The History of Stop Motion Animation

Introduction

Stop motion is a technique used to animate. Objects are moved slightly and then photographed to create frames, when a series of frames are put together the objects look like they are moving on their own.

The most popular material used to create stop motion animation is clay because it is easy to reposition, this is often called clay animation or clay-mation.

There is a lot of history for stop motion, in the early years it was often used to make objects look like they were magic.

Phenakitoscope – Joseph Plateau

Joseph Antoine Ferdinand Plateau was born in Belgium in 1801, his creation was the first of many stop motion animation devises, it consisted of two circular discs attached on the same axis, one disc had slots around the edge and the other had drawings on, which when spun looked like the image was actually moving. 

Zeotrope – William Horner

In 1834 William Horner improved Joseph Plateau’s idea by making a more easy to use devise, this made it something where multiple people could view at a time instead of just one.

Instead of using two discs he replaced one with a drum and places a strip of paper inside so when spun the image looked like it was moving, slots where added so many could view the animation at one time.

Praxinoscope – Emile Reynaud

Emile Reynaud improved previous designs by reflecting the images that were been viewed onto a prism of mirrors, which rose from the center of the drum.

The new idea was better than the previous designs as its showed perfect animation without the loss of luminosity, which was a problem in previous designs. This was also adapted so that the images could be projected, he replaced the original drawings with transparent images so that light could be shone through them, this meant that they could be viewed on a large screen. 

Lumiere Brothers

In Besancon, France, 1862 and 1864, saw the birth of the Lumber brothers, they later moved to Lyon in 1870 where they both went to study at La Martiniere. When there farther retired from his photographic company the brothers began to create moving pictures. They created the cinematographer and had it patented in 1895, the first footage to be recorded using it was of workers leaving the Lumiere factory, it was filmed on 19th March 1895. 

Brothers Quay 

The Quay brother live and work in England, they moved to England in 1969 to study at the Royal College of Art, they moved after they studied illustration at the university of the arts in Philadelphia. After spending some time in the Netherlands they moved back to England and made films with Keith Griffith, They later made Koninck Studios, which is currently based in Southwark in South London. 

List of films that the Quay Brothers have made: 
Feature films

Institute Benjamenta (1995) and The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes (2005) 

Short films 

Nocturna Artificialia (1979), Punch And Judy (Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy) (1980), Ein Brudermord (1981), The Eternal Day Of Michel de Ghelderode (1981), Stravinsky - The Paris Years (1983), Leoš Janáček: Intimate Excursions (1983) The Cabinet of Jan Švankmajer (1984), The epic of Gilgamesh (1985), Street of Crocodiles (1986), Stille Nacht I: Dramolet (1988), Rehearsals For Extinct Anatomies (1988), Ex-Voto/The Pond (1989), The Comb (From The Museums Of Sleep) (1990), De Artificiali Perspectiva, or Anamorphosis (1991), Stille Nacht II: Are We Still Married? (1991), Long Way Down (Look What The Cat Drug In) (1992), Stille Nacht III: Tales From Vienna Woods (1992), Stille Nacht IV: Can't Go Wrong Without You (1993), The Summit (1995), In Absentia (2000), Duet (2000), Stille Nacht V: Dog Door (2001), The Phantom Museum (2003), Inwentorium śladów (2009), Maska (2010), Anatomica Aesthetica (2011) in production 

Tim Burton

Tim burtons career begun at the most well known animation studio in Hollywood, in 1976 he attended the California Institute of the Arts, it had been founded by Disney and was seen as a hotspot for new animators. Tim started a Disney animation program in his second year because he thought that would be a good way to make a living. In 1979 he was recruited by Disneys animation team, his first project was “the fox and hound” and he found it really boring. Disney realized that his talent was not been used to its full potential so they made him a conceptual artist where he designed characters that were used in films. “Edward Scissorhands” was the first film that Tim had the opportunity to have full creative control over, he wrote the story and even produced the movie. This was the beginning of Tim burton been recognized as a serious artist. 

 

List of films that Tim Burton has made:

Alice In Wonderland (2010), Sweeney Todd (2007), Corpse Bride (2005), Charlie And The Chocolate Factory (2005), Big Fish (2003), Planet Of The Apes (2001), Sleepy Hallow (1999), Mars Attacks! (1996), Ed Wood (1994), The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), Batman Returns (1992), Edward Scissor Hands (1990), Batman (1989), Beetlejuice (1988), Pee-Wee's Big Adventure (1985)

Aardman

Aardman Studios is a animation studio based in Bristol, England. The company is most recognised for making stop motion animations with clay characters, l like Wallace and Gromit. Aardman Studios has also become successful in the area of computer animation with their film called Flushed Away in 2006. 

Stop Motion Animation and the Internet

There are many stop motion animation videos on websites such as Google Video and Youtube made by individuals. The videos are often very simple but are creative and unique. Videos are often funny which makes the viewer forget about the simple techniques used to create the animations. There are so many videos online made like this because easy to use stop animation software is highly accessible and it is easy to publish the videos to the Internet.

Stop Motion Animation in Music Videos
A singer-songwriter called Oren Lavie made a music video with stop-motion animation for their song "Her Morning Elegance" The video received 15million views and won a Grammy in 2010 for "best Short Form Music Video.

Stop Motion Animation in Computer Games

Sometimes stop motion animation is used to create characters for computer games instead of using CGI. "Magic and Mayhem " (1998) was created with creatures made from modeling clay and latex rubber, wire and ball-and-socket joints. They then animated the models one frame at a time and then added it to CGI via digital photography. Other stop motion games have been created like "Clay Fighter" for the Super Nintendo and "The Neverhood" for the PC.

The History of 3D stop motion

It is very rare for stop motion to be filmed in 3D, The first ever 3D stop motion short film was filmed in 1939 by John Norling and was called “In tune with tomorrow”. The next stereoscopic stop motion animation was “The adventures of Sam Space” in 1955 by Paul Sprunck. The third 3D stop motion animation to be made was “The Incredible Invasion of the 20000 Giant Robots form Outer Space” in 2000 by Elmer Kaan and Alexander Lentjes, this is the only CGI and 3D stereoscopic stop motion short to ever known be made. “Coraline” was made in 2009, it was directed by Henry Selick and was based on Neil Gaimans novel, it is the first film to be made completely of 3D stop motion.

Reference:

www.wikipedia.com

http://www.earlycinema.com

http://www.timburtoncollective.com

http://www.imdb.com