The history of techniques and development of stop motion animation (P1, M1 & D1)

The human eye only retains images in 0.4 second that's how the thaumatrope works as the brain will just blend the images into one.This is known as persistance of vision. In 1912 however persistence of vision was debunked with no scientific evidence that it existed. Thaumatropes were the first of many optical toys and were populariesed by John Ayton Paris. The actual creation of the thaumatrope is most commonly credited to Sir John Herschal.



I drew an image on either side of this circular piece of paper and when I spun it quickly the brain starts connecting the two images.

Stop-frame animation Stop frame animation occurs when the process of taking of a photo then moving it then taking another photo is repeated and repeated in order to give it the illusion that the object it moving by itself. When this process is done with plasticine it is called clay-mation. Source

 

Frame rates The frame rate is the frequency an image is shown. Common frame rates are 24p, 25p, 30p. The faster the frame rate the smoother the image will appear. Source

Joseph Plateau 1801-1883 Joseph Plateau was a belgian physicist who in 1832 invented the phenakitoscope. A phenakitoscope is an animation device made out of paper which you spin rapidly to create a moving image. Source

William Horner 1786-1837 William Horner was a British mathematician who created the zoetrope in 1834. A zoetrope is a design which uses paper and a wooden base and when you spin it rapidly it creates the illusion of a smooth moving image when in reality it is a host of static pictures. Source

Emile Reynaud 1844-1918 Charles Reynaud was a French science teacher who was responsible for the praxinoscope(1877) which lead to first projected animated cartoon films. The device worked by using a strip of static pictures like the zoetrope and put on a spinning cylinder however in 1889 Reynaud improved this making it able to prject on to a screen. Source

Edward Muybridge 1830-1904 Edward Muybridge was a English photographer. He is famous for his work on photographic studies of motion and motion-picture. It is thought that if it wasn't for his work that motion pictures wouldn't be the same today. Source

Thomas Edison 1847-1931 Thomas Edison was an American inventor and businessman. He invented many important device whis shaped how life is today. One of his many inventions was the kinetoscope which he invented in 1888. The kinetoscope was a device which allowed viewers to watch movies individually through a peep hole at the top of the device. Although this wasn't a projector it introduced the basic approach we now assciotiate with cinematic projection. Source

Lumiere Brothers Louis 1864-1948 Auguste 1862-1954 The Lumiere brothers are filmakers from france. They are in fact the earliest filmmakers in histroy. They are famous for being huge influences on both animatiobn and early cinema. That made all this possible by inventing the cinematograph which was basically a camera and projector combined. Source

George Pal 1908-1980 George Pal was an Hungarian born American animator. He is famous for his short animations called pupetoons which he made in the 1940's. The pupetoons were small carved wooden puppets in which he would change the puppet in each frame. This process is called replacement animation. Source

Willis O'Brien 1886-1962 Willis O'brien was an Irish American motion picture special effects and stop-motion animation pioneer. Started out as a former newspaper cartoonist and sculptor. Willis is most remembered for his work on Lost world (1925), King Kong (1933) and Mighty Joe Young (1949)"was responsible for some of the best-known images in cinema history".Influenced the work of Ray Harryhausen after Ray first saw King Kong when he was 13. Source

Ray Harryhausen 1920- Ray Harryhausen is a American visual effects creator, writer and producer. He created his own brand of stop-motion model animation known as "Dynamation.". Worked on the animation for Mighty Joe Young with pioneer Willis O’Brien which later won an Academy Award. Source

Jan Svankmajer 1934- Jan Svankmajer is a Czech filmmaker known for his surreal animations. Self-labelled surrealist. Made films such as, Alcie and Lesson Faust.Studied at the institute of industrial arts in the 1950’s. Then started as a theatre director before making his film-making debut in 1964. Went on to make films for 20+ years after that. Source

The Brothers Quay 1947- The Quay brothers are American identical twins who are known for being influential stop-motion animators. They are also well known through their award for outstanding set design for their work the production The Chairs. Source

Tim Burton 1958- Tim Burton is an American film director, producer, writer and artist. He is well known for his work on such films as:

Beetlejuice

Edward Scissorhands

The Nightmare Before Christmas

Sweeney Todd

Sleepy Hollow

Source

Aardman Animations Founded in 1972- was founded by Peter Lord and David Sproxton. They are renowned for their clay-mations and have created programmes which include, Wallace and Gromit and Creature Comforts. They also worked alongside DreamWorks to create their first computer animation film, Flushed Away. Source. The piece of work produced by Aardman animations i most enjoyed would have to be Chicken Run, Peter Lord, 2000.  

Cinema (animated films) Animation has been around since the early 19th century. One of the first loved characters was Gertie The Dinosaur. Animation developed from short films

to feature-length films. The first feature length animated film was Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs in 1937. My personal favourite animated movie is Toy Story 2,John Lassester,1999. 

TV animation As well as feature-length films animation has also appeared on TV throughout the years for example a classic is Looney Tunes and another well known animated TV show would be The Simpsons. The animated series i enjoy the most is Family Guy.

Channel Idents Channel idenst are little clips shown at the bookends of programmes which advertise that certain channel. Channels most renowned for this are E4 and Channel 4. The method of stop motion animation is used frequently in channel idents.

 

TV & cinema advertising In many adverts in this day and age the method of stop motion animation is used to make adverts more entertaining. An example of this is in the classic Zendium tooth paste advert. Cinemas also use this method before films. An example of a Stop motion advert shown at the cinema was the coke ad.



Coke Advert (Cinema)



Classic Zendium toothpaste advert



Animated Music Videos It has now become a method wihin music videos to us animation to make their video more fun and interesting to attract a wider audience to interact with the video. An example of an animated music video would be Gorillaz - Clint Eastwood.   



Gorillaz music video



SMA in computer games Stop motion animation is a method used in many medias including computer games. An example of this is ClayFigther for Super Nitendo.

ClayFighter

 

SMA for website use Stop motion animation is a method used in many medias including internet websites. An example of this would be the bbc iplayer as they show channel idents before programmes.

BBC Three Channel ident