Video Essay Script

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9Et7UQh1tg&feature=player_embedded
HI and welcome to my video essay on stop motion animation. What is stop
motion? Stop Motion is a process of images in a sequences at a speed that
creates an illusion of movement. It is when you take multiple images of an object
while moving it slowly. This is known as animation. Stop motion animation use a
variety of techniques such as persistence of vision, stop frame, frame rates and
movement of models which were developed by many different people throughout
the years from 1898 to what we have today in 2016. The clip that is playing is
showing stop motion in 2 forms, as the pictures of the boy walking is stop motion
as hes moving foot by foot for each image and location and then taking pictures
of the pictures is another way it is showing stop motion because each image
needs to be taken as it gets laid down to show the stop motion of the boy
moving.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2igRcGxlshA
One of the earlier stop motion films and techniques that can be seen in the The
Humpty Dumpty Circus (1898). The short film featured a circus with acrobats
and animals in motion. They used Albert Smiths daughters set of small circus
dolls, which had jointed limbs so they could balance in place. The short film was
directed by J. Stuart Blackton and produced by Albert E Smith. However no clip
was save of this animation. A well-known stop motion animation that has been
around since 1990 is Wallace and Gromit. It is a British clay animation series. The
animation consists of 4 short films and a feature length film. Wallace and Gromit
was produced by Aardman Animations who are well known contemporary
animators. It took over 5 years to make Wallace and Gromit Curse of the Were
Rabbit with 60 stop frames per second. The example playing is a short piece of
the famous duo Wallace and Gromit showing their Claymation technique with
stop motion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeRbwhfaHfQ
Persistence of Vision is a theory that states the human eye always retains
images for a fraction of a second. This means that everything we see is a subtle
blend of what is happening now and what happened a fraction of a second ago.
Persistence of vision plays a role in keeping the world from going pitch black
every time we blink our eyes. Whenever the light strikes the retina, the brain
retains the impression of the light. We go to the cinemas we know that motion
pictures creates an illusion of movement by flashing individual photographs in a
rapid movement. The video playing is showing how the eye retains an image the
quicker you view it, as you can see in the example of the car and the background
it looks like its forming together while we know they are two separate images.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvg8fzEm6-w
Stop frame is the movement of an object is captured one frame at a time. The
object is then moved slightly between each frame. When you play back the
sequence of images rapidly it creates the illusion of movement. While frame
rates on the other hand is the number of images taken per second. The more
frame taken per second makes the motion of the object is more likely to run
smoothly and if the frame rates are too low, the mind will not be convinced of

the illusion. This is due to the lack of frame rates per second causing the illusion
to look too jaggerity. The example I have shown is my own example of stop
motion which took 400 stop frames to make.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJlqQSMifqk
Throughout the years the movement of models have changed, this is the objects
that create the illusion that something is moving. When stop motion first started
they made devices with drawing on to which you could spin to see the illusion.
They soon developed armature wire where animators used clay and plasticine to
show the illusion, this however caused jaggerness throughout shots as it was
hard to keep the plasticine is the same position. The models soon changed to
models having joints to improve the illusion, the use of models helped them stay
in the same position and made it easier to move. However today they have
green screens and computerised models due to the improvements of technology.
The example I have shown for this section is one of the models that can be used
with stop motion and how it can be used to create the illusion that it is moving.
As you can see the model has joints so it makes it easier for the model to stay in
the same place.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBg6dAE3mI0
There are many pioneers of stop motion that have created devices to create the
illusion of movement. One of these many famous pioneers would be William
Horner who invented the Zoetrope. The Zoetrope is one of the first pre-film
animation devices hat produced the illusion of moving images in a sequence. It
consisted of a cylinder with vertical slits in the sides, with a sequence of images
along the inner side of the cylinder. It was invented in 1833 but was first
established by Joseph Plateau, Horner developed his idea. Even though William
Horner didnt discover or develop any of the techniques in the Zoetrope, he still
used all the techniques. Persistence of vision has always been around, so Horner
used the persistence of vision as he knew a sequence of fast moving images
made a movie or created the illusion. While his stop frames and frame rates are
very slow it still gives of the illusion as the device is still spinning but not at a
rapid speed as it is only spun by hand. However what you see with Horners work
of the movement of models with his the Zoetrope is the fact that the objects he
used were paintings that he draw, so he had to be careful when drawing the next
painting that it caused the illusion when spinning. As his choice of movement of
models didnt actually move. The clip is an example of William Horners device
the Zoetrope and how it works, as you can see the drawing look as if they are
moving.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JU7A8mgiAE4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heRuLp7CyTM
Another of these many famous pioneers would be Edward Muybridge. He was an
English photographer, he pioneered work in photographic studies of motion. He
invented the Zoopraxiscope in 1879 which was an early device displaying
moving images. It was considered the first movie projector. It projector the
images from a rotating glass disk to give the impress of an illusion. However
Edward Muybridge is more known for his series of images of the moving horse,
Muybridge went to a horse race and took multiple images at a fast pace and the
images turned out to look as if the horse was moving in a sequence. This was

known as 'The Horse in Motion. Muybridge was asked to capture the image of a
moving horse because Leland Stanford believed that a horse had all 4 hoofs off
the ground when they galloped, he asked Muybridge to prove this for him.
Muybridge did not discover any of the 4 techniques but however he developed
one of the techniques. With The Horse in Motion Muybridge developed the
movement of models from drawings and painting to real life moving objects. The
Horse in Motion also includes the techniques of persistence of vision because the
eyes retain the image they just saw when they see the next image it looks as if
the horse is moving. It also includes stop frame and frame rates because it is a
series of images taken of a moving horse in a few seconds. Edward Muybridge
also developed the illusion of motion with the use of cameras instead of a device
that you would manually spin to create the illusion with drawings. This is a step
forward for stop motion as it helped develop the way it was seen. The first clip
that you saw is an example of Edward Muybridges Zoopraxinscope and how it
shows an illusion while the second clip is his better known piece as The Horse in
Motion which is his how he changed the models of movement to real life instead
of having clay or puppets animations.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBYmQaIA228
Stop motion continued to develop throughout the years to where it is today. I
believe that Willis OBrien and Ray Harryhausen were the main developers that
moved stop motion forward. Willis OBrien was an American motion picture
special effects and stop motion animator pioneer between 1886 1962. Willis
OBrien made models including dinosaurs and cavemen which he animated,
which caught the attention of Thomas Edison who then hired him to animate a
short series of films with prehistoric history. Willis developed the use of special
effects, he pioneered the technique to use it within stop motion animation. Willis
OBrien was the man behind the special effects of the famous 1933 classic King
Kong. In the clip from King Kong the special effect of the Gorilla makes it look an
unreal size, however the special effect of the Gorilla wouldve only been about 4
inches tall. The clip that is playing is King Kong in 1933, showing the special
effect of the gorilla that Willis OBrien made, and how it moved long the building.
King Kong is related to stop motion as he used 1,440 frame rates per minute
when moving the animated gorilla.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9kmjW73-v4
Ray Harryhausen mentor was Willis OBrien so he learnt his techniques and
developed them forward for himself. Harryhausen's use of diffused glass to
soften the sharpness of light on the animated elements allowed the matching of
the soft background plates far more successfully than Willis O'Brien had achieved
in his early films, allowing Harryhausen to match live and miniature elements
seamlessly in most of his shots. By developing and executing most of this
miniature work himself, Harryhausen saved money, while maintaining full
technical control. Harryhausen also developed models used for animation. He did
this with the help of his father, he developed the models by giving them joints so
they were easier to move and make more realistic. Because Willis OBrien was a
big influence for Harryhausen it helped Harryhausen develop his own ideas this is
due to them both working on special effects and being a big role in developing
stop motion animation to where it is today. Ray Harryhausen was an American
visual effects creator, writer and producer who created a form of stop motion

model animation known as Dynamtion. Dynamtion is a split background and

foreground of pre shots live action footage into two separate images into which
would animate models. The background would be used as a miniature rear
screen with his animated models in front. While the foreground would be matted
out to leave a black space. Then the film was rewound and everything apart from
the foreground changed, so they animation fitted in with the background. This
created the effect that the animated models was sandwiched between two live
action elements. Both Willis OBrien and Ray Harryhausen helped stop motion
develop from William Horner and Edward Muybridge because they moved on
from making devices such as the Zoetrope and Zoopraxiscope to capturing the
illusion with cameras and use of more frame rates to also create this illusion.
Another way they developed it on from pioneers is the fact that they started to
make short films and feature length films with the special effects that they had
developed and created. This allowed contemporary animators to be where they
are today. In this clip you can see all the different types of animation animals
that Harryhausen made throughout his time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCbPZhWGZhA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2eQ6AvYit8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEOfT7hUcDs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOK49A0fWOs
As I mentioned earlier the Aardman Animations are a well-known contemporary
stop motion animators. They are known for using Claymation technique. They fit
clay around a wire skeleton model. The models have moved on from the
developers such as Willis OBrien and Ray Harryhassuen because of the use of
materials they use and the quality of technology has enhanced what the models
look like. This is due to armature wire developing, making it easier to sculpture
models. It is proven easier to create a good model with clay then out of materials
that may made King Kong out of. Aardman Animators created the popular duo
Wallace and Gromit. After some experimental computer animation they created
Flushed Away and Chicken Run. Aardman was founded in 1972 as a low budget
project by Peter Lord and David Sproxton who wanted to realise their dream of
producing an animated motion picture. Aardman are also well known for creating
Morph another well-known short clay animation. The technology has advanced
throughout the years since Aardman Animation started. When Aardman
Animation was first established they made their own sets and used projectors to
make their stop motion as technology improved stop frames and frame rates
helped the famous contemporary stop motion artists as they began to use
cameras to capture the stop motion illusion. The frame rates that they use today
with cameras have changed drastically since pioneers who made devices, today
they use about 60 frame rates per second while pioneers used about 5 frame
rates per second, this is because the device was manually span with your hand
with only a sequence of 6 images along the inner side of the device. While
developers and contemporary animators had to slowly move their models stop
frame by stop frame. With the use of stop frames and frame rates developing
over the years allowed contemporary artists animations to run more smoothly as
they could take more stop frames per second. Aardman animators are best
known for how many frame rates they have per second in their animation.
However today a lot of their animation has been computerised this is a big

advance in technology as it allows them to create different animations which run

a lot more smoothly instead of using clay and cameras which include stop frames
and frame rates.
Throughout the years Aardman Animations have created short films and featured
films using stop motion while technology has been improving. In 1989 they
created a series of five 5 minute films, Lip Synch. This ground breaking series
further explored the world of animation based on true characters and real life
voices. One of these five 5 minute films was Creature Comforts. The film featured
animated zoo animals made out of clay. The film was based on people at a care
home complaining about their day, they used the people from the care home as
their voice overs as they didnt have actors and actresses. This relates to how
the narrative of stop motion use to be. They never had a storyline to create a
featured film unlike how they do today, a lot of the stop motion animation in the
early years used to be very short as they didnt have the technology to make a
feature length film. In 2000 Chicken Run was Aardmans first full length theatrical
feature film, it was funded by DreamWorks. It took 2 and half years to make
Chicken Run with 60 frame rates per second. As the technology improved they
were able to make featured films, which effected the narrative of their stop
motion allowing them to expand story telling by having an hour and half film
instead of a 5 minute short film.
The first clip you saw is one of Aardman Animations first pieces of work, called
Morph. The second clip is a scene from Flushed Away that was made with
computerised, the third video is the trailer for Chicken Run which was published
in 2000. The last video is creatures comfort another one of Aardman Animations
first pieces of work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIfgluPZ5Sk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPblZa10_Pk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29vIJQohUWE
Another well-known contemporary artists is Tim Burton. Tim Burton is an
American film director, producer, artist, writer and animator. He is known for his
dark and quirky fantasy films. Burton made well known animation films such as
Corpse Bride, Frankenweenie and The Nightmare Before Christmas. Tim Burton
uses a different technique to Aardman Animations because they use Claymation,
Burton uses animation puppets, models and maquettes. This is due to them both
having different themes of work, so different materials were use. As a teen
Burton made short films in his garden using stop motion animation techniques.
Burton also use to work at Walt Disney in the animation department. While at
Disney he made his first short film Vincent which was a 6 minute black and white
stop motion filmed based on a poem. It was in the style of the German
Expressionism films of the 1920s. German Expressionism films refers to a
number of relate creative movements in the beginning of World War 1 in
German. One of Burtons most famous animation films is The Nightmare Before
Christmas. The film helped to generate a renewed interest in stop motion as well
as being the first stop motion animated feature to be converted to 3D in 2009.
There was over 109,440 stop frames taken for the movie and took 3 years to
make. The narrative of this animation has developed from narratives in 1970s
this is because animated films are now feature length films as they have a bigger

storyline and better technology. This is one way that contemporary artists have
developed the genre of stop motion with devices such as the Zoetrope,
Praxinoscope and Zoopraxiscope which had very small stop frames and frame
rates to create the illusion of a moving image as there was only 6 drawings that
made the sequence which was spun by hand. Burton especially has moved this
craft forward by incorporating characters and plots that engage the audience for
a longer period of time. Narrative has also progressed due to the amount of time
and money spent on stop motion productions. It is now seen as a skilled craft
that people will study for years before they have mastered it and the main game
players these days are not just skilled at the technology but are also masters of
storytelling and Burton in particular has combined his two skills to create
Hollywood masterpieces. Another way the narrative has changed is because the
narratives in the devices that were created are every simple story such as a
horse running, while people like Aardman Animations and Tim Burton developed
the narratives in to short films and feature length films because of the way
technology has changed over the years.
A lot of Burtons work has been computerised and a lot of the animation is done
or changed through editing on a computer this is because technology is so far
advanced he is able to do this unlike with Aardman Animations when they first
started out, they had to use projectors and build models. Even though Burton still
builds his models, some of his work has been computerised as it makes it easier
for the stop motion to flow smoothly. Because technology has advanced it allows
the narrative of stop motion to progress as well into longer films than before, this
is because it is easy edit the stop frames and frame rates so they run more
smoothly. Cameras have also developed meaning that images are captured in
better quality which makes the stop motion look more realistic.
The first video is a clip from Burtons well known animation piece Corpse Bride,
the second video is another clip from a popular animation film by Burton called
Nightmare Before Christmas. The last clip is the trailer of Frankenweeine.
*VIDEO OF HOW STOP MOTION HAS CHNAGED OVER TIME*
The way stop motion has been distributed throughout the years has changed this
because of technology has advanced since 1898 when one of the earliest stop
motions were made. When stop motion first came out you could only view it in
cinemas or picture houses. However this was the same for other films not just
stop motion. As technology and techniques improved stop motion soon was
distributed to TV allow people to view them from their own homes instead of
paying money to view them at the cinema or picture house. However today you
can view stop motion animation from a variety of platforms such as your TV,
YouTube, DVD as well as cinemas. Before cinemas were the most popular ways to
view stop motion as it was the only place that distributed short films and feature
length films. Today watching stop motion animation is more watched on TV or
DVD as well as YouTube. This is because they are easy to access to watch due to
the technology and techniques improving allowing us to view films from different
media platforms. YouTube is a popular way to view stop motion animation
because people upload their own work to YouTube and people all over the world
can watch unlike with TV and DVD they must be a feature length film that has be
produced and published by Walt Disney, Universal Studios or Sony or another big
media brand.

*VIDEO ON SOMETHING TO DO WITH SMA*

Stop motion animation has come far since it first started in 1898 to where it is
now, this is due to the techniques being developed by pioneers such as William
Horner and Edward Muybridge who helped the progression of the illusion by
developing devices. Edward Muybridge also developed the model of movement
from drawings to real life models. You also have the developers such as Willis
OBrien and Ray Harryhausen who developed stop motion by adding special
effects to image, Willis OBrien is well known for the famous film King Kong in
1933 and how he crafted the gorilla to look a lot bigger than the model actually
was. Ray Harryhausen developed OBriens techniques and made the technique
dynamtion which is where the foreground and background is split which allows
special effects to be edited better as well as developing models of movements
by giving them better joints so they were easier to balance. Stop motion
animation is now a big money making business in Hollywood, UK and across the
world, this is because of contemporary artists such as the Aardman Animations
and Tim Burton making feature lengths films that are viewed across the world.
Both contemporary animators are well known for creating stop motion animation
that profits a lot of money due to their skills and crafts they have in this
business.