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. 

Developers (Jan Svankmajer)

Jan Svankmajer (1934) - Who is he?

He is a filmmaker who is artistically known for his surreal animations. He gained his reputation from using stop motion technique and the ability from himself to be able to make surreal and yet somehow funny pictures. His trademarks generally included very exaggerated sounds. He also tends to use the technique 'fast-motion', as people are walking. He often tends to use inanimate objects with the illusion of being brought to life. Among part of his best known work are the feature films of, Alice (1988), Little Otik (2000) and Lunacy (2005). 

Another stop motion technique in which Jan uses is clay animation. Svankmajer influenced other filmmakers such as Tim Burton as well as The Brothers Quay. Personally, I do feel that what Jan Svankmajer does is very creative and the way he does what he does with his food animation is clever as well as at the same time disgusting. The video's below are examples of Svankmajer's stop motion animation as well as clay animation: 

Developers (Ray Harryhausen)

Ray Harryhausen (1920) - Who is he? 

Ray created a brand which was around stop-motion and model animation which was known as 'Dynamation'. Working alongside Willis O'Brien within the film King Kong which could of inspired for him to work in the unique field. Most of O'Briens projects weren't ever realised, Harryhausen achieved considerable success. Within his films, model characters would interact with the live action world, with the overall idea of being considered as 'animation', rather than 'cartoons' which would be perceived as things such as 'Chicken Run' etc. 

In 1947 he was actually hired as an animator assistant for 'Mighty Joe Young' (1949), where in the end Harryhausen ended up doing the mass of the animation, where with O'Brien ended up focusing on the overall technical problems within the film. Within this film as well as King Kong, Harryhausen was using his dynamation technique. This technique allowed the live action to be split which enabled the model to be inserted within the action as well as appear to interact with the actors.

Tim Burton considers his movie, Mars Attack which was released in (1996) to be a tribute to Harryhausen. Harryhausen's stop-motion sequence Sinbad which helped to inspire a generation of filmmakers which included Tim Burton. 

Present Animators (Aardman Animations)

Aardman Animations - Who are they?

Aardman Animations is an animation studio who is known for the films which are made using clay animation, particularly those for Wallace and Gromit. After making a segment called 'Greeblies' in 1975 using clay animation. This eventually became the inspiration for creating the well known clay character, Morph. 

In the 2000s, they created Aardman's first feature film, Chicken Run which was released in 2005, they created their first computer-animated film feature, Flushed Away.  

Aardman made 12 short stop motion animation films which are using Flipnote Studio from Nintendo DSi. A technique the Aardman team used was called pixilation. This was used within Peter Grabriel's 'Sledgehammer' music video. Where there is an effect where he turns into a human puppet by holding certain poses while each of the shots were being framed moving slightly between each of the shots. Although this technique was generally used on a series of different short films which were for BBC Three. 

Many of Aardman Animations films were typically targeted towards the lower age range which would be around children and because of their intricate and realistic character models I believe that is typically one of the main reasons into why their films were and still are so popular. 

Wallace and Gromit are made from moulded clay on metal armatures. From the research in which I have undertaken I have been able to notice that metal armatures are very popular model design for stop motion animation. This is due to the fact of them helping shape the overall structure of the model to then make it look more realistic for the audience. 

Nick Park is a part of the Aardman Animations team and has actually directed a wide range of the popular films. These films can include, The Wrong Trousers, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005) and Creature Comforts. Nick has won many academy awards for the best animation. Overall, his work is mainly targeted towards again 'children'. Personally when I was younger I enjoyed watching Nick Park's and Aardman Animation's stop-motion films especially Wallace and Gromit. Since starting this BTEC Level 3 Media course I have found it intriguing to find out that some of my favourite child hood movies have been made using the creative techniques within stop motion animation. Generally this makes me appreciate exactly all the time and effort in which they all put into making these films. 

Here is a video demonstrating exactly how Nick Park and Aardman Animations did the animation for Wallace and Gromit: A Maater of Loaf & Death:

Present Animators (Tim Burton)

Tim Burton - Who is he?

Burton is known for being a director as well as producer. The success of his short film 'Stalk of the Celery Monster' grabbed the attention of Walt Disney Productions animation studio, who eventually offered him the apprenticeship. With this he worked on films such as, The Fox and the Hound and Tron. However, with this he actually chose to work alone on solo projects rather than with Disney as his choice of style had clashed with them. 

One of Burton's first films were a 6 minute stop motion which was called 'Vincent' and also one of his latest films was a remake of his 1984 short film which was known as 'Frankenweenie' and was released in 2012 around October. The film in 1984 was said to be somewhat too quirky as well as scary for the mainstream appeal. However, now that it has been released 28 years later after the first film had been released, this generally shows the huge development of stop motion animation and within this context, earlier Disney didn't allow the appeal to be 'scary and or quirky' within their films. However, during this day and age films around that appeal are allowed to be released. 

 

The film 'The Nightmare Before Christmas', which was also written and produced by Tim Burton. The film has been said to have helped to generate a whole new meaning to generating new interests within stop motion animation. The film was actually in production for around 3 years and due to the amount of time in which it took to film the stop motion. I feel that it was worth the production lasting 3 years at it was a creative piece of stop-motion which was an excellent film. 



Within the film Mars Attack, Tim used puppets which led to the film looking more realistic, also hundreds of face models were produced with different expressions which would be used in different situations. Tim may have been influenced by the animator, George Pal who actually used this technique within the 1940s TV series. 

Present Animators (The Brother's Quay)

The Brother's Quay:

Stephen and Timothy, both influential stop-motion animators have created films which are surreal and generally tend to involve inanimate objects coming to life. One of their major influences included Jan Svankmajer, where they named one of their films after him which was 'The Cabinet of Jan Svankmajer'. 

Most of their animation films then to feature puppets, who are often partly disassembled as well as being shot within a dark atmosphere due to wanted to receive the surrealist effect. Their best known work is 'Street of Crocodiles', this was generally selected as one of the 10 best animated films of all time. 

In my opinion I feel that there work is effective due to the facts that they have made their own work unique and also have one of their films being top 10 best animated films of all time even though, they do surrealist stop motion animation, which is the same genre as Jan Svankmajer. 

Here is a short clip from the animated film 'Street of Crocodiles':