Stop-Motion Animation

 

Stop-Motion Animation

 

Stop-motion animation is an animation technique which involves making a physical object appear to be moving. The objects may often move in frames allowing the animation to look like an illusion to the viewers. We see stop-motion animations everyday whether it may be in adverts, TV programmes and there are even films which use this type of animation (Dragonframe). Stop-motion animation comes in various formats which include puppets, clay animation, cut-outs, models and silhouettes. The basic process of stop-motion is taking an image and moving the characters ever so slightly before capturing another photo. (Dragonframe)

 

Lego Animations

 

The Lego animations differ from the films in that the films use computerised animations compared to Lego Harry Potter which does use stop-motion animation. Alfie Olivier highlights that although the Lego Movie used computerised animation, he is happy for viewers to believe that the film uses stop-motion from the outset as its what he set out to do as the Animation Supervisor.

 

The Advantages of Stop-Motion

 

• It can tell stories through character, conflict and resolve, and visual interest satisfying the audience's psychological identification needs.
• There is something very fundamental about the physical reality of actual models, puppets, lighting and imperfection that we can identify and understand as humans.
• Animations allow you to teach an audience anything you would like it to.

The Disadvantages of Stop-Motion

Often if stop-motion animation has very little disadvantages as long as it is completed effectively. However if frames differ too much from the previous it may lead to the animations becoming less realistic. Another vital component of stop-motion animation is the quality of the images. If the quality of lighting varies throughout the frames it can lead to inaccurate animations.

Successes of Stop-Motion

1) Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Aardman and DreamWorks teamed up to make this stop-motion film in 2005.

2) Chicken Run. Another Aardman production which proved to be a success in 1994.

3) Fantastic Mr Fox. Made in 2009 and includes the voices of stars such as George Clooney and Meryl Streep. This stop-motion production had an estimated budget of $40,000,000.


A Short Stop-Motion Clip
                                                               



What is Animation?

Animation

 

Film Education indicate that animation is a process whereby we witness still pictures appear to move. Animation has existed for centuries in many different ways but as technology has updated animations have inevitably improved in quality. Film Education also insist that the reason we are perceived to see the mages is moving is down to the 'Persistence of Vision' theory. Our brain will hold on to the image for a fraction of a second and when another image is presented so quickly we cannot cope with the fast moving images.

Without even realising we come across animations every single day; may of the adverts we see; films we watch and many TV programmes all include animations of some sort. Animators will make changes in size, shape or angles in order to create the effect that they are moving and the speed of each frame can have a big impact on how the viewers judge the animation.

Possibly one of the UK's most successful animation is Wallace and Gromit. The film is a stop-motion and many Wallace & Gromit films have been created over the years with a large amount of success for Aardman Animations. Aardman have completed films such as Chicken Run, Shaun the Sheep and The Pirates which are all well known in the UK.

Animation in Schools

Children at all ages are now encouraged to use the creative instincts and animation is a great way of doing this. Rather than using the traditional books and whiteboard there are now many pieces of software which enables children to use technology to broaden their learning experiences. Zu3D is a stop-motion software for children and adults which can be used to create short animated films at school or at home. Having sampled Zu3D myself the application requires patience and can be difficult for children at a young age to grasp.

Sound Effects

"Sound effects play an important role in conveying action. Music helps express emotion." Michael Geiser

 

 

From a viewers point we only have to view certain cartoons or programmes to feel the full force of sound effects. Linked directly to the quote above, music and specific sounds can portray various emotions and we react quite often get a detailed picture of a scene from the tone of sound we hear.  Not only in animation is sound important it plays a part in everyday life. Ric Viers in the Importance of Sound Effects (2012) highlights that the main goal of sound effects is to help tell a story and that we barely recognise sounds unless there is no sound displayed at all or if the sound effect is inaccurate or inappropriate.

For me, viewers are far more likely to be able to gain an accurate image of what is happening with just sound and no image rather than no sound but witnessing events. Below is a short clip of a favourite film of mine, if you have already seen it then you may understand the story but try and listen without sound first and see if you can understand what is happening.