STOP-MOTION ANIMATION

It is also referred to as Stop Frame Animation. It animation that is captured one frame at a time, with physical objects that are moved between frames. When you replay the images rapidly, it generates the illusion of movement. The basic procedure of animation involves taking a photograph of your object or characters, moving them slightly, and capturing another photograph. When you replay the images consecutively, the objects or characters look like they are moving on their own.





Stop motion animation takes place everywhere- commercials, music videos, television shows and feature films- even if you don't realise it. While it is normal for people to think of stop motion as just one specific style, like clay animation, the reality is that stop motion techniques can be utilized to create a wide range of film styles:

Examples of Stop Motion Animation Feature Films:



An example of Stop Motion Animation TV Show/ Cartoon:



An example of Stop Motion Animation Music Video:



An example of Stop Motion Animation Advert:




Stop-motion animation is conducted using a simple process. The artist place all the articles to be animated in their initial positions. An image of the objects is then captured on film or an another media such as a memory card. Then the articles positions are slightly altered and another image is captured. Normally, this is done minimum hundreds of times.

For instance, if you want to create a video utilizing stop-motion animation featuring a bunch of pens that move in a circular pattern. You would have to begin by positioning the pens in a circle and take a picture of it. Alter the pens slightly in a clockwise direction and capture it again. Do this process over and over until you have captured hundreds of photographs. You then transfer the images on to the computer where you will have to use special software in order to create a video which rapidly projects the photographs chronologically. As you play the video, the pens move in a circle just as you would have wanted it to. This is stop-motion animation.

Early Stop-Motion Animation

Early stop motion was taken with film cameras. Animators wouldn't be able to see how it's turned out until the film has been processed. They utilized surface gages in order to keep track of where the artists were, and how far to move them. On the off chance that the animation didn't turn out to be fluid, if the set had been bumped, or if the lighting was bad, work was lost and the animator would have had to start it all over again.



After when the special video machine were invented, it allowed the animator to watch the last one or two frames, and compare those to the live video from the camera. This permitted then to get a sense of how the animation was progressing...


Stop-Motion Animation Techniques

Object Animation, Clay Animation, Puppet Animation and Cutout Animation. The main difference between these techniques is the specification of object utilized to create animation. Compositing is a fusion of both stop-motion animation and live action movie/video footage. Object Animation is one of the most widely used stop-motion techniques. Simple objects are used to create the animation. For instance, a photographer might use a child's rubber duck to a detailed chicken model with movable body parts.


Puppet Animation is a type of stop-motion animation that uses more complex models with detailed textures and movable parts. It derives its name from the fact that the complex models utilized look and move like puppets. Tim Burton's film The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) was created utilizing stop-motion puppet animation.

Using DSLRs for Stop-Motion Animation

In 2005, Corpse Bride was taken with the Canon EOS-1D Mark II, making it the 1st stop motion feature film shot with a digital still camera. Early DSLRs didn't have live view, a feature where the camera can offer a video stream of the image through the lens. Thus, the studio had to use a secondary video camera to provide the video assist.

In 2007, Canon and Nikon announced DSLRs with live view, Since then, DSLRs have been used in order to capture most of the professional quality stop-motion animation. From feature films to music videos to broadcast TV series and adverts.

BIBLIOGRAPHIES

• Valentino, M. (n.d.). What is Stop-Motion Animation? - Definition & Techniques | Study.com. [online] Study.com. Available at: http://study.com/academy/lesson/what-is-stop-motion-animation-definition-techniques.html [Accessed 10 May 2017]
• Systems, D. (n.d.). Introduction to Stop Motion Animation - Dragonframe. [online] Dragonframe. Available at: http://www.dragonframe.com/introduction-stop-motion-animation/ [Accessed 10 May 2017].