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