Task 1 - Stop motion Animation
Stop Motion Animation
Stop Motion is an animation technique that involves manipulating and changing figures, objects or scenery in small, almost invisible, movements and then taking a single picture. Then moving the object again and taking another image. By then placing the images together into a sequence – usually between 12-18 frames (single images) a second - it creates the illusion of a continuous film.
The earliest use of stop-motion can be seen in 1897’s The Humpty Dumpty Circus where a group toys and acrobats come to life. Then in 1912 one of the earliest clay-mation films, Modelling Extraordinary, was released to critical success. It was later in that decade when the first female animator, Helena Smith Dayton, experimented with clay animation and released her version of Romeo and Juliet.
There are multiple ways in which the stop-motion can be created. Using handmade clay or plasticine figures, known as clay-mation, which are then manipulated to create sequences. This type of stop-motion is the most frequent and popular, seen in Academy Award nominated film The Nightmare Before Christmas and Corpse Bride. Tim Burton is a pioneer and most famous for using stop-motion in his movies.
Another but more complex way of creating stop-motion animation is by moving the object while the shutter is open creating a motion blur between each frame. This is called Go-Motion and is famously seen in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back during the battle of Hoth. Dragonslayer, Willow, Howard the Duck and The Golden Child are also most notable for using Go-Motion for different elements.
Stop-Motion is used in many films because its cheaper to produce than CGI and also because it has a unique and stand out look, distinctive from CGI. Low budget and cult classic horror film Evil Dead uses stop-motion during the last act to depict the melting, burning and exploding deadites. The look of the stop-motion fits and compliments the low budget look and feel of the film. Because the film was an independent feature CGI couldn’t have been used because it would have cost a lot more than the stop-motion would have. Even in the remake, when the budget was higher and cost of the CGI being lower, practical effects were still used.
Possibly the most famous usage of stop-motion is from Ray Harryhausen. He learnt his animating techniques from Willis Obrien, who is most famous for his work on The lost World and King Kong. Harryhausen’s work is seen in such iconic films as Jason and the Argonauts, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad and Clash of the Titans. These films both showed his ability to create seamless stop motion and make un-filmable sequences filmable. His ability to do this cemented his position as one of the best animators of all time.
Stop-motion found its way into television also. The British show Clangers used this form of animation and was a great success but it wasn’t as popular as another stop-motion show called Bagpuss, which in 1999 was voted as the best children’s TV programme ever made. Another famous show is the adult show Robot Chicken. Robot Chicken is famous because of its use of popular action figures like Transformers, He-Man and Star Wars. The series spawned a trilogy of Star Wars spoof film, which used merchandise and action figures from the popular series.
stop_motion_animation.docx | |
File Size: | 138 kb |
File Type: | docx |
Task 2 - treatment
Treatment
Working Title: Kendra Vs. Vampire Willow
For my Stop Motion Animation short film I am going to make a 1-2 minute film using Buffy the Vampire Slayer Figures. By using the figures, it will give me a pre-made universe in which I can create my story in, meaning I can focus more on camera techniques and set pieces than making sure clay figures are perfectly moved for each frame.
The short film will fulfill the assignment brief because of how it is made by using stop-motion animation. In my research texts I mentioned a popular stop-motion show called Robot Chicken. This show uses pop culture figures and once popular toy figures in order to create small stories making up an episode. This show is what I am going to base my short film on.
My target audience will be people who are fans of stop-motion and fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer who are 15 and above. I have chosen 15 + because the short will contain frequent violence although not bloody or graphic, it is still violent. Casual viewers who come across the short might not enjoy it as much as those who know things about the Buffy show, characters, universe and settings, all of which are going to be utilized in my short through use of specific objects and props; the high school library set for example, which fans will know is from the first 3 seasons of the show.
‘The film will feature Kendra, who is in the Sunnydale High Library researching when she is suddenly attacked by Vampire Willow’
‘While Kendra is researching demonology in the Sunnydale High Library, Vampire Willow suddenly appears with the intention to kill her. The two engage in a lengthy fight, which sees both characters winning and loosing at certain points throughout. However, Vampire Willow gets the upper hand and uses her dark magic to twist Kendra’s head around, killing
The short film will be in the supernatural horror genre because the Buffy show it is inspired by is also from that genre. This genre will be made clear through the use of magic powers used by the character of Willow and through the frequent fighting and ultimate death of Kendra.
The short will be quite fast paced because of the fighting. The entire piece will only be around 1 to 2 minutes long, so the constant fighting will make it seem faster too. For the style of the piece, I am going to try and make it seem both personal and spontaneous. By spontaneous I mean in terms of the story it is a sudden attack and I am going to try and mirror this theme by using a freestanding camera, meaning I won’t be using a tri-pod and I will use mostly close-ups instead of having the camera mounted in one position. Lighting will be both constant and lit from 2 angles so that there is no shadows being created in places that wouldn’t make sense. As it is being set in a school library, there would be several lights on and some shadows would be created.
I am not going to storyboard or shot list the film because I want to be able to experiment with camera techniques and scenes. If I decide I want to do something else instead, then I can just do it and not worry about how it affects my storyboards. Also it would take a lengthy amount of time to compile both storyboards and shot lists, which I feel is better spent filming the piece because it is going to take a while to film anyway because of the style of film it is.
As for other details like crew and equipment I will be doing this by myself. I will light, animate and photograph all of the short film on my own so that I can get it exactly how I want. I will be using a Nikon P510 Camera to photograph to film and then use Final Cut Express to cut and edit it together. For sound effects, I will find the ones I want online and then download and convert them accordingly to include into my short film during the post-production process.
Working Title: Kendra Vs. Vampire Willow
For my Stop Motion Animation short film I am going to make a 1-2 minute film using Buffy the Vampire Slayer Figures. By using the figures, it will give me a pre-made universe in which I can create my story in, meaning I can focus more on camera techniques and set pieces than making sure clay figures are perfectly moved for each frame.
The short film will fulfill the assignment brief because of how it is made by using stop-motion animation. In my research texts I mentioned a popular stop-motion show called Robot Chicken. This show uses pop culture figures and once popular toy figures in order to create small stories making up an episode. This show is what I am going to base my short film on.
My target audience will be people who are fans of stop-motion and fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer who are 15 and above. I have chosen 15 + because the short will contain frequent violence although not bloody or graphic, it is still violent. Casual viewers who come across the short might not enjoy it as much as those who know things about the Buffy show, characters, universe and settings, all of which are going to be utilized in my short through use of specific objects and props; the high school library set for example, which fans will know is from the first 3 seasons of the show.
‘The film will feature Kendra, who is in the Sunnydale High Library researching when she is suddenly attacked by Vampire Willow’
‘While Kendra is researching demonology in the Sunnydale High Library, Vampire Willow suddenly appears with the intention to kill her. The two engage in a lengthy fight, which sees both characters winning and loosing at certain points throughout. However, Vampire Willow gets the upper hand and uses her dark magic to twist Kendra’s head around, killing
The short film will be in the supernatural horror genre because the Buffy show it is inspired by is also from that genre. This genre will be made clear through the use of magic powers used by the character of Willow and through the frequent fighting and ultimate death of Kendra.
The short will be quite fast paced because of the fighting. The entire piece will only be around 1 to 2 minutes long, so the constant fighting will make it seem faster too. For the style of the piece, I am going to try and make it seem both personal and spontaneous. By spontaneous I mean in terms of the story it is a sudden attack and I am going to try and mirror this theme by using a freestanding camera, meaning I won’t be using a tri-pod and I will use mostly close-ups instead of having the camera mounted in one position. Lighting will be both constant and lit from 2 angles so that there is no shadows being created in places that wouldn’t make sense. As it is being set in a school library, there would be several lights on and some shadows would be created.
I am not going to storyboard or shot list the film because I want to be able to experiment with camera techniques and scenes. If I decide I want to do something else instead, then I can just do it and not worry about how it affects my storyboards. Also it would take a lengthy amount of time to compile both storyboards and shot lists, which I feel is better spent filming the piece because it is going to take a while to film anyway because of the style of film it is.
As for other details like crew and equipment I will be doing this by myself. I will light, animate and photograph all of the short film on my own so that I can get it exactly how I want. I will be using a Nikon P510 Camera to photograph to film and then use Final Cut Express to cut and edit it together. For sound effects, I will find the ones I want online and then download and convert them accordingly to include into my short film during the post-production process.
treatment_2.docx | |
File Size: | 18 kb |
File Type: | docx |
task 3 - Production
This piece is burnt onto a disc in my folder. I am not able to upload a video copy onto this site.
task 4 - evaluation
Evaluation
Pre-Production
The Pre-Production process was by far the most successful part of the entire process. Coming up with an idea and what I was going to use was not difficult because I had collected hundreds of different toy and lego sets when I was younger, I still had access to them all. I knew I wanted to do a Buffy the Vampire Slayer piece mostly because I remembered the figures themselves had flexible arms and moving pieces so I was able to do more with them and also because I had a library set piece to stage them on. Writing up my brief and proposal was done quickly, detailing the necessary components needed to create the pieces, including camera, lighting and overall story for the short.
Production
This was the most difficult piece simply because I underestimated the difficulty of stop-motion. I shot my entire Buffy piece in roughly 5 hours and had edited it together, however I was no happy with the way it looked and felt. It looked dim, choppy and poor overall. So I decided to change my piece all together and use Star Wars Lego. I had watched several short stop-motion films made using lego on YouTube and thought it would be easier. After re-writing my pre-production work and beginning my stop motion again, I found out it wasn’t easier and in fact was more difficult. Half way through this process I switched back to using Buffy figures and re-shot the entire piece.
Post-Production
This was a very short part of the process as I uploaded my footage onto Movie Maker because I knew it was easier to edit photos on there rather than on final cut. I shortened the length of clips down to 0.25 fps and it gave the motion seen in the final piece. I then uploaded the exported piece to Final Cut and added the sound effects heard in the piece - Final Cut giving me more flexibility when it came to editing sound than Movie Maker did.
If I were to do this task again, I would spend a lot more time practising and testing out the stop-motion instead of jumping straight in. However due to the time limit and deadlines, I wasn’t able to spend a lengthily amount of time practising. Based on the time we were given and my level of knowledge in physically shooting stop-motion, I am overall happy with the final piece and believe it looks much better than the previous attempts.
Pre-Production
The Pre-Production process was by far the most successful part of the entire process. Coming up with an idea and what I was going to use was not difficult because I had collected hundreds of different toy and lego sets when I was younger, I still had access to them all. I knew I wanted to do a Buffy the Vampire Slayer piece mostly because I remembered the figures themselves had flexible arms and moving pieces so I was able to do more with them and also because I had a library set piece to stage them on. Writing up my brief and proposal was done quickly, detailing the necessary components needed to create the pieces, including camera, lighting and overall story for the short.
Production
This was the most difficult piece simply because I underestimated the difficulty of stop-motion. I shot my entire Buffy piece in roughly 5 hours and had edited it together, however I was no happy with the way it looked and felt. It looked dim, choppy and poor overall. So I decided to change my piece all together and use Star Wars Lego. I had watched several short stop-motion films made using lego on YouTube and thought it would be easier. After re-writing my pre-production work and beginning my stop motion again, I found out it wasn’t easier and in fact was more difficult. Half way through this process I switched back to using Buffy figures and re-shot the entire piece.
Post-Production
This was a very short part of the process as I uploaded my footage onto Movie Maker because I knew it was easier to edit photos on there rather than on final cut. I shortened the length of clips down to 0.25 fps and it gave the motion seen in the final piece. I then uploaded the exported piece to Final Cut and added the sound effects heard in the piece - Final Cut giving me more flexibility when it came to editing sound than Movie Maker did.
If I were to do this task again, I would spend a lot more time practising and testing out the stop-motion instead of jumping straight in. However due to the time limit and deadlines, I wasn’t able to spend a lengthily amount of time practising. Based on the time we were given and my level of knowledge in physically shooting stop-motion, I am overall happy with the final piece and believe it looks much better than the previous attempts.
evaluation.docx | |
File Size: | 118 kb |
File Type: | docx |