Stop motion History research

Here is a brief history of stop motion animation, this is what I have managed to find. I will be using this research as a part of my dissertation, it will be present in chapter one. It is very brief as I just want to get the key moments in history rather than every detail as my essay isn't based on the history of stop motion animation, I just want to touch on it as it then gives the audience background information. I will be gong into further detail on certain events as they are more interesting and the audience will then have gathered further information about stop motion animation as a whole.

1898 - James Stuart Blackton

The Humpty Dumpty Circus

1900 - James Stuart Blackton

The Enchanted Drawing

1902 - George Melies

Voyage to the moon

1906 - James Stuart Blackton

Humorous Phases of Funny Faces

1907 - Edwin Stanton Porter

The 'Teddy' Bears

1908 - Segundo de Chomons

Hotel Electrico

1908 - Arthur Melbourne-Cooper

Dreams of Toyland

1917 - Howard S. Moss

Mary and Gretel

1920 - Herbert Dawley 

Along the Moonbeam Trail

1922 - Roop and Willis O'Brien 

Tom and Jerry

1925 - Willis O'Brien 

The Lost World

1928 - Charley Bowers

There it is

1943 - George Pal

Mr Strauss Takes a Walk

1949 - Willis O'Brien 

Mighty Joe Young

1951 - Ray Harryhausen 

Hansel and Gretel 

1957 - O'Brien and Pete Peterson

The Black Scorpion

1965 - Jiri Trnka

Ruka (The Hand)

1971 - Jim Danforth 

When Dinosaurs ruled the Earth

1977 - Pojar

Velryba-Abyrlev (Elahw the Whale)

1982 - Mura 

E.T.

1985 - Randall Dutra and Phil Tippet

Dinosaur! 

1987 - Allen 

Batteries Not Included

1988 - Beswick 

Beetlejuice

1989 - David Allen 

Robot Jox

1989 - Nick Park 

Wallace and Gromit

1990 - Beswick 

Gremlins 2: The New Batch

1991 - Allen 

Puppet master 2 

1991 - Peter Lord 

Adam

2000 - Nick Park and Peter Lord 

Chicken Run

2005 - Tim Burton

Corpse Bride

2009 - Henry Selick

Coraline 

2009 - Adam Elliot 

Mary and Max

2012 - Tim Burton 

Frankenweenie

2012 - Sam Fell and Chris Butler

Paranorman

2014 - Allen Snow

Boxtrolls

Images are subject to copyright. 

Essay layout

Introduction
In the introduction I will talk about what the essay will consist of. A brief 500 words.

• What the essay is about.
• Why people still make stop motion animations.

Chapter one

This chapter is mainly about where stop motion animations started. It will include a history of stop motions starting from Melies all the way to Laika animations. I will try to keep this between 1500 - 2000 words.

• How have stop motion animations progressed through the years?
• How did the stop motion technique first start?
• What makes stop motion animations so special?

Chapter two

This chapter will be based on armature building. I will talk about all the different ways of making armatures including the ball and socket joint method. I will be including quotes of what other artists use. To the end of this chapter, I will speak about skinning the armatures. 2000 words.

• What are armatures?
• Ball and socket joints
• How to make armatures?
• Simple wire armatures
• Steel jointed armatures
• Pros and cons

Chapter three

This chapter will carry on from the previous chapter, however I will be going into further detail on skinning the armatures. I will be talking about all the different materials used. Research into what other companies use will be present in this section. Quotes from interviews will be used as evidence. 2000 words.

• What materials are most effective in making puppets?
• Plasticine models
• Latex models
• 3-D printing
• Strange materials e.g salt on glass
• Cut out
• Pros and cons

Chapter four

This is where I will be speaking about the experiments I have done relating to my practical side. I will be speaking about what seems to be the most popular method. I will also be mentioning that animators use certain materials to create their style. I will then go on to talk about how the stop motion method has progress through the years. 2000 words.

• What I have used for each model
• What are the good things about each material?
• What are the weaknesses of each material?
• What's the most popular materials and why?
• What is the best material for my animation and why?

Conclusion

I will end with mentioning that animators use certain materials to create a style, then I will speak about that there is no right or wrong answers, however I will say what the best material and why. 500 words.

• What do people think the best materials are and why?
• You need to experiment to find what materials best suit your animation.

Methodologies and Critical Analysis (Lecture two)

Methods
How the information you have found is;

• Sourced
• Collected
• Collated 
• Presented

It has to be logical and systematic.

• You need to research using the correct methods, this then shows that you are in control and aware of what you are doing. "Choosing a Path".
• Dictionary Research the meaning of Methodology - system of methods, principles. 
• 'To describe and analyse... relating their potentialities to the twilight zone at the frontiers of knowledge...' Kaplan, 1973:93.
• 'It is not that we... we run the risk of reporting 'Knowledge that ain't so'.' Miles and Huberman, 1994:294.
• Theories - a coherent group of tested general positions, a particular view on something.
• Communication theory - J. Fiske.
• Psychological.
• Social History/ Marxist.
• Post-colonialism.
• Feminist.

What suits you project?

Choose theories and methods that's the most appropriate to your subject.

1. Methods
2. Theories
3. Applications

Critical Analysis

•  Being critical.
• Weighing up different side of an argument.
• Evaluating materials and choosing a side.
• Don't be biased/ or understand that you are being biased.
• Critical - meaning to separate, sit between or to choose.
• Skepticism - try to distrust the original idea.
• Be passionate.
• Reasoned thinking - stepping away and using evidence and logic to come to conclusions.
• Awareness of perspectives.

Being skeptical about your sources, approach with your guard up. Don't take information that you find as being gospel. 

Critique ourselves.

• Why are you doing this?
• How is my choice of topic influenced by my emotions; aspirations; context?
• 'context is everything'
• Consider the influence of one or more of the following: the time; place; society; politics; economics; technology; philosophy; scientific.

Evidence

• What is the evidence for what you are saying?
• Supporting research 'quotes', 'experiments' etc...
• Could you find more evidence to support your conclusions?
• Evidence 
• Research
• Logic 
• Argument

Argument 

• What do i want to say?
• Have I got the evidence to back it up?
• Where else do I need to look in order to find more evidence?
• Triangulation
• Pitting alternative theories against the same body of data.
• Am I expressing myself clearly and logically?
• A clear logical plan. 

 

Organising your research project (lecture one)

• Doing your Research Project - Judith Bell 371.3 (LCA Library)

Overview

• 400 hours study for a 40 credit module.
• 6-9000 word written element, and related practical work.
• 2-5 hours support on the written element of the module, in addition to support with the practical project.
• Deadline 15th Jan 4pm - 15 weeks!
• Try to have a substantial draft by Christmas.

Planning the project

• Write down all the questions that you want to investigate.
• Consider each on their merits and focus on two (primary and secondary).
• Write an A4 'first thoughts' sheet for each.
• What is the purpose of the study? Is your question researchable?
• Working title.

Project Outline

• Consider timing. 
• Deadline 15 weeks.
• Consider holidays/ work/ life.
• Think about your working title.
• Allocate timing for each.
• Draw up a project outline based on the above. 
• Allow time for reading up and writing up. 
• Factor in tutorials.
• Consult you supervisor about this. 

Literature Search

• Reading takes longer than you think.
• How much can you read in 100 hours?
• Start by trying to find out all the key texts on your chosen topic.
• Google Scholar.
• Focus your reading based on initial assessment of this survey.
• Find key texts and plan time to read these.
• Find secondary sources/ criticisms of key texts.
• Use journals (www.jstor.org).

Referencing

• Start compiling a bibliography at the beginning of the project.
• Reference as you go along.
• Include all details (name, forename, date, place, publisher, page)

Ethics

• Get approval from supervisor to interview people.
• How are you going to research this?
• Quantitative technique - finding facts.
• Qualitative technique - Interviews.
• Action research.
• Questionnaires.
• Interviews.
• Observation.
• Critical diaries/ reflective logs. 

Context of Practice 3 - Notes 5 ( Cracking Animation, Peter Lord and Brian Sibley)

Here is what I have so far from this book, however I have not finished reading it so there may be many more useful quotes that I might gather from this book.

Cracking Animation

‘One of the earliest films by Peter Lord and Dave Sproxton shows a human hand flattening and shaping a ball of clay that then takes on animated life.’ pg 17

‘A three-dimensional animator, however, works with articulated puppets or models built around a metal, movable ‘skeleton’ called an armature, and made of plasticine (modelling clay), fabric or latex.’ pg 17

‘The power of animation lies in the fact that, like all film, it plays with optical illusion known as ‘persistence of vision’.’ pg 17

‘What we are really seeing when we look at a cinema screen is not a ‘moving picture’ at all, but a series of still images - 24 every second - shown in such a rapid succession that our eyes are deceived.’ pg 17

‘Not only must characters and settings be designed, but decisions must also be taken about what movement will be involved in a scene and the kind of shot - such as close up or a long shot - that will be used.’ pg 18

There is also a major difference between drawn and model animation, as Peter Lord explains: “Drawn animation is a process that develops in a very controlled, measurable way. When your character is walking (or jumping or flying) from A to B, the key positions, and then you systematically draw all the positions in between - the animation. But in puppet animation, when you set off from position A you do not know where B is, because you have not got there yet (like real life, come to think of it). So every single stage of movement is an experiment or even an adventure. You have this idea of where you are heading, but no certainty of getting there...’ pg 19

‘Melies was an accomplished stage - illusionist who saw the new medium of cinema as a natural extension of his magical arts with their transformations, metamorphoses and mysterious appearances and disappearances.’ pg 23

• Edison Kinetoscope - The execution of Mary Queen of Scots.

‘stop action (or stop motion) enabled Melies to create astonishing visual illusions in such trick - film masterpieces as Voyage to the Moon (1902), and it subsequently became the standard technique... ‘ pg 23

Context of Practice 3 - Notes 4 (Stop-Motion Animation; Frame by frame film making with puppets and models, Barry Purves)

These are the notes that I have gathered so far, however I have not finished reading this book yet so I may have many more to come.

Stop-motion Animation; Frame by frame film-making with puppets and models

‘... even a short film demands high resources, patience and unflagging energy. However, new technologies, such as smartphone apps, are making the resources more accessible and students are certainly still eager to work in this oldest of mediums.’ pg 10

‘That these characters exist is one of the main satisfactions, and the intrigue of an inanimate object ‘magically’ moving by itself never likely to lose its appeal.’ pg 10

‘In the late nineteenth - century Paris, George Melies used invisible wire, trap doors, sheets of glass, smoke and complex automata to become a master of spectacular illusion and magic.’  pg 14

‘On one legendary occasion, Melies was filming in the street when his camera jammed for a few seconds. This simple accident changed everything, for him and for us; the jump cut on the developed film had seemingly transformed, through a well-timed substitution, an omnibus into a hearse - a delicious deceit not lost on Melies.’ pg 14

‘This basic technique, of a trick happening unseen, still forms the basis of all stop-motion today.’ pg 14

‘In a Dream of Toyland (1907) and Noah’s Ark (1908) he animated toys and wooden dolls.’ Arthur Melbourne-Cooper pg 14

‘He can claim two other cinematic firsts - the first use of close up, an eye looking through a keyhole, and in Matches: An Appeal (1899) he used animated matches for a commercial.’ pg 14

‘Stop-motion isn’t about mathematics and facts and figures, but it is certainly about performance, tricks, illusions and instincts.’ pg 16

‘That a succession of frames can create an illusion of continuous movement has been, in the past, attributed to a theory called ‘persistence of vision’.’  pg 18

‘The theory is that everything we perceive is a combination of what is happening right now and what happened an instant before, providing a fluid link between successive images.’ pg 18

‘Scientists and psychologists still argue over the theory and precisely how we formulate movement, but what is essential to animators is to help the brain and eye to construct the movement between frames.’ pg 18

Context of Practice 3 - Notes 3 (The Art of Making ParaNorman, Jed Alger)

Yet again this follows on from the other two 'Notes' blogs, these are the quotes that I may use from the Art of Making ParaNorman.

The Art of Making ParaNorman

‘You make a stop-motion film twice - first in story, with drawing. Then you make it for real.’ Chris Butler pg 16

‘Some animated movies want to transport you to a fantasy world or another time. ParaNorman needed a different philosophy. It didn’t make sense for the film to feel like it was conjured up by designers tucked away in a studio. We needed to be ‘of’ the contemporary world; exploring mundane reality and reporting on it. There’s just something fundamentally cool about seeing the world you live in observed in miniature.’ Sam Fell pg 21

‘The 3-D printer really bridges the practical, hands-on side with the technical side. The computer is a tool and the printer is a bridge between the tool and the real world.’ Brian McLean pg 48

‘However, the first generation of 3-D printers did not print in color. That meant that for Coraline, each and every face needed to be hand painted.’ pg 50

‘We've got big puppets that are technically challenging - characters with huge necks, thick arms, all the no-no’s in puppet making.’ Chris Butler pg 60

‘They are constantly playing with the mix of materials to get a better look and better performance.’ pg 64

‘silicone gives a great look to a puppet, but if you cast a large puppet, like Ms Henscher, entirely in silicone, she becomes nearly impossible for the animators to manipulate.’ pg 64

‘So George’s team cast Ms Henscher in foam rubber, then cut away the surface and did a second cast of silicone to achieve a puppet that looked great and could still perform.’ pg 64

‘The clothing needs armatures as well; it needs to move frame by frame, if it’s going to move at all. Sometimes the judge’s cloak flies behind him - he has special action cloaks for the big scenes.’  Georgina Hayns pg 70

‘In stop-motion, straight hair past the shoulders is the biggest nightmare in the whole entire world, it has to interact with the shoulders as the puppet moves, and the straightness of it, the physics of it, makes it challenging to tension the hair so that it can move naturally without strange buckles.’ pg 76

‘You often find that people who get into stop-motion animation aren't trained in animation - they are natural born craftspeople who want to work on a small scale, who are incredibly patient.’ Georgina Hayns pg 79

‘You borrow things from you life, from people you've met - I've got a catalog in my head of stuff I’m waiting to use.’ Nelson Lowry pg 92

‘It has to be a collaboration (with the art department). I’m allowed to go in and say, “I think this color is a bit wrong” and they can come to me and say, “I think this lighting is a bit wrong” and there is absolutely no problem. That’s how it should work.’ Tristan Oliver pg 120

‘In stop-motion, nothing moves of it’s own volition. Everything you see is evidence of a human hand and a human mind. Every physical detail, every blade of grass, every branch of every tree, every emotion on every character’s face was designed, built, and manipulated by an artist’s hand.’ Travis Knight pg 123

Context of Practice 3 - Notes 2 (A Century Of Model Animation from Melies to Aardman, Ray Harryhausen and Tony Dalton)

These are the notes that I have gathered from A Century of Model Animation; From Melies to Aardman.

A Century of Model Animation; from Melies to Aardman

‘Animation is to evoke life’ Eadweard Muybridge pg 13

‘an-i-ma-tion (n): The act, process or result of imparting life, interest, motion, or activity’ Dictionary.com pg 13

‘If 24 frames amounts to only one second of screen time, it follows that a minute requires 1440 frames and an hour 86,400 frames. ‘ pg 18

‘When the animation pioneer Willis O’Brien (‘Obie’) began his early experiments he constructed his models from cloth, rubber and clay over simple, jointed wooden skeletons.’ pg 21

‘But as his expertise matured he developed steel skeletons, or internal armatures, articulated with steel ball-and-socket joints and, late, hinge joints. The armatures were then covered with layers of latex rubber shaped t5o provide the models with a muscular structure.’ pg 21

‘Internal armatures are the starting point for building any model and they can be either very simple or extremely complex.’ pg 22

‘A ball-and-socket joint consists of a metal ball which fits into curved recesses in two rectangular pieces of metal which are clamped on either side so that the whole arrangement can be tightened or loosened by turning one or two screws.’ pg 22

‘The hinge joint is just that, two or more pieces of metal attached to its neighbours by a hinge. It is stronger and less prone to wear, hence its use for bigger models to bear the weight.’ pg 25

‘... models may be moved hundreds of time, sometimes leading to wear and tear which causes joints to become loosened, necessitating a quick maintenance job, either on the spot or more usually overnight.’ pg 26

‘Once the armature or skelton has been designed and constructed it had to be given ‘flesh’. There were two methods of doing this. The first was the ‘build-up’ method and the second the ‘casting’ method.’ pg 26

‘The build-up method used layers of sponge rubber fixed in position around the metal armature with glue and then trimmed into shape with scissors. Additional layers of muscle could be added using cotton wool and more sponge rubber.’ pg 26

‘The potentially quicker ‘casting’ method began with a wax or clay model from which a plaster mould was cast. The metal armature was then wrapped with tape and/or rubber dam (a very thin rubber sheet) which held it in more or less central position in the mould and also prevented the liquid latex from sticking to the metal and causing rust. Following that a solution of liquid latex would be whipped up to create an aerated foam latex and then poured into the mould.@ pg 26

This is a brief history of Stop motion animation;

• Arthur Melbourne-Cooper; Dreams of Toyland (1908)
• James Stuart Blackton; The Humpty Dumpty Circus (1898)
• James Stuart Blackton ; The Enchanted Drawing (1900)
• Edwin stanton Porter; The ‘Teddy’ Bears (1907)
• Blackton; Humorous Phases of Funny Faces (1906)
• Segundo De Chomons; Hotel Electrico (1908)
• Howard S. Moss; Mary and Gretel (1917)
• Herbert Dawley; Along the Moonbeam Trail (1920)
• Charley Bowers; There It Is (1928)
• Roop and Willis O’Brien; Tom and Jerry (1922)
• O’Brien; The Lost World (1925)
• O’Brien; Mighty Joe Young (1949)
• O’Brien and Pete Peterson; The Black Scorpion (1957)
• Harryhausen; Hansel and Gretel (1951)
• Mark Caballero and Seamus Walsh; The Story of the Tortoise and the Hare (2002)
• George Pal; Mr Strauss Takes a Walk (1943)
• Jiri Trnka; Ruka (The Hand) (1965)
• Pojar; Velyrba-Abyrlev (Elahw the Whale) (1977)
• Jim Danforth; When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth (1971)
• David Allen; Robot Jax (1989)
• Alle; Batteries Not Included (1987)
• Allen; Puppet Master II (1991)
• Mura; E.T (1982)
• Beswick; Gremlins 2: The new Batch (1990)
• Beswick; Beetlejuice (1988)
• Randal dutra and Phil Tippet; Dinosaur! (1985)
• Nick Park and Peter Lord; Chicken Run (2000)
• Tim Burton; Corpse Bride (2005)
• Peter Lord; Adam (1991)
• Nick Park; Wallace and Gromit (1989)
• Henry Selick; Coraline
• Tim Burton; Frankiweenie
• Peter Lord; Mary and Max
• ParaNorman
• Boxtrolls