Stop Motion Animation
Stop Motion Animation (also known as stop frame) is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object or persona appear to move on its own. 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 re positioning. Not all stop motion requires figures or models, many films involve humans or household appliances.
Aardman Animations
Wallace and Gromit
"Wallace and Gromit is a British stop motion comedy animation series created by Nick Park of Aardman Animations. The series consists of four short films and a feature length film. The series centres on Wallace, an absent minded inventor and cheese enthusiast, along with his companion Gromit, a silent yet intelligent anthropomorphic dog. Wallace was first voiced by veteran actor Peter Sallis, but this role has been handed down to Ben Whitehead as of 2011. Gromit has no mouth and remains quiet, communicating only through means of facial expressions and body language."
Chicken Run
"Chicken Run is a 2000 British stop motion animated comedy film made by Aardman Animations studios and directed by Peter Lord and Nick Park. it was the first feature length film by Aardman and the first produced in partnership with DreamWorks, which co-financed and distributed the film. The film features the voices of Julia Sawalha, Mel Gibson, Timothy Spall, Phil Daniels, Tony Haygarth and Miranda Richardson. The plot centres on a band of chickens who see a smooth talking Rhode Island Red named Rocky as their only hope to escape from certain death when the owners of their farm decide to move from selling eggs to selling chicken pot pies."
My Opinion
Being someone that has grown up watching Aardman creations such as Chicken Run, Flushed Away, Shaun the Sheep and many more, I love Aardman Animations as a company and can't name one piece of their work that I don't enjoy. It's so interesting and fascinating to see just how much time and effort goes into each short film or feature length film, I really enjoy each and every one of them.
Tim Burton
Timothy Walter "Tim" Burton is an American film director, producer, artist, writer and animator. He is known for his dark, gothic and quirky horror and fantasy films such as the horror comedy fantasy "Beetlejuice" (1988), the romantic dark fantasy "Edward Scissorhands" (1990), the musical fantasy thriller "The Nightmare Before Christmas" (1993) and many many more. Burton's most successful film to date is the fantasy film "Alice in Wonderland" (2010) which garnered a worldwide gross of over $1billion worldwide. Burton has worked repeatedly with Johnny Depp, who has become a close friend of his since their first film together. Actress Helena Bonham Carter, Burton's former partner has also appeared in many of his films.
Corpse Bride
"Corpse Bride is a 2005 British-American stop motion animated fantasy film directed by Mike Johnson and Tim Burton. The plot is set in a fictional Victorian era village in Europe. Johnny Depp led a cast as the voice of Victor, while Helena Bonham Carter voiced Emily, the title character. Corpse Bride is the third stop motion feature film produced by Burton and the first directed by him. This is also the first stop motion feature from Burton that was distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It was dedicated to Joe Ranft who died during production."
James and the Giant Peach
Stop Motion Animation (also known as stop frame) is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object or persona appear to move on its own. 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 re positioning. Not all stop motion requires figures or models, many films involve humans or household appliances.
Aardman Animations
Founded: 1972 by Peter Lord and David Sproxton.
Aardman Animations also known as Aardman Studios, is a British animation studio based in Bristol, United Kingdom. The studio is known for films made using stop-motion clay animation techniques, particulary those feating plasticine characters. 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. Nick Park later joined Aardman in 1985. They created the title sequence for The Great Egg Race and supplied animation for the multiple award winning music video of Peter Gabriel's song "Sledgehammer". They also produced the music video for the song "My Baby Just Cares For Me" by Nina Simone in 1987.
Morph: Magic Boots
Wallace and Gromit
"Wallace and Gromit is a British stop motion comedy animation series created by Nick Park of Aardman Animations. The series consists of four short films and a feature length film. The series centres on Wallace, an absent minded inventor and cheese enthusiast, along with his companion Gromit, a silent yet intelligent anthropomorphic dog. Wallace was first voiced by veteran actor Peter Sallis, but this role has been handed down to Ben Whitehead as of 2011. Gromit has no mouth and remains quiet, communicating only through means of facial expressions and body language."
Chicken Run
"Chicken Run is a 2000 British stop motion animated comedy film made by Aardman Animations studios and directed by Peter Lord and Nick Park. it was the first feature length film by Aardman and the first produced in partnership with DreamWorks, which co-financed and distributed the film. The film features the voices of Julia Sawalha, Mel Gibson, Timothy Spall, Phil Daniels, Tony Haygarth and Miranda Richardson. The plot centres on a band of chickens who see a smooth talking Rhode Island Red named Rocky as their only hope to escape from certain death when the owners of their farm decide to move from selling eggs to selling chicken pot pies."
My Opinion
Being someone that has grown up watching Aardman creations such as Chicken Run, Flushed Away, Shaun the Sheep and many more, I love Aardman Animations as a company and can't name one piece of their work that I don't enjoy. It's so interesting and fascinating to see just how much time and effort goes into each short film or feature length film, I really enjoy each and every one of them.
Tim Burton
Timothy Walter "Tim" Burton is an American film director, producer, artist, writer and animator. He is known for his dark, gothic and quirky horror and fantasy films such as the horror comedy fantasy "Beetlejuice" (1988), the romantic dark fantasy "Edward Scissorhands" (1990), the musical fantasy thriller "The Nightmare Before Christmas" (1993) and many many more. Burton's most successful film to date is the fantasy film "Alice in Wonderland" (2010) which garnered a worldwide gross of over $1billion worldwide. Burton has worked repeatedly with Johnny Depp, who has become a close friend of his since their first film together. Actress Helena Bonham Carter, Burton's former partner has also appeared in many of his films.
The Nightmare Before Christmas
"The Nightmare Before Christmas (often promoted as "Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas") is a 1993 American stop motion musical fantasy film directed by Henry Selick and produced/co-written by Tim Burton. It tells the story of Jack Skellington, a being from Halloween Town who opens a portal to Christmas Town and decides to celebrate the holiday, with some dastardly and comical consequences. Danny Elfman wrote the film score and provided the singing voice of Jack, as well as other minor characters."
James and the Giant Peach
"James and the Giant Peach is a 1996 British-American musical fantasy film directed by Henry Selick, based on the 1961 novel of the same name by Roald Dahl. It was produced by Tim Burton and Denise Di Novi and starred Paul Terry as James. The film is a combination of live action and stop motion animation. Co-stars Joanna Lumley and Miriam Margolyes played Jame's aunts in the live action segments, and Simon Callow, Richard Dreyfuss, Susan Sarandon, Jane Leeves and David Thewlis voiced his insect friends in the animation sequences."
My Opinion
Tim Burton is one of my favourite animators/producers, I have grown up watching a lot of his films, both animated and live action, and I love all of them. I find a lot of stop motion films boring, but there's something about Tim Burton's fantasy films that is both exciting and fascinating. He's so creative in his work and I love the big head/bold eyes and small skinny body stamp he has. I love that he can entertain people of all ages and not just one fixed age group.
Tim Burton is one of my favourite animators/producers, I have grown up watching a lot of his films, both animated and live action, and I love all of them. I find a lot of stop motion films boring, but there's something about Tim Burton's fantasy films that is both exciting and fascinating. He's so creative in his work and I love the big head/bold eyes and small skinny body stamp he has. I love that he can entertain people of all ages and not just one fixed age group.
Peter Gabriel: Sledgehammer
"Sledgehammer" spawned a widely popular and influential music video commissioned by Tessa Watts at Virgin Records, directed by Stephen R. Johnson and produced by Adam Whittaker. Aardman Animations and the Brothers Quay provided claymation, pixilation and stop motion animation that gave life to images in the song. The video ended with a large group of extras jerkily rotating around Gabriel, among them his own daughters Anna and Melanie, the animators themselves and Stephen Johnson's girlfriend. Also included were six women who posed as the back up singers of the song. Gabriel lay under a sheet of glass for 16 hours while filming the video one frame at a time.The Sledgehammer video won nine MTV Video Music Awards in 1987, the most awards a single video has won. It ranked at number four on MTV's 100 Greatest Videos Ever Made (1999). MTV later announced that "Sledgehammer" is the most played music video in the history of the channel."
Nina Simone: My Baby Cares Just For Me
"In 1987 a claymation music video was produced by Aardman Animations and directed by Peter Lord. The video shows a cat entering a music club and watches Simone (who is portrayed as a cat). The cat is then thrown out of the club by a bouncer but it is able to get back into the club by climbing and falling through the roof and lands into Simone's arms."
My Own Research
"Magic Water"
This stop animation film uses clay animation. I like this film because it's very creative and you can see the person that created the film had put a lot of time and thought into it.
"Magic Water"
This stop animation film uses clay animation. I like this film because it's very creative and you can see the person that created the film had put a lot of time and thought into it.
"Animated in Bed"
I really love everything about this stop motion animation music video. I think the film is really unique but also very clever in how they have created it.
I really love everything about this stop motion animation music video. I think the film is really unique but also very clever in how they have created it.
Group Stop Motion Animation
Above is a group stop motion animation video, it contains approximately 169 images compiled.
My Stop Motion Animation Film Ideas/Planning
For my first stop motion film, I decided that I would use Russian dolls to create a 10 second clip that shows movement. Below is a mind map I made before I started my shoot.
Below is a photo of the setup, I used a tripod for this shoot so that my camera didn't move and I had the exact same frame in every picture.
How I Created My Stop Motion Animation Video
For my stop motion animation video I chose to use the software "Windows Movie Maker." I chose this software because I'm very familiar with it and I find it easy to use. Below is screenshots which shows step by step what I did to create my video.
First I clicked "Click here to browse for videos and photos" and I added all of the images I took of the dolls to movie maker.
I made sure all the images in the storyboard were selected and went into "Video Tools", then I changed the duration to 0.20 to ensure that the images actually looked like they were moving at the right pace and that the video would be 13 seconds long.
Next I went to "Home" and clicked "Add music", and selected the song I wanted on my video.
To change where the music started and stopped I went to "Music Tools", I changed the start point to 320.39s because I wanted a specific part of the song to be in my video. I also changed the Fade in and Fade out to medium so the music would slowly fade in and out at the beginning and end of the video instead of coming in fast and loud.
How I Added Music To My Video
I chose the song "Same Love" by Macklemore and Mary Lambert as my backing music for this video, I chose the song because I think it's bright and happy and fits with the video. To download the song I used "YouTube - mp3", a website which lets you paste YouTube video URLS and download them as an MP3.
To get this music I went on YouTube and got the song up, I then copied the URL and pasted it into the cache on YouTube - mp3. I clicked "convert video" then right-clicked "download", and saved the MP3 in my music folder on my laptop.
You can see in my Windows Movie Maker tutorial above how I got my music onto the video.
This is my final outcome for my russian doll stop motion video.
Audience Response:
My Nan: "The music goes nice with the video."
My sister: "The glitter on the dolls goes nice against the glitter on the wall, and it's put together well."
Ideas/Planning
Below is a mind map of ideas for my shoot. I knew that I wanted my video to be of the sun either rising or setting, but I decided to go with setting as it was more convinient.
For my second shoot I took lots of pictures of the sky over a time scale of an hour and a half, so the stop motion film would show the sun slowly going down. I set my tripod up in my garden with my camera facing towards the sky. Below is my second stop motion animation video, I decided to go with the song "Yael Naim - New Soul" because it's a really happy and uplifting song which I thought went really well with the video.
Audience Response:
My Mum: "Peaceful and pretty"
My Sister: "I like the music you put on this, it goes well with the pictures"
Evaluation
Overall I'm not happy with how I worked on this assignment, I should've done a lot more research and planning. The only thing I'm happy with is my first stop motion video, I think the music goes really well and it's well put together. I don't like my second video because it wasn't planned very well. If I could do this assignment again I would put much more planning into my videos and also do a lot more research.
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