Stop-motion Animation

Stop-motion of moving penny

Stop-motion is an animation technique which allows the manipulation of inanimate or animate objects to move - with minuscule movements in between individually photographed frames, that therefore create the illusion of movement after the sequence is played continuously.  There are a range of computer software's that can be used to create this stop-motion effect; there are different types of stop-motion animation:

 

PUPPET ANIMATION

 

'Coraline'


Puppet figures interact with each other in a constructed environment,  created with armature inside them to keep the structure firm and steady, during the movements and photographing stages.  These are used in many films such as a favourite of mine, 'Coraline' (2009) and Tim Burton's 'Corpse Bride' (2005) and 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' (1993).

 

PUPPETOON

 

This technique created by George Pal is similar to regular puppet animation; but rather than using the same puppet to create different poses for each frame there are a variety of different versions of the same puppet to be used for the animation.  Therefore a near duplicate version of each puppet is used for the next frame, replacing the previous one. 

 

George Pal's Jasper Puppetoons Films

CLAY/ PLASTECINE ANIMATION

 

'Wallace and Gromit'

 Malleable figures/ dolls are created using clay or a similar material to create the stop-motion frames, with an armiture or wiring inside to create the skeleton - keeping them steady and easy to manipulate to pose the figures.  The figures may be made entirely out of clay and morph into a variety of shapes and sizes inbetween different frames - such as the famous 'Dimensions of Dialogue' by Jan Svankmajer and 'Wallace and Gromit' shorts and 'Chicken Run'.

 

CUT-OUT ANIMATION

 

'South Park'



This stop-motion technique uses two dimensional cut-out shapes using materials such as paper or cloth; using either scanned images on a conputer or vector graphics that physically cut the shapes - this type of stop-motion is known to be one of the earliest methods.  Feature animations such as 'South Park' were known to first use this method in the earlier epidsodes before switching to actual computer animation. 

 

    

 

OBJECT ANIMATION

 

Object animation is the use of inanimate objects opposing the idea of specially crafted objects for a specific use.  These are just moved along in stop-motion like in Jan Svankmajer's films such as 'Alice' and many others.

 

GRAPHIC ANIMATION

 

Jan Svankmajer: 'Historia Naturae'

Flat, visual and graphic material such as photographs, newspapers etc. are used and manipulated frame by frame to create a moving image using stopmotion.  The graphics may stay stationary, whilst the camera is moved along to again create the effect.    

 

BRICKFILM

 

Again, another stop-motion technique uses objects such as LEGO or other similar brick-like toys to create animation - the bricks are pieced or moved and again photo's are taken in order to be pieced

together later.  This type of animation uses a micture of stop-motion and live action. 

PIXALATION

 

Pixalation is the use of live humans as stop-motion characters which creates a variety of surreal effects such as sudden and instant disappearances/ appearances - which can allow interesting atcivity to take place such as levitation or sliding around in various positions.