Stop Motion

Background

The purpose of this project is to design a stop motion animation. A stop motion film is a series of photographed frames which, when played as a continuous sequence, gives the effect of motion. Stop motion is as old as film itself. Many films/film makers have achieved great success using the technique (e.g. King Kong, Star Wars and The Nightmare Before Christmas). Today, in spite of the age of CGI (computer generated imagery) many successful film makers begin their careers with this inexpensive and simple technique. In addition, sites such as Youtube and Google Video have encouraged an explosion of amateur brickfilms, claymation and cutout animation techniques.

There are four main steps to followed during this project. First step is to make a story board. A story board is visual plan about how each scene of animation will look. To make things easy we’ll be using Strip Generator, a free comic strip builder. We’ll Once you’ve finished your plan you are ready to take pictures. The pictures for this project will be taken on digital cameras or web cameras. You’ll need to a large number of photos (e.g. 300) to complete this project (but that’s OK, pressing a button is easy). At this point you might need to resize photos so that they’re easier to work with later in the animation. Once your photos are ready you can render photos. We will use MovieMaker in order to render your sequence of photos into a movie file. You can then edit footage. In this step you are able to add, sound, text and arrange the scenes of your movie. Publish and post your animation once it is complete. This simply means shrinking the film’s size so that it can be posted on YouTube for all to see. The film should be about 30 seconds long and all parts of it must be completed by you!

Examples of Stop Motion

Think you’ve never seen stop motion before? Think that this is an obsolete film technique? Think again!

Lotte Reinger (1926)
King Kong (1933)
Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)
Star Wars (1980)
Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Chicken Run (2000)

Modern Stop Motion [from Sören]
http://youtube.com/watch?v=1F5RnaJkIeA
http://www.2xfun.de/view.php?file=5307#item
http://youtube.com/watch?v=MPxfWqGSSBM

Recent Student Examples:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMyUV8yy-Pk&list=PL8A3BF334A1695247&index=7&feature=plpp_video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBTnVoEIb98&feature=related

The Steps of Stop Motion

Follow the steps below to make your stop motion animation.

Step 1 – Make a Story Board

Go to Strip Generator and click on Create your strip! Add to your comic strip by dragging humans, beings, objects, shapes and bubbles into the frames. Text can be added below to explain what is happening in the comic strip. Also, explore the tools that appear below the strip once you begin manipulating objects. The idea here is to create a plan for your animation BEFORE you begin. This will help you stay focus once you begin shooting and take you through the brainstorming process before getting distracted with a camera. Each scene of your animation should be shown here. Compile the entire comic into one image. See me if you need help with this.

Step 2 – Take Pictures

First thing, you’re going to need a camera. If you don’t have one, see if you can borrow one. I don’t have a class set of cameras. Below is a list of the most common mistakes that students make when they are shooting.

• download check - before you take four hundred photos, check that you can get them off the camera! To do this, shoot one photo and try to get it onto the computer that you’re using.
• batteries - be sure that you have extra batteries for the camera you are using or a way of charging your camera if it is rechargeable. Cameras often die half way through a class, leaving the student stranded and unable to work until the next class.
• focus - make sure that the images being taken are in focus. Consider putting the camera in macro mode. Before you get too far into the project, zoom in on one or two images on the camera’s screen and check that they’re in focus.
• image size - check that the image size that your camera is taking isn’t too large. Small size images (300 kb or 720 x 480 pixels) are ideal. If the photos are too large they take a long time to download. This will also save you from having to resize your images later (the next step below).
• tripod - use a tripod! If you don’t keep the camera in one place your animation will look extremely choppy. If you’re shooting on a table, consider taping the camera to the table so that it doesn’t move.

Step 3 – Resize Images

You should now have downloaded your photos from the camera to the computer. They should be saved in your U:drive on the school server. In order for the stop motion scenes to look seamless the photos must be taken at the same resolution and same orientation…using a tripod in one location is the optimum way to achieve this. Otherwise you’ll have to spend time resizing the images.

Step 4 - Edit Footage

Making the Recipe

1. Open MovieMaker.
2. Begin inserting your images.
3. A timeline should appear at the bottom of your screen. You should adjust the speed at which the pictures will play at.
4. Now begin to find the appropriate audio and you should have an opening page with the story name, perhaps some subtitles or text overlays during the skit, and a concluding page to end it.

Baking the Cake

1. Now that you’ve made your recipe you can bake the cake, or render the photos. This is pretty easy. From the File menu select Export and then Render Video.
2. The first thing you’ll be asked is for a file name. Think about this for a second. After a few weeks of work you might have created several movie clips. You should make sure that you name them carefully so that you don’t get mixed up. Including the date in your file name is a big help. Next you’re asked where you want to save your finished movie. Be sure to save it in the iMac\movies folder that you’ve been using for your photos. Hit Render!!
3. You should now be able to browse to your movie file (with the extension .mov) and play it by double clicking.

Congratulations! You’ve now finished the hardest portions of this project. You may wish to do one final rearranging of the scenes as you had planned them in your storyboard and add sound, titles and closing credits.

Step 5 – Compress and Post

Once your animation is finished you can upload it to YouTube for all to see. But, first in order to do this you might need to compress (or shrink it). Check the size of your animation and the maximum size that YouTube allows for uploads.

Step 7 - Trial Run

Hold on though, this is really important!! Although this step looks like it is the last, it should be the first. For your first attempt at stop motion, you should try making a scene that is only 30-40 images long. This way you’ll know all of the steps and, if you need to start over, you haven’t wasted your time with 300-400 photos. The trial run should only take one class. Once you’ve down the trial and understand the basics, you’ll have way more confidence starting with longer scenes (e.g. 300-400 photos).

Stop Motion Techniques

You have to know these. Read them and understand them please! To test your understanding of these techniques, try the Stop Motion Scavenger Hunt.

Staging

Staging is a technique that was first used in theater and later transferred to cinematography. The technique uses composition, placement of figures and lighting to direct the viewer’s attention where it is wanted. Staging is an attempt to compose shots where the action is clear and there is minimal interference/distraction from other objects.

Arcs

Because of the jointed nature of our skeletons, most living things are obliged to move in arcs. Non-living things often move in arcs as a result of gravity and other physical laws. In the early days of animation, Disney artists established that subjects moving in arcs give a natural feel those moving in a linear manner give a mechanical or robotic feel.

Anticipation and Follow-Through

A large problem with amateur stop motion films is that there is often too much action occurring at the same time. Take, for example, a baseball pitcher standing motionless on the pitcher’s mound. He suddenly makes a throwing motion. The viewer may at this point be looking at another area of interest on the screen and may miss the pitch. Instead, attention should be drawn to the area of interest before the action actually happens. This is called anticipation. The shot above can be improved upon by stopping all other action on the screen as the pitcher begins a wind-up before the throw.
Follow-through is the response to anticipation. Follow-though occurs immediately after the anticipated action and is the physical result of it. For example, after the baseball is released, the pitcher’s hand/arm/body gradually slow to a halt, rather than coming to an abrupt halt. Even if follow-through is very subtle, the animator should be aware of it. As with all rules, there are times when it’s best not to use anticipation. Ultimately the animator should be the judge.

Ease-in and Ease-out

Most things in nature have a tendency to gradually start and stop moving. In physics this concept is known as inertia, or the tendency of an object to remain at constant velocity. Consider the example of the baseball thrown above. If the camera were to follow the path of the ball, anything other than a gradual decrease in speed would look unnatural. This technique should be considered in all forms of animation.

Overlapping Action

Many animation techniques are used for drawn animation and are therefore difficult to apply in stop motion. Overlapping action is one such technique. Overlapping action occurs when background or secondary motion occurs at the same time as the primary motion. For example, if the hair on the pitcher’s head moves during the pitch, this would be an example of overlapping action. When drawing, an animator will first establish the primary motion of the set. Then (s)he makes a second pass and adds secondary motion (loose clothing, a passing bird, etc.). Unfortunately, a stop motion animator does not have the chance to go back and add secondary motion. However, the basic idea of secondary motion can still be kept in mind while shooting the primary motion.

Timing

The duration of a shot will depend on what is happening in the scene. If a lot of action occurs, you may wish to film for twenty seconds. If there is no action, three seconds may be sufficient. The duration of a shot can be broken into two categories. Required duration is the time needed to perform the shot. Theatrical duration is additional time added in order to make the scene more dramatic. Remember that the aim of the techniques described above is to hold the audience’s attention.

Exaggeration

To exaggerate is to magnify beyond the limits of truth. The amount of exaggeration used in animation will depend on the style of the work. Realistic pieces rarely exaggerate while comical pieces might use the technique extensively. Exaggeration can be applied to most of the techniques listed above.

 Rubric – Stop Motion.pdf

Scavenger Hunt – Stop Motion Animation Techniques

In this mini-assignment you will use YouTube to find examples of films which demonstrate the techniques described in the Stop Motion assignment. Most of our videos weren’t detailed enough to use these techniques, but I still want you to be able to recognize them. Please do the following in today’s class:

1. Familiarize yourself with the techniques by rereading the Stop Motion assignment (the part that describes staging, arcs, anticipation and follow-through, etc.).
2. Use YouTube to find films/movies/animations that actually show these techniques. You may a single video that contains several techniques. Use the checklist below to make sure you’ve covered each technique.
3. Paste the links to your videos into a Word document as well as the times when the technique was used so that you can easily show me what you found when I come around to evaluate you.

Checklist – make sure you find one example of each of the following:

- Staging
- Arcs
- Anticipation/Follow-through
- Ease-in/Ease-out
- Overlapping action
- Timing
- Exaggeration

The Next Step

To check out the next assignment click here.