Techniques and Formats:

Time Lapse – this is a different kind of stop motion animation as it uses the exact same technique however it is presented differently. Time lapses are usually used to film an area or place, rather than a single object as this technique would not work properly. The whole point of a stop motion animation is to give the illusion of movement in real time, however the purpose of a time lapse is to animate objects but speed it up much faster, to give the illusion of ‘fast-forwarding’ time. A time lapse is often used in movies, films or programmes to show a movement of time in a professional way. To make a time lapse, pictures have to be taken at less frequent intervals than a stop frame, perhaps every 30 seconds. The pictures should be taken for about 40 minutes to give a significant illusion of time and speed. Once the images are stitched together and sped up, it looks like a piece of fast moving media.

Human Stop Motion (Pixelation) – this is a version of stop frame animation which is aimed at people a lot more than the other types of animation. The reason for this is because it uses humans rather than objects or other items. Movement is created the exact same way the other stop motion animations are created, however pixelation animation tends to be a bit faster to make because you don’t have the move the object because the ‘actor’ knows what they are doing. This version of stop frame would more suitably be used in short films rather than huge feature films because they are often less entertaining as a human can be filmed normally, whereas an inanimate object cannot be filmed normally which makes it more enjoyable.

Claymation – Claymation is another version of stop motion animation that is very good for animating inanimate objects. This is because you can mould the clay that you are using to any shape that you want. You could create a person from it or make a random blob as a character, this is because using clay allows you to make whatever you want. Movement is created by slightly adjusting the models position and taking a photo. Once this process is repeated, it looks like the figure is moving. An incredible piece of Claymation is ‘Wallace and Gromit’ as they are plasticine models which are moulded in ways to make it look like they are moving. Because they have a huge production team, they can spend a very long time on making a small movement, which then makes it look like it is a standard animation.

Uses and audiences, give examples and analyse. Describe and evaluate, the work key is who are the audiences. Chose 3 examples:

Feature Film – An example of an animated feature film is ‘Kung Fu Panda’. This is an entertaining action film which is typically aimed at younger children, however it is also considered to be a family film. A feature film animation is solely used to entertain people with a story, plot and characters. Typically, this genre of animation is aimed at children roughly between 8-12 year old's. This is because they usually use bright colours and a lot of action, all used to grab the audience’s attention and keep them watching. Kung Fu Panda’s methods of keeping their audience interested is using animals as their characters. This puts the children in awe because there is no other film like this, hence keeping them interested and on edge. Another similar animated feature film is ‘Ice Age’. They use the same style of animals and humour to keep their younger audience interested.

 Advertising – One example of an animated advert is the Oreo advertisement. The purpose of this advert is to persuade its audience as the company is aiming to sell their product. This is a different style of advert compared to the usual advert which is displayed on television. This advert is aimed at two completely different audiences. One of the audience is children aged roughly 6-12 because it has a catchy song which would get stuck in the children’s head, making them ask the parents to buy the product. Also, they use very bright colours to catch the attention of the children. Compared to an advert like the ‘Garnier Hair Advert’ the Oreo advert would catch the child’s attention much faster because the advert looks much more interesting to them. The other audience that this would appeal to is adults. This is because the song would get stuck in their head, persuading them to buy the product. A benefit of having an animated advertisement is that it is very unique. There is not a lot of animated adverts aired on TV so a well-made animated advert is likely to attract a lot more viewers compared to a standard advert, similar to other companies.


Websites – one example of a website that I found with very clever animations was http://www.species-in-pieces.com/#. This website uses incredibly interactive animations in order to retain its audience. I would say that this websites audience is older people. The reason why I say this is because the websites aim is to inform its audience about endangered animals which is a topic that younger children do not really understand. Websites that are heavily animated tend to retain their audience because it is very different to every other static website that is on the internet. As the website is so unique, it makes the experience of browsing the website very enjoyable for the user. This is why they have a solid audience. It doesn’t matter what the website is about, as long as their service is enjoyable for their audience to use, then they will keep a solid audience. 

Task 2: The characteristics of stop motion animation

For this part of the presentation you must critically analyse the characteristics and purpose of stop motion animation

Purpose (examples of all three required who are the audiences)

Educate – some animations aim to educate their audience with their animations and their story behind. The audience that they target is younger viewers, for example under 10-year-old children. The reason I think this is because the animations often have much brighter colours when the viewers decrease in age. This is because children are much more interested in colours than plot and story. An example of an educative animation is ‘Dora the Explorer’. This is a good example because the animators use very bright colours to gain the children’s interest, then they ask questions and educate viewers through the plot of the animation.

Inform – there are some animations that aim to inform their audience. I believe this has the same audience as the Educating bracket because they are aiming to do roughly the same thing. An example of an animation that informs its audience is ‘Charley Says’ which is an animation used to tell young children what and what not to do. They use bright colours to target their younger audience and get their attention. Also, they use much more childish language like ‘Mummy’ and ‘Daddy’ so the children understand what the animation is saying.

Entertain – most animations aim to entertain their viewers and these are usually the most popular animations that people talk about. Some of these examples are ‘Shrek’, ‘The Incredible’s’ and ‘Cloudy with a chance of meatballs’. These animations are aimed more towards the entire family, parents as well as children. The reason for this is because they include content that adults will enjoy too, usually a lot of action and adventure. The animation usually has less bright colours but still appeal to the children, while still appealing to their parents.

Contemporary: (choose 2 or identify your own)

Tim Burton – Tim Burton is an American Film director who is well known for his weird and wonderful design of characters and mood. His most famous films are ‘Alice in Wonderland’, ‘Beetlejuice’ and ‘Frankenweenie’. Tim Burton is a very successful director who has won many awards throughout his career for his films like 'Hugo', however the most substantial award that he has won is the Empire Legend Award. He has been awarded this because of his outstanding directing skills and the pieces of visual entertainment that he has made. I believe Burton aims for a slightly younger audience however his art style convinces me that his target audience is mid-teens, for example 14-16 year olds. The reason why i believe this is his target audience is because of the contrast between his character Jack Skellington and Nick Park's Wallace. the way he has created Jack is in a very eerie way which makes it much more intimidating for the viewer. However Nick Park makes his characters very plain and colourful, making it more suitable for younger viewers. This is demonstrated in the age ratings of their films, for example Burton's 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' was rated a PG due to his art style, however Parks 'Wallace and Gromit' was rated a U due to his simple childish designs. He targets both genders because he uses rather dull colours to make his characters, therefore destroying any gender stereotypes that may occur with colour e.g. girls favourite colour is pink. The reason why his style appeals to his audience is because it is childish. Although it is childish, there is an eerie sense to his films as characters like Edward Sissorhands gives the impression of madness, while having an undermining sense of humour. Burtons style reminds me of Svankmajer’s work because he expresses his emotions in his art style by giving his work more unique look than other directors.

Nick Park – Nick Park is an English animator who is extremely well known for his incredible stop frame animations. He is most famous for making ‘Wallace and Gromit’ however he has also made ‘Early Man’, ‘Shaun the Sheep’ and ‘Chicken Run’. Park is an extremely successful animator, director and producer as he has won many awards for his incredible creations. His most cherished award is the academy award for the best animated feature film. This just gives you an idea of how good his work is and how big of a breakthrough he has made in the industry. Personally I believe that Nick Parks work demonstrates the best and most advanced example of early film techniques, in particular The Persistence of vision and Stop Frame. During the production process they have huge sets with a whole team working on one scene. This allows their film to be incredibly smooth and look like it is a Computer Generated animation to younger children. Park has used the knowledge of early techniques and implemented them into his work as he takes so many individual frames that when they are put together, it looks like one fluid movement. Park aims to the younger audience, specifically children because he uses a lot of colours in his work and his art style is very similar to a cartoon drawing, making it appealing to younger viewers. These stop frame animations have become very successful as ‘Chicken Run’ earned a huge $225 million, all because of how well Park has made them. His work reminds me of Willis O’Brien with King Kong because it is appealing for children to see those objects (a gorilla and then sheep) become animated.

Developers: Remember to analyse and evaluate their work how does it link to modern practice?

Willis O’Brien – O’Brien is a stop motion pioneer who is most famous for joining two completely different worlds of film together. These were stop motion and human film. His most famous creation was the original King Kong which was released in 1933, which was also ground breaking technology at the time of release. The idea of combining stop frame animation with ordinary film was only merely something people dreamed of seeing, however O’Brien influenced the film industry forever. By creating a stop motion animation and editing it into the ordinary film gave O’Brien the opportunity to create inanimate objects and add them into inanimate situations. This allowed things like huge beasts to encounter people and if the stop frame was of a good standard, it would look almost real. The scene where Kong is hanging from the top of the Empire Statebuilding has become an iconic scene that people remember, and even re-create today. Peter Jacksons King Kong (2005) included the same Empire State scene because it is a scene people still consider to be incredible. Due to O’Brien’s work, it has changed the way film has been created today.

Ray Harryhausen – harryhausen was an artist and director who was most famous for creating the technique of Dynamation. This was when actors would appear to be interacting with fantastical objects like skeletons or dinosaurs. Dynamation was also known as ‘split screen’ because of how the animation was formed. Two separate films had to be made in order to create the illusion of the actors interacting things. The actors’ expressions had to be captured and then the stop motion animation had to be created. Willis O’Brien was a huge inspiration in Harryhausen’s career as he instigated his desire to make stop-motion his career. This had a huge impact on film-making today because we have used this technology and idea to create actors interacting with animated objects, but in a different way. Motion capture works similar to Harryhausen’s work because they have to film the actor’s movement first and then add the animation onto the actor’s outline later. This technique has been used in films like ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’. Due to harryhausens breakthroughs and art style, he has major links to Nick Park and Tim Burton. This is because he has influenced their art styles and the way they animate. Some of his creatures that he has made have a huge resemblance in Tim Burtons work because they are very eerie and awkward looking. This links to Jack Skellington because this is an example of a eerie character who makes the younger viewers feel uncomfortable and slightly on edge.

Jan Svankmajer – Svankmajer was a filmmaker and artist who was well known for his use of three dimensional stop motion with live action animation. Also he was very well known for his use of action over plot and his dark portraying’s of well-known fairy-tales. He used giant puppets and clay figures to present his slightly darker images.

Pioneers: describe, evaluate and analyse their work

Eadweard Muybridge – this man did kick started the world of film and moving media as he was the inventor of frame rates and he used the persistence of vision to add to his work. His most famous work is the moving horse which was the first ever example of stop frame moving image. He used 100 cameras, all set up in a straight line with wires across the track for the horse to trigger the cameras in order to capture different images at different points of a horse race. Stitching them together then gave the illusion of movement. This was an extremely clever way of doing this because he used the technology which was available to him at the time, to the best of his advantage. By creating this piece of work he allowed other creators to use his work to influence their own. The Moving Horse is still used today as film creators use their understanding of this experiment in order to make their films the best standard for the consumer to watch.

Thomas Edison – Edison was most famous for his invention of the Lightbulb, however one of his best creations is in the area of cinematography. He created the Kinetoscope. This was a device aimed for people to be able to watch a film like piece through a device. It was a tall standing box with a peep hole at the top which looked onto a roll of 18mm film. There were many vertical rollers in the box which allowed the film to quickly run across them, making it look like a moving image through the peep hole. It was unveiled in May 1891. This had a hug impact in film making because hand-held film cameras were later invented, using this invention and the knowledge behind it. It had an impact in the industry even later than this and it was in projection film. A film projector uses the same technique as the Kinetoscope however they implemented a light in order to project the image larger and further. It is a very intelligent way of showing moving image because it uses the historic methods of The Persistence of Vision and Muybridge’s work.

Emile Raynaud – Raynaud was famous for the invention of the Praxinoscope. This was an optical toy which was from the 19^th century (1876). It consists of a cylinder, a paper strip (typically with 12 frames of an animation on it) and some stationary mirrors. When the cylinder was rotated, the mirrors in the centre reveal an image which appears to be in motion. This had an impact on film because it was the first device which allowed more than one person to view the film at once. This then sparked a huge industry of aiming to show media to a group of people, which then later became the industry of cinema. If it was not for the Praxinoscope then we would not have to world renowned animations like Shrek that we have today.