My Video Essay

What is stop motion

So let me start off by telling you what stop motion animation is.
Stop motion or stop frame animation is animation that is captured one frame
at time, with physical objects that are moved between frames. When you play
back the sequence of images rapidly, it creates the illusion of movement.
Briefly talk about the 4 techniques involved and created through stop motion.
But then go into the pioneers and what they did who are they?
There are 4 main techniques that have been developed through the invention
of stop Motion:-
persistence of vision
stop-frame
frame rates
Movement of models
But well get back to them later.
Pioneers
Now were going all the way back to the start of the evolution of Stop Motion.
The first real discovery of stop motion animation came from a pioneer called
Joseph Plateau who invented the Phenakistiscope. The persistence of vision
was the only concept created by Joseph and all the pioneers. Joseph Plateau
was the inventor of the phenakistiscope which is a spindle viewer. Which were
able to create the illusion of live more than 60 years before the invention of
film. However, this early method of creating live in static images was not the
first successful attempt to show animated images.
The Phenakistoscope is uses the persistence of vision to create an illusion of
motion.
Persistance of Vision how does it work? Motion pictures are based on an
optical allusion. The light reflected from any object we look at passes through
lens of the eye and is focused upside down on the sensitive surface called the
retina, this is passed through the optic nerve which sends to the brain, and we
see it right side up. This is how we see. The reflection stays on the retina as
long as the object is in view. When we look away or the object is now out of
sight, a fraction of a second later the image fades in the brain, but it is not
immediate. This is what we called persistence of vision. With a moving object
we see it in two places for a short space of time, where it is, and where it used
to be. So the pioneers discovered that if they show different images next to
each other it appears as motion.
Although this theory had been recognized by the Greek mathematician Euclid,
it wasnt until 1829 that this principle became firmly established by Plateau.
The Phenakistoscope used two discs mounted on the same axis. The first disc
had slots around the edge, and the second had drawings of action, drawn
around the disc in circles
Chris Cotterill - This pioneer has made a massive impact towards moving
image because if he and his sons didnt make this way of moving image then
we may not have developed film and animation the way we have today.

Joseph Plateau phenakistiscope

Eadweard Muybridge Zoopraxiscope
Moving onto a different pioneer who played a big part in the development of
stop motion animation. Eadweard Muybridge developed a fast camera shutter
and used other state-of-the-art techniques of his day to make the first
photographs that show sequences of movement. In 1879, the Zoopraxiscope
was developed by Eadweard Muybridge, which projected a series of images in
successive phases of movement obtained through the use of multiple cameras.
The principle of "persistence of vision" maintains that a visual imprint remains
in the brain for a short period after the object is withdrawn from view. Still
photography and optical toys were the first tools to fully exploit the potential
for creating "motion" pictures following this principle. Photographer Eadweard
Muybridge developed the Zoopraxiscope, an optical toy designed to animate
his human and animal locomotion photography.
Eadweard Muybridge discovery was by accident and was in 1872. When he
was hired by Standford to take photographs of a prize horse to see if his 4
galloping hoofs ever came off the ground at the same time, so Muybridge set
up 12 parallel camera in a line to capture the horse as he galloped pass. Not
only did he prove that all 4 hoofs come off the ground at the same time, but
after seeing the images he also realised his discovery as he knows had an
understanding over motion. From then on he spent time photographing the
motion of animals and everything. Muybridge was influential to all animators
including developer Thomas Edison.
Developers
The pioneers were the inventors of the revolutionary concepts of stop motion.
They created technology such as the zoopraxiscope and Phenakistiscope,
which both display multiple images in a short space of time which resemble
the qualities of motion picture. The developers of stop motion have been
inspired by all pioneers, but this was only the start of stop motion. The
developers advanced the concept and really took off with the idea. Different
developers had different takes on what they wanted to do with stop motion.
With the era of developers the techniques :-
Stop frame/stop motion
Basic Frame rates
Creation and movemnet of models
was brought into place.
Stop motion is a cinematic process in animation used to bring motionless
objects to life on screen; the objects appear as if they are moving. It is also
known as stop motion animation, this technique is carried out by moving the
objects in increments while filming a frame per increment. When all frames are
played back in sequence it shows the movement of the object. This technique
is normally used in Claymation, miniature and puppet-based animation as they
can be handled and repositioned with ease.
Frame Rate is the number of frames or images that are projected or displayed
per second. Taking many still photographs with a relentless still camera very
second, the number of images photographed per second is referred to as
the frame rate. Frame rate describes both the speed of recording i.e. audio and
the speed of playback. The more frames recorded per second, the more
accurately motion is documented onto the recording medium. Motions blur
work hand on hand with frame rates; Motion blur is a natural effect when you
film the world in discrete time intervals. For example, when a film is recorded
at 25 frames per second, each frame has an exposure time of up to 40
milliseconds (1/25 seconds). All the changes in the scene over those entire 40
milliseconds will blend into the final frame. Without motion blur, animation
will appear to jump and will not look fluid.
Creation and movement of models. Instead of having 2d images moving
quickly like the pioneers used with persistence of vision. The developers made
3d character or models so that they can imitate real life movement. Will
OBrien who I will talk about next really came up with great improvements on
model making with the creation of King Kong which used rubber skin built up
over metal armatures. This was merely just one way to create a model,
platicine, plastic, wire or pretty much anything could be potentially used. The
less movement used in between each frame would result in more fluid and
natural movement.
Willis O'Brien (1886-1962) was a stop motion animator and worked
with motion picture special effects. He is best remembered for his work
on, King Kong (1933) and The Lost World (1925). ASIFA-Hollywood said "he was
responsible for some of the best-known images in cinema history".
Because of OBriens interest in dinosaurs when he was younger, this was
probably his main inspiration for the concept of many of his films, such as The
Lost World.
OBrien made create development on the creation of models, for his early,
short films he would create his own characters out of clay. However, for most
of his career he would employ other people to create much more detailed and
complex models, based on his own designs. These included rubber skin built up
over metal armatures. The models included a bladder inside the skeleton
model which could be inflated and deflated, creating the illusion of breathing.
This would make OBriens models for his films more realistic, and I think it
would have showed a clever technique.
O'Brien's techniques included combining realistic stop-motion animated
models with live action, shown in many of his films. Such as King Kong.
Thomas Edison (inventor and pioneer of stop motion) was impressed by the
film and O'Brien was hired by the Edison Company to animate a series of short
films with a prehistoric theme, these included R.F.D. 10,000 B.C. and
Prehistoric Poultry (both 1917). During this time, he also worked on other
Edison Company productions including Sam Loyd's The Puzzling Billboard and
Nippy's Nightmare (both 1917), which were the first stop-motion films to
combine live actors with stop motion models.
Raymond Frederick "Ray" Harryhausen another developer of stop motion
(June 29, 1920 May 7, 2013) was an American-British visual effects creator,
writer, and producer who created a form of stop-motion model animation
known as "Dynamation". His most memorable works include the animation on
Mighty Joe Young (1949), with his mentor Willis H. O'Brien, which won the
Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.
Despite his success in his early movies such as King Kong his technique had a
weakness. The miniature sets were expensive to construct and it was very difficult to
combine live action in the same frame as the stop-motion creatures. Harry discovered a new
way called Dynamation.

The first step was to go out and record your background footage for example a
city, with actors running away scared. The projector then projects the first frame
onto a back projection screen. The back projection screen is a thin piece of
plastic stretched tightly across a frame. Unlike a regular screen, the image
appears on the front when illuminated by a projector from behind. A motion
picture camera is loaded with film and locked into position in front of the screen
so it can rephotograph the film clip as it is projected onto the screen. This
camera will be used to capture the new action.

A piece of glass is then put between the camera and the screen. The glass is
painted with black paint so that portions of the image on the screen that are to
be in front of the dinosaur are blacked out when seen by the camera. In our
example this would be the bottom of the screen and the building from behind
which the dinosaur emerges.

In between the glass and the screen a table is set up on which the miniature
dinosaur is placed. The film in the projector is advanced one frame at a time.
With each frame the dinosaur is moved to simulate walking out from behind the
building. After the position of the dinosaur is correct, the camera captures one
frame. The frame at this point shows the background image of the upper half of
the screen, the model dinosaur in front of it, and the blacked out portions of the
glass.

After the entire scene has been filmed both the projector and the camera are
rewound back to the beginning. The glass is removed and another sheet of glass
is inserted. The new glass is the reverse of the first one, though, as the portions
of the glass that were clear now have been painted over and the sections that
were blacked out are now clear. The model dinosaur and the table are cleared
away. The film is re-shot again, this time exposing the foreground part of the
image which had before been blacked out

After the entire scene has been filmed both the projector and the camera are rewound back
to the beginning. The glass is removed and another sheet of glass is inserted. The new glass
is the reverse of the first one, though, as the portions of the glass that were clear now have
been painted over and the sections that were blacked out are now clear. The model
dinosaur and the table are cleared away. The film is re-shot again, this time exposing the
foreground part of the image which had before been blacked out. When the film from the
camera is developed and viewed it will show the dinosaur apparently moving out from
behind the building.

Ray Harryhausen was very influential on contemporary artists such as award

winner Tim Burton. OBrien and Harryhausen, beginning in the early part of
the 20th century does not involve so much a specific stop-motion innovation
as it marks a leap in the way the medium could be used for storytelling. Willis
O'Brien's student Ray Harryhausen made many movies using a more elaborate
version of puppet animation called model animation, first pioneered by
O'Brien, mainly for his feature-length films, the difference being that model
animation strives to be "photo-realistic" enough to be able to be combined
with live action elements to create a final fantasy sequence that allows the
audience to suspend their disbelief that they are watching animation
elements. Obrien and Harryhausen were famous on an international level, so
there stop motion had to aimed to their large spread demographic.
Example of his model animation techniques; most famously, are the seven-
skeleton sequence from Jason and the Argonauts (1963). But aside from the
more "disguised" stop motion efforts of O'Brien and Harryhausen, America and
Britain were slower to embrace the stop motion film, and so its use mainly
grew out of other locations and sources.

Contemporary
Contemporary artists already had the stop motion animation industry already
created. They were students of the art but it was them who perfected stop
motion and really excelled in all of the techniques of: -
High Frame rate
Realistic creation and movement of models
With extremely high frame rate per second alongside the realistic slow
movement of models, meant that stop motion looked like video or real life
motion to the human eye because. The human brain detects up to 1000 frames
per second, but when tested humans say they can only start to see any
difference up to around 60 frames per second. This does not mean that more
trained individuals cant see more, apparently pilots can consistently notice
difference up to 1/220th of a second!
Bringing this back to stop motion animation the highest frame rate thats really
used is 24 or 30 frames per second. Aardman which I will get onto uses a high
24 frames per second. When you have a large production like a full movie in 24
fps, thats a very long process as you can imagine.

Aardman Animation
Aardman Animations, Ltd., also known as Aardman Studios, is a
British animation studio based in Bristol. The main founders of Aardman is
Peter Lord, Nick Park and David Sproxton.

Aardman is known for films made using stop-motion clay animation

techniques, particularly those featuring plasticine characters Wallace and
Gromit. In my opinion Aardman stands out from other stop motion, due to
their style of character creation and movement. They are very proud of their
consistent 24fps which is very highly looked upon against other modern stop
motion animations. I also believe at 24 fps is the most efficient way to make
stop motion (fluid motion=time taken on making the animation). As I will talk
about shortly Aardman spent 10 years on one house hold movie, can you think
what it is?
Aardman has mad 886 Million worldwide with an average of 147 million per
film. All of their stop motion films are among the highest-grossing stop-motion
films, with their debut, Chicken Run, being their top-grossing film as well as
the highest-grossing stop-motion film of all time.
In 2005, Ten years of absence from the filming industry, Wallace and Gromit
returned in Academy Award-winning Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the
Were-Rabbit. The next year followed Flushed away, Aardmans first computer
animated feature. Aardman are very famous for their childrens programmes
such as Shaun the Sheep, due to their happy and fun content with their
friendly looking plasticine models.

The Brothers Quay

Stephen and Timothy Quay are American identical twin brothers better known
as the Brothers Quay or Quay Brothers. They are influential stop-motion
animators. The brother is from Pennsylvania, US. They are also the recipients
of the 1998 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Set Design for their work on
the play The Chairs.
The quay has a very niche, stylistic feel to all the work, but its extremely
creative. In Quay, we get a glimpse at these iconic doll heads, as the brothers
show how their look changes in natural light. Their studio cluttered with lo-fi
tools such as bits of glass frosted with laundry soap features a prominent
window around which they place mirrors to angle the rays of the sun.
However, in Britain, they add, you never quite get a clear sunny day.
Jan Svankmajer was very experimental and liked very niche concepts. He was
also the main influence on contemporary artists like the Brothers Quay. This
experimental stop motion caught the attention of big fan Christopher Nolan.
Nolan is the director of Memento, The Prestige, Inception, Interstellar and the
Dark Knight Trilogy is using some of his considerable industry clout to promote
a programme of newly scrubbed-up 35mm short films by stop-motion
animators the Brothers Quay.

I attempted to choose a variety of different stop motion artists, there is such

variety and different forms of stop-motion. Ever since the pioneers discovered
persistence of vision, then developers and contemporary artists have adapted
stop motion with their style and preferences.
A great example would be looking at the difference between Aardman
Animations and The Brothers Quay have no real similarities, but they
recognized by different audiences. Aardman use simple lexus and narratives,
they use plasticine to build their characters, whereas Brothers Quay has
connotative meanings, which arent so straight forward. They also use very
obscure objects such as bolts, puppets; some productions can sometimes be
spooky and moody.
The presentation in stop motion has always varied developer Jan Svankmajer
(born 1934) decided to use puppets for his animation, which hadnt really been
used much before. vankmajer's trademarks include very exaggerated sounds,
often creating a very strange effect in all eating scenes. He often uses fast-
motion sequences when people walk or interact. His movies often involve
inanimate objects being brought to life through stop motion.
In current times there is 5 main animations, traditional animation sometimes
referred to as cell animation (made by drawing individual frames by hand or
tablet). 2nd is 2d animation also known as vector based in animation used in
flash). Next is 3d animation also called computer animation, (created in 3d
programmes, like moving puppets slowly on the computer), 4th motion
graphics which is like film opening titles, the art of creatively moving text and
graphics. Last is STOP MOTION, which you already know about know.
3. Finally you must discuss how animation can be presented in a variety of
genres and forms.

In the modern day there is a hugely creative wide spread forms and genres of
animation. The platforms very for all different demographics, ages, races,
wealth, gender and regional identity. For example, music artists use stop
motion animation to create niche music videos to upload to YouTube to attract
a different audience (therefore promoting/advertising their music).
Cinemas is a huge platform of animation, displaying the latest forms of
animation (SUCH AS 3D) in the best quality as a service, which racks up a huge
profit daily. On television some of the most popular kids programmes are
made in traditional stop motion animation, such as Shaun The Sheep.
Bibliography
www.dragonframe.com/intro_to_stop_motion.php- what is stop motion
http://hannahstopmotion.blogspot.co.uk/p/developers.html - developers will obien
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willis_H._O'Brien

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stop_motion_artists
https://oluchinwabuwa.wordpress.com/2014/04/03/stop-motion-animation-
techniques-pastpresent-and-contemporary-works/
http://www.unmuseum.org/dyna.htm
https://youtu.be/NZbrdCAsYqU