magic lantern- a magic lantern was essentially an early projector that showed a series of still images. The fluidity and smoothness of the projected images, would not be very good compared to today's standards and would be very choppy. Although in 1850, when magic lanterns were becoming very popular, the audiences would still have been very impressed with the movies produced from the magic lanterns. Through out the years the magic lantern was developed and the movies made with them became slightly better.
Phenakistoscope- A Phenakistoscope was a device that created an illusion of movement by moving very fast in a circular movement and making all the images seem to combine into one continuous moving image. For example it could animate a bouncing ball or walking person.When done correctly the Phenakistoscope could look reasonably fluid and give a good illusion of movement.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqwkdlwmHig
Christaan Huygens- Christaan Huygens was a pioneer of stop motion and his work would have been incredible because at the time there was nothing like it. This would have allowed audiences to experience a new experience of an animation. however compared to a modern day animation his animations are not as smooth and fluid.
The work of the early pioneers is was amazing and revolutionary back then but since then animations have increased in quality because technology has improved.
claymation - claymation is an effective way to create a stop motion, this form of animation is purely clay and it does create a illusion of fluid movement if done correctly. movement in the puppets must be gentle to prevent your puppet breaking or cracking. A good example of a professional claymation is Wallace and Gromit a grand day out, which shows how good claymation can look and also gives a great look at what kind of style claymation is. More basic claymation clips can be found on YouTube,
found objects- a found object animation is one that uses random objects to create an animation these can include food and drinks. A common food item in found objects stop motion is fruit, it is a good object to animate because its colourful and a lot can be done with it, for example the fruit could be chopped in tiny pieces or just move around.
Time lapse- time lapse is when loads of photos are taken and then played together to make the illusion that lots of time is passing. This technique is often used to show a very long process like painting a picture or making a stop motion.
cut- out- a cut out animation is very basic and is made out paper or card. the animation is usually simple and doesn't have much happening.
brick animation- brick animation uses thing like Lego to create animations. it is quite good as there is lots you can do with it.
stop motion can be used to create feature films that entertain an audience, these films can have a range of audiences from a niche audience to a mass audience and appeal to many different age groups. Anomalisa for example is aimed at adults and a niche audience and it is designed in a dark and realistic style that mirrors the darkness and problems of real life (seen in figure 1). Anomalisa is not appropriate for children and is purely made for the entertainment and enjoyment of adults. where as a movie like Wallace and Gromit: the curse of the were-rabbit has a nicer and friendlier look to the style giving it an appeal to a larger, mass audience and is aimed at children, although it is aimed at children unlike Anomalisa its not only the target audience that can watch the movie. For example the movie could be seen as a family and even though the adults might not enjoy the movie as much as the children,the movie can still be entertaining for all ages and audience types unlike Anomalisa.
Advertising using stop motion helps to interest the audience and keep them focused on the point of the advert and to make the remember the advert for longer. For example the money supermarket advert, this advert is weird and interesting compared to a normal advert you would see. This intrigues the audience and make them want to watch on. The advert is aimed at adults.
Tv- stop motion is sometime used to create TV show and has different audiences. For example their are kids shows like morph, that are purely aimed at children and their entertainment There are also stop motion animation Tv shows aimed only at adults like robot chicken that children cant watch.
music video- SMA can be used in music videos aid the video and make an entertaining video.
Educate- a educating stop motion, is an animation that
helps the audience to learn something new or teaches
them something they presumably did not know before.
It could be about Math's or English or about any subject
that can be taught through stop motion. Its main platform
is YouTube ,where parents can access the videos and show
them to their children.
How effective is SMA for educating-
The effectiveness of learning through stop motion varies, some people might find the visual side of the learning helpful (spatial learners), others may not find the videos helpful. The target audience for the educational SMA videos is very young and the information taught is very basic for example numbers, this means it is not effective for teaching older children or aiding their learning. Overall it can be effective for younger children but is not really effective for older children and teaching more advanced knowledge.
Entertaining- this kind of stop motion is made to make
the audience feel pleasure from watching the stop motion
animation. Titles like Wallace and grommet and Shawn the
sheep were both made to entertain the audience. A stop motion
animation may be entertaining because it is funny,has lots of
action in, or just because it looks very smooth and realistic.
How effective is SMA for entertainment-
stop motion animation is effective for entertainment. Over the years many stop
motion films have been made and they
continue to make money and entertain people.
These include coraline, Kubo and the Two Strings, and Early Man. Entertaining SMA has a wide range of audience age. With an increasing audience for stop motion films and videos, entertaining Stop motion is very effective.
Informative- an informative stop motion animation
is one that gives the audience information about
something for example an advert informing you
of the low prices in a store or giving you information
on a product or service.
how effective is SMA to Inform -
informative stop motion is effective if you find stop motion interesting. If you don't find SMA entertaining and interesting you won't pay attention to the video and won't be informed of what it is trying to inform you. So the level of effectiveness for informative SMA depends of your interest of stop motion.
Editing a stop motion animation is very different to editing a video. This is because when editing videos there is no limit to the editing but when editing a stop motion not much editing is typically used. For example in stop motion things like green screens,speed and removing wires is important to make a good stop motion.
Wires are used in stop motion for many reasons, these include making an object or character jump or fly, it could also be used for support for a head heavy object or character. Wires can be removed using a photo editing software for example,An amateur stop motion may use the editing software Photoshop ,or might use gimp. Photoshop is a better option as it is easier to edit the photos but gimp is also good if your just starting stop motion animation and want a free photo editor.
A green screen may be used to add a background to your animation,this will take place after all the photos have been edited together and the speed has been adjusted to make a fluid video. Once you have the edited video, you can use a software like adobe after effects to remove the background and add in a new one.
Music is a key part of Stop motion animation, and is added after production of the animation. When the music is being made, they can watch a clip of the animation and see if it syncs as they imagined. At this stage they might adapt the music slightly by making the music softer or louder but overall there will not be much change to the music.
sound effects
All sound effects for a stop motion animation are artificial and not natural.Creating sounds for your animation can be a long process,that includes finding the right sound for what you want to do.
Sound effects are almost always made using different sounds to what they are needed for. Sound effects are important because it helps to bring the animation to life for the audience. A hard part of sound effect process is picking and syncing the sound to the animation, this is difficult because if the music is not synced correctly it wont match the animation and the illusion of the stop motion will be broken.
character dialogue
First a character will have a set of lines to say, after being given advice on the delivery, when the director is happy with the lines. The audio is then analysed which includes how many seconds each syllable takes and then what mouth pieces are needed and for how long to match the audio correct. If the dialogue is not synced well with the stop motion, the speech wont look natural and fluid. The closer you get to matching the audio with the image the more your audience can connect themselves with the world you create.
voice over
A voice over is when a monologue or speech is added over the animation, there will be no movement of the puppets mouth. The voice over could be added before the clip is animated or after, depending on whether it was in the script or not. voice over can be used to introduce a character or can be to give an insight into what the character is thinking .
Building a set for stop motion is a long and difficult process. First you must, think about ideas for your set,including buildings, backgrounds and the texture of the ground. Once you start to have an idea of what the set looks like, you can start to do rough sketches. you may do several sketches before you are satisfied, when your happy with your sketches, you can move on to basic models made from materials like card or paper, this is because it makes it cheaper and easier to make this version of your model.
The lighting for a professional set at daytime would be very bright and have no natural lighting . They would achieve this by having multiple lights with different purposes. One light will assumes the position of the sun. there will be some back lights to focus on certain parts of the set (around 3) . A narrow beamed light reflected of a white fill board is used to fill the shadows.
(set A)
set A and set B are very different. Set A has a very bright and simplistic where as set B, looks darker and realistic. The lighting on both is bright but Set B is slightly darker than A.
Set A's aesthetic is a bit cleaner and smoother compared to set B that looks a bit more worn and dirty. Both have a unique look, for example A looks like it could have just been drawn with pen on paper where as B looks like it was built in the past. They both look very effective for what they are trying to achieve.
