stop motion

Stop Motion

 

Stop Motion is and animation technique that manipulates an object or several objects to make them appear like they are moving.

This is done by using individual Photographs (Photographic Frames), these individual images  have to show every slight movement of the object/subject and the scenery surrounding it, this is so when you place the images in to a continuous sequence it appears like the objects/subjects are moving creating a film.

This technique is most commonly used for cartoon animations that will typically be made by using the clay animation technique, even though this is the most commonly used technique, the stop motion technique can use many things ranging from people to everyday objects.

When making a stop motion animation  the key is to make sure when moving your object/subject use small steps and make sure there are no sudden movements or changes in camera angle.

This is because it will cause the sequence to look muddled and jump ,this will ruin the films effect as you will see the changes in the individual images(frames).

 

History of Stop Motion

 

Stop motion is one of the earliest techniques used when producing a video. The first recorded stop motion was The Humpty Dumpty Circus by Alber E Smith and Stuart Blackton in 1898. In this a toy circus of acrobats and animals appear to come to life, later in 1907 Stuart Blackton created The Haunted Hotel using the stop motion technique. Then in 1892-1965 Wladyslaw Starewicz animated The Beautiful Lukanida, The Battle of The Stag and Beetles, The Ant and the Grass Hopper, these were seen as the greatest films of there genre and time.

 

Clay animation wasn't used until later in the 1900's.Through out the 1900's there were many great stop motion animators for example Willis O'Brien creator of The Lost World and King Kong. Ray Harryhausen  also worked using stop motion effect in his films It Came from Beneath the Sea, Jason and The Argonauts and Clash of the Titans.

In 1960 Elliot Noyes Jr refined the free form clay animation leading to the film, The Great Cognito and the creation of  Mr Bill the Clown who featured in Saturday Night Live.

Stop Motion  has also been used in the well known Star Wars films such as Return of the Jedi.

 

One of the most famous creators in stop motion animation is Tim Burton over the years he has created many stop motion world wide hits such as...Corpse Bride, Frankenweenie, James and the Giant Peach , Vincent  and the most famous of his stop motion films are BeetleJuice and The Nightmare Before Christmas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZtxHOfmhH4 this link shows an example of a stop motion video that uses all images to create a detailed film that looks like you in a video game . I love the way that this is put together by using simple ideas to then create detailed eye catching scenes.

 



 These are examples of Tim burtons stop motion these show the finished animations of his film (corps bride).  I have also shown an example of the models that will be use in the making of this stop motion. I have picked corpse bride because I feel that the detail and story line of this animation is one of his best to date.