘zoe’ which means “life” and ‘tropos’ which means “turn”, this word can be seen to also mean the “wheel of life”. This invention consists of a cylindrical object with vertical slits cut into the sides. On the inner surface of the chamber was a series of images which when the cylinder was spun and the user was looking through the slits the image would appear to be moving. 

Emile Reynaud - Born 8th of December 1844 and 9th of January 1918. he was a French pioneer who was responsible for the first projected animated films. He also created the Praxinoscope in 1877.

This device was the successor of the zoetrope, being very similar it also used a strip of images placed along the inside of a cylindrical object which is then spun. But although it was similar it improved on some aspects by replacing the vertical slits with a series of mirrors on the inside. This was done so the reflection of the images would appear stationary in position once the wheel was turned, so when it was rotated they would appear to create the illusion of motion and would create a brighter less distorted picture.

As well as this device in 1889 Emile also developed the invention of Theater Optique which was an improved version capable of projecting images on a screen from a much longer roll of images. This also allowed him to show hand-drawn cartoons to a much larger audience. But was later shadowed by the photographic film projector created by the Lumiere Brothers.

Eadweard Muybridge - Born 9th of April 1830 and died 8th of May 1904. he was an English photographer well known for his work in photographic studies of motion and within the motion picture projection.

He is well known for his work involving animal locomotion in 1877 and 1878 which he used a series of cameras to capture the motion in stop motion photographs. He is also known for his Zoopraxiscope which was a device for projecting motion  pictures that predated the film strips used within cinematography, he patented this within 1879 and may be considered as the first movie projector.

The Zoopraxiscope projected imagery on  glass disks which once spun in rapid succession would give the impression of movement. Initially the imagery was painted onto glass as silhouettes but was later changed between 1892 and 1894 to a series of outlined drawings which were printed photographically and then finished by being painted by hand.

Some of the imagery was seen to be quite complex as it harnessed a mixture of human and animal movement within the frames,

Below are a few examples of his work.

Thomas  Edison - born the 11th of February 1847 and died the 18th of October 1932. Edison was an American inventor who developed many devices that have had a great influence on life throughout the world, these included the motion picture camera and the electric light bulb.

He was one of the first inventors to use the principles of large scale teamwork and mass production. Because of this he can be credited for the very first industrial research laboratory.  Within society he is known a the fourth most prolific inventor within history, his work had a massive impact on the world as he contributed to the invention of mass communication especially telecommunications .

One key invention that he can be a counted for is the  Kinetoscope. This device was an early motion picture device that was  used for exhibition purposes, the device was designed for one person to view through a peephole  window at the top of the device. Although it was a film device, it was not designed to be a movie projector, so introduced a basic approach to the standard of cinematic projection before the invention of video.

He began to pursue the invention of motion picture development as he was inspired by the photographic pioneer Eadweard Muybridge.

The Lumiere Brothers - Auguste and Louis or more formally known as the Lumière brothers  were the sons of the well known portrait painter Antoine Lumiere, they both held technical minds and always excelled at science and therefore were sent to a Technical School. Due to the new financial photographic processes  discovered Antoine decided to leave his passion for art and create a business manufacturing and supplying photographic equipment. Louis later joined him where he began to experiment with the photographic equipment.

During his experiments Louis discovered a process that assisted the development of photography. He began to develop a new dry plate process in 1881 when he was just 17 years old. this became known as the Etiquette Bleue. This process gave the business a welcoming boost. Later they built a factory to manufacture these plates within the Lyons Suburbs.

By the year of 1984 they had been producing 15,000,000 plates a year making there father a very successful businessmen. At this  time Edison had created his tool the Kinetoscope which they were invited to view, although being a very clever piece of technology the brothers found many faults. With the key ones being the equipment's overhauling size and weight which meant it must be kept in a studio and secondly the fact that the equipment only allowed one person to see the picture at a time. After finding these faults and improving on them the brothers  in 1985 had created there own device called the cinematographe which was a combination between a camera and a printer which was patented February 13th 1985. With the device being very lightweight and hand cranked at only 16 frames per second meaning that less film was required and also the noise was reduced to make it run more quietly. Louis’s most effective idea was incorporating a similar device to that of a sewing machine, they decided to keep their invention closely guarded and then only showed it to small groups with their first being a film of workers exiting the Lumiere factory.

George Pal - born February 1st 1908 and died May 2nd 1980. He was a Hungarian-born American who was best Known for his animation and film production. associated specifically within the genre of science fiction. After emigrating from Europe he had become an American citizen, during his time he had been nominated for Academy Awards for Best short Cartoon for seven consecutive years between the time of 1942 and 1948, in which he had received an honorary award in 1944, making him the second most nominated Hungarian exile.As an animator, he had made the Puppetoons series in the 1940s, which had led to him being awarded the honorary Oscar in 1943 for his development of novel methods and techniques in the production of his short subjects the Puppetoons. Although Pal had later switched to live action films with his piece The Great Rupert in 1950.

Willis Harold O'Brien - Born March 2nd 1886 and died November 8th 1962, he was an American motion picture, special effects and also a stop-motion animation pioneer. who according to ASIFA-Hollywood he was responsible for some of the best images in cinema history, and is best remembered for his work on the 1925 silent fantasy adventure film and an adaptation of Arthur Conan Doyle's 1912 novel The Lost World, King Kong and The Mighty Joe Young, for which he won the 1950 Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.

Raymond Harryhausen - Born June 29th 1920 and died May 7th 2013. He was an American visual effects creator, writer, and producer who had created a form of stop-motion animation which was known as "Dynamation." His most memorable works included the animation on Mighty Joe Young which he made in 1949 with his mentor Willis H. O'Brien, this won him the Academy Award for special effects; also known for his films such as  The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, his first color film; and Jason and the Argonauts, which features a famous sword fight against several skeleton warriors. With his last film being Clash of the Titans before retired. his innovative style of special effects in his movies has inspired numerous people including directors John Lasseter and Tim Burton. here is just an example of his work, showing the skeleton scene from Jason and the Argonauts which i spoke of earlier.

Jan Švankmajer - born September 4th 1934,  a Czech filmmaker and artist whose works span over several media types. He is a self-labelled surrealist best known for his animation and features, that have greatly influenced others including Animator Terry Gilliam, and the Quay Brothers.

Švankmajer has gained quite an impressive reputation over a series of decades for his distinctive stop-motion technique, and the ability to create surreal, nightmarish yet comical imagery.

His trademark includes exaggerated sound effects, and often creating a very strange effect in all of his eating scenes. He has often used fast-motion sequences when people are interacting within scenes. With movies often involving a series of inanimate objects to life through stop-motion techniques. Many of his films also include clay forms in motion, which can also be known as claymation.  As well as these techniques he has also been known to use pixilation in many of his films such as Food and his 1996 project the Conspirators of Pleasure.

Although a majority of his projects such as the short film Down to the Cellar, are made from a child's perspective, at the same time they are often truly disturbing and even have quite an aggressive nature. In 1972 the communist authorities had banned him from creating films, and many later projects had been suppressed. Making him almost unknown in the West until early 1980.