WHAT IS STOP MOTION ANIMATION? |
Stop motion animation (also called stop frame animation) is animation that is captured one frame at time, with physical objects that are moved between frames. When you play back the sequence of images rapidly, it creates the illusion of movement. If you understand how 2D drawn animation (early Disney) works, stop motion is similar, except using physical objects instead of drawings.
The basic process of animation involves taking a photograph of your objects or characters, moving them slightly, and taking another photograph. When you play back the images consecutively, the objects or characters appear to move on their own.
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You see stop motion animation all the time—in commercials, music videos, television shows and feature films—even if you don't realize it. While it is common for people to think of stop motion as just one specific style, such as clay animation, the reality is that stop motion techniques can be used to create a wide range of film styles:
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CAPTURING STOP MOTION ANIMATION |
Early stop motion was captured with film cameras. Animators could not see how their work looked until they got their film processed. They used surface gages to keep track of where their characters were, and how far to move them. If the animation was not fluid, if the set had been bumped, or if the lighting was bad, the work was lost and the animator had to start all over again.
  
Later, special video machines allowed the animator to view the last one or two frames, and compare those to the live video from the camera. This allowed them to get a sense of how their animation was progressing.
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USING DSLRS FOR STOP MOTION ANIMATION |
In 2005, Corpse Bride was shot with the Canon EOS-1D Mark II, making it the first stop motion feature film captured with a digital still camera. Early DSLRs did not have live view, a feature where the camera can provide a video stream of the image through the lens. So, the studio had to use a secondary video camera to provide the video assist.
  
In 2007, Canon and Nikon introduced DSLRs with live view. Since then, DSLRs have been used to capture most of the professional quality stop motion that you see, from feature films to music videos to broadcast television series and commercials.
Dragon 1.0 (the original release of Dragonframe) was released March 1, 2008, and was the first stop motion software package to support both the Canon 40D and the Nikon D90 DSLRs with live view. This meant that the animator could see a fairly accurate through-the-lens preview of their animation as they went.
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(Information found at http://www.dragonframe.com/intro_to_stop_motion.php on 19.01.2016)
Stop frame is something I have never attempted before but is something I have always been interested in and have wanted to try at least once. Below is a link to a music video that I watched while researching stop frame. I think it is an amazing piece that must have taken a very long time to put together and get right. It is called Her Morning Elegance by Oren Lavie
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_HXUhShhmY
This next link is to a music video that combined video with stop frame in the 80s... Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJWJE0x7T4Q
I also liked this short film which uses stop frame and has actors in it. It was made in 1952 by Norman McLaren. I like this video as it has a great story line to it as well as it being very well made. It isn't always about the effects or techniques used, its about the storyline too. If that is too overpowering you don't notice or stop to look at how it was made. Just like if there isn't a storyline you cannot see the point behind it. They have to go hand in hand and be equal for it to work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YAYGi8rQag
I have made a short stop frame animation using Lego. I worked with another student to set the pieces up through out. We both had our cameras set up on tripods but with completely different angles. I am very pleased with the angle and position I chose. I had the focal length set so you could see people moving in the background who were also in the room with us for extra effect. I feel it helped to give it more depth.
We rearranged the Lego to make a story of the pieces coming out of the bag, lining up then assembling themselves bit by bit. We then had a scene in the middle where two subjects collide essentially blowing them apart back into pieces and returning themselves back into the original bag.
How it was made it has a beginning, a middle and an end.
Once all of the images had been taken we uploaded them onto the computer and this is where all of the fun began. I deleted the ones I didn't like and made sure all of the remaining images were in the correct order for what I needed. I then opened a program called Adobe After Effects. I put it all together in there and rendered it so it could be watched. Once it was finished I uploaded it to YouTube.
This is the link to my first stop motion video...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tEUF9YZNNs
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