Websites

Websites!

Generally the internet has allowed so many people, especially the younger generally who would wish to experiment in movie making with stop motion, to do this with modern stop motion software. An example of a website for this could potentially be (www.stopmotionpro.com).

Over the years stop motion has generally become more popular through the web, with stop motion videos ranking up thousands and even millions of views on websites such as 'YouTube'. On YouTube, because anyone is able to upload images and videos it generally means that people who wish to experiment with stop motion animation can upload their videos to the web which would then allow other people to actually view their videos. Therefore, not only advertising forms of stop motion animation but also for the creators to then be able to get a sense of accomplishment as their video views would generally continue to increase. A wide range of stop motion techniques have been showed in videos on YouTube. Such as, Clay animation, animation with action figures as well as objects and many more.

The top ten viral stop motion videos are listed on the following website; (www.socialtimes.com/stop-motion-videos_b11092)

There is a stop motion animation video which I came across on YouTube and it is called T-shirt War. It is generally quite popular with over 17 million views. And I generally like it as I feel it is quite a unique idea as well as when first viewing it I hadn't seen anything like it before. Therefore, I straight away have the sense of it being unique and found it amazing how they had managed to make it look so realistic.

Here is the stop-motion animation video (T-shirt War):

Mobile Phones

Mobile Phones!

Mobile phones aren't generally the first thing that would come to mind when people are discussing animation but they can generally be quite very effective tools when in the right situation. 

This animation example below is the worlds smallest animation, which was shot with a Nokia N8. The phone itself has only 12 megapixels and was created using Telescope technology. The tiny character was created with a 3D module, and was then generally stuck to a pin and moved around. This was incredible in terms of how it was created, and was generally probably one of my favourite stop motion animations. This would be due to the fact that it is so creative how the background objects themselves are actually real life objects, which shows really how small 'Dot' is. 

Computer Games

Computer Games!

Most video games are generally animated, but there are many different ways in which computer games can be animated. An example would be Super Mario galaxy which generally focuses strongly around gamely, bright attractive colours and the use of preliminary sketches. We can see exceptionally how the characters as well as the terms such as stars could be animated through sketch or drawing pad which is connected to a computer and later being animated through a computer as everything has detail but not as in depth as other games such as Call of Duty. Many of the special effects may have also been drawn at first and alter animated or they could have generally been generated through the use of computer software. Games such as Call of Duty may have had ideas sketched out on paper etc or even drawn onto a graphics tablet but most, if not all of this would have been re-rendered on computer software as the games are very realistic and are put a lot of focus in the amount of detail into the games.




One of the general most spectacular uses of model animation for a particular computer game would be Virgin Interactive Entertainment Mythos game Magic and Mayhem (1998). The game's creatures and characters were constructed through animation expert Alan Friswell, using the stop-motion techniques used in the films of Willis O'Brien and Ray Harryhausen. The figures were made of modelling clay and rubber, over an armature of wire and ball-and-socket joints. I feel that using this technique is not only clever but also it is what makes the computer game so realistic. Also the 1996 computer game The Neverhood, which features the technique of clay animation. 

Music Videos

Music Videos!

Within the filming of a music video for 'My Last Serenade' which was starred by Killswitch Engage, a zoetrope had been used where there was an illusion that the band was playing the song within the slits of the actual zoetrope.



Also the stop motion which was used within Oren Lavies 'Her Moring Elegance' which was actually viewed by over 15 million people. Therefore advertising the use of stop motion and it will live on to be one of the celebrated uses of stop motion of our time. The video which is shown below is the actual music video that they had shot within 48 hours without any breaks. I myself found this extremely creative and it also has its own great way of being unique about it. I very much enjoyed watching this piece of stop motion and personally am not shocked to the amount of people who have viewed it as it is exceptional.

Advertising

Advertising:

With advertising this is often used in many various ways in the way of capturing the audience and attracting views to their advertisements to make them more successful.

An example of this could generally be the 'Compare the Meerkat' which is a viral advertisement for 'Compare the Market.com). The actual advertising campaign was produced by the VCPP Agency. Compare the Marker (and... Market) is owned by the BGL group and compare the meerkat has generally been ranked the fourth most visited insurance website within the UK. The advertisement more than doubled in sales through Compare the Market year on year. This has generally extended past a television advertisement and 'Aleksandr Orlov' has now got a book, an iPhone application, text and mobile ringtones. The overall style of this animation is realism as the meerkat looks real and as does its surroundings but they are all in fact computer animated.

Heres an example of how real Compare the Meerkat adverts look:

Cinema

Cinemas:

Stop motion animation has generally proved popular within cinemas within releases such as, Chicken Run which was released in 2000 and Coraline which was released in February of 2009. 

And by September 2009, Coraline had grossed over $120 million worldwide and when Chicken Run had been released it had grossed $227 million worldwide. Coraline is a stop motion 3D fantasy film. Whereby thousands of high-quality 3D models, ranging from facial expressions to doorknobs were printed within 3D. Which inevitably resulted in the transformation of computer designed drawings into high-quality 3D models than could be used on set. 

Chicken Run is a stop-motion animation comedy which was made by Aardman Animations, and directed by Nick Park. Who is a director at Aardman Animations and has won several Academy Awards for the Best Animation.

Below is an example of behind the scenes of the film, Coraline. Within the video example it's about bringing the characters to life and includes content on the models and the words of the animators:

 

TV Animation / Channel Idents

Television Animation & Channel Idents:

Looking into commercial entertainment, stop motion techniques such as a cutout animation and the use of construction paper, computer animation were and still are used within the america tv series 'South Park'. Whereby, the pilot episode used cutout animation which actually mean't that the character were used as paper cutouts. Also, for the actual original animated shorts for the programme, construction paper was being used. However, subsequent episodes have been produced by computer animation, which one of the main reasons would be because it took far less time. The target audience for the tv series was adults, this was due to its crude language as well as surreal humour. The use of the overall animation actually was inspired by the paper cut-out cartoons which were made by the animator, Terry Gillian, for 'Monty Pytho's Flying Circus'. 

Another television series which also used stop motion techniques was 'Pingu'. This tv series used clay animation for their shows. The video below is an example of the pilot episode of South Park using construction paper:

The television channel E4 is known for using stop motion animation within a variety of their channel idents. With the idents they seem to have a theme of different types of rooms. E4 are big with their idents as they're bright, bold and animated. We as the public enjoy their idents as they tend to be eye catching and always consist of something random and silly. We want ours to be for a young audience this would be so that it helps with the planning of our own. 

The history behind BBC television idents actually began within the early 1950s, this is when the first BBC displayed logo between programmes to identify their service. As new technology was becoming available, the devices were evolving from simple still black and white images to the sophisticated full colour short films which are seen today. With the arrival of the digital services within the UK (United Kingdom), and with them many more new channels which branding perceived by broadcasters to be much more important. This meant that the dinettes needed to stand out from their competition. 

MTV tend to have an enormous amount of different styles in which have been over the years that it has been around, with many being shared worldwide as well. The use of stop motion has generally been used to create partially all of them. And the use of colours and shapes had really stood out for me, but all in all they all consisted off something random or just generally being random.