Post 9: Purposes of Stop Motion Animation

Stop-motion animation can be used to educate people for example the "Change4Life" advertisement campaign it tells parents about "100 calorie snacks, two a day max" to help their children consume less sugar there are a number of different adverts all part of the same campaign informing parents on how to eat healthily and buy more nutritional snacks for their children, they have also introduced the food scanner an app that supplies information about calories, sugar and fat in food. the marketing director for these adverts says that "January is a great time to show healthy eating adverts as that is a time where "people often reflect on their lifestyles."(Campaignlivecouk. 2019)



An example of where stop-motion is used to inform is (Trivago 'To the mountains' by A+C Studios) It is a TV advert that shows the capabilities of the hotel booking website, by showing a family looking for a skiing holiday and the different options they have, This ad informs the viewer well as not only does it include the relevant information but it communicates it in a clear and interesting way, the switch of settings as the search changes  is engaging as the viewer doesn't know what will happen next.


An example of where a stop-motion video can be used to entertain is the "Lego Arcade Game Final" by FK films two Lego characters are animated which helps with the entertainment aspect as Lego is a well known toy that a lot of children use, so would appeal to them even more so than if an armature and clay model where used. (Youtubecom. 2019)


Taking all these examples into consideration stop-motion animation is most effective at entertainment, this is due to the amount of creativity that is possible with this type of animation as well as the variety some videos use clay models, real people, Lego or paper. Even the educational and informative videos are still successful at being entertaining however, this could be a reason for an argument to be made that this makes educational videos a more effective form of stop-motion as learning while also enjoying it. 

Post 8: Editing of Footage Titles and Credit to a Soundtrack

The editing in a stop-motion animation is very different to that of a live action film but has also changed a lot in of itself as stop-motion didn't require any special edits like fades or dissolves it is simply a case of the photos being put together in order but in more modern production the editing is far more similar to a film, an additional edit would be needed is when an airborne model is used or a stabilisation wire or frame that the director does not want in shot the editing team will have to edit it out in post production.





This video showing the making of 'Kubo and the two strings' displays the use of supportive wires and frames to hold characters in positions where otherwise they would fall to the ground, these are mostly used in fight scenes when a character is sent flying or the ship which used a large frame to be able to move as if it were actually in the ocean as well as this the dolly tracks that the camera moves on have to be edited out in post-production, some of the components of the stand are coloured green to make it easier to hide in the editing stage. The difference between the editing in "Kubo" and "The Nightmare Before Christmas" is that in "Nightmare" there is no use of a green-screen the whole world including backgrounds and characters are made exactly for camera the editing process only included placing the frames in order and no need to edit out any unwanted pieces. The software Laika used to complete "Kubo" "LAIKA turned to a pipeline consisting of Autodesk Maya®, Foundry’s Mari® and Katana®, RenderMan for rendering and Tractor for render farm management."(Foundrycom. 2019)

The differences between the animation software Laika used and the software I will use, is that Maya is much more advanced it is compatible with windows and mac, can create "realistic effects" like explosions as well as being able to "render photo-realistic liquids" and create natural looking hair, this has been used to make "Lost in Space". there is also no maximum resolution so is compatible with DSLR cameras. With Eclipse the user is able to edit frames and input audio it is also compatible with many cameras, the two differ when it comes to how the frames look and what effects can be used. (Chromacolourcouk. 2019), (Autodeskcouk. 2019)

In stop motion the titles and credits alone can be difficult and time consuming to create, an example is the Lego movie although made with CGI the end title and then credits are built using stop-motion. The team designed each of the titles and became more aware of the (Creativeplanetnetworkcom. 2014)

Post 7: Audio Production for Animation

In stop-motion animation many kinds of audio recording are needed as there are no natural sounds to come from the environment because all filming is done in a sound stage. All sounds must be recorded, designed and synchronized with the visuals.

The musical score is one of the last things added to a film as it is often not to important to the story so is not a priority when it comes to production there is more stress on the dialogue and effects associated with movement rather than the backing track. Adding this last also means that it can be synced up perfectly with the movements of the characters especially in musical scenes with beat drops etc.

Sound effects are one of the most essential aspects in bringing an animation film to life as there are no natural sounds like in a standard film where wind and cars passing the characters can be recorded
simultaneously, in animation all sounds must be created in order for the actions to seem realistic, it is also important for the sounds to be in perfect time with the motions of characters and objects.

The dialogue between characters is recorded by voice actors before it is animated and filmed this is so that they can lip sync the models mouths to the time of the audio otherwise it would be out of sync.
The sound department work with the script as well as the footage that has already been filmed to synchronize the music with the visuals perfectly, the orchestra conductor for example will be watching a screen with the scene that is being scored to make sure timings are met. 

The sound production for 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' started when Elfman was hired to score the film, Elfman said that most of his scores were done within 12 weeks at this time post-production was almost concluded and Elfman was cast as Jack Skellington by Tim Burton as Elfman had both written and used his own voice to write the first drafts of Skellingtons songs so had grown attached to the character. (Vulturecom. 2019)

Post 6: Set Building and Lighting

The set and lighting for an animation is a very important stage as these can be some of the most vital pieces in creating a certain mood for a scene, a set can tell the audience about the scene that is about to take place and even some details about the characters.





To fit with the aesthetic of 'The Nightmare Before Christmas's' set parts of the set were "plastered and then inscribed lines all over them to give it that sort of textural feel so to make it look almost like a living illustration" (TheMakingOfTheNightmareBeforeChristmas.VOB. 2012) This was to give "Halloween Town" a distinctive feel a mix of Dr. Seuss combined with lots of silhouettes like a black and white film this fits with the genre of the film, it is a holiday film often played around the Halloween time of year. This is in contrast to the "Christmas Town" which is covered in vivid colours but also with the Dr. Seuss aesthetic however, the real world is very isometric and the houses are angular, the colour scheme is also bland. 

Before the actual sets were made a 'mock-up' is built to see how it will look and how it will come apart as an actual set is four times the size of the mock-up so the whole thing wouldn't fit in just one sound stage as well as make it difficult for the camera to reach different angles within the set as there may be buildings in the way, or there are trap doors positioned so that animators can rise alter the characters position and then duck away, these special alterations had to be made as the narrative called for certain shots to be used to tell the story in the way that the director. Lighting these sets required around 20-30 lights to create the different effects desired as there is no use of natural light as it can change day to day or between shots so this would distort the colour of the scene once the shots have been put together. (Creativeplanetnetworkcom. 2016)

Post 5: Model Making Techniques

The Model making process in 'Frankenweenie' started with Ian MacKinnon taking Tim Burtons sketches and with a small team of sculptures and create basic models of the characters from Plasticine, to see how the charterers would look as a group rather than focusing to much on detailing.


Armature- The 'Frankenweenie' team used armature to create their models, they made a Plasticine character stand in a neutral pose to make molds of the body, head, hands and feet. They then designed an armature that would fit inside made of steel and could achieve almost any position desired by the director. (Bleedingcoolcom. 2012). The armatures can also be covered in 3D printed material instead of clay.


Sculpting- Using Plasticine clay, models can be positioned in to any movement they are also sometimes sculpted over a armature frame for better stability, as just moving a clay model can be easily damaged an example of this is 'The Pirates!: an Adventure With Scientists'

(Reelrundowncom. 2019) An example of a model that was completely made from clay is the Aardman character 'Morph' he is molded from scratch after his 20 year retirement "Morph is still spineless, with no armature to support his delicate frame." (Independentcouk. 2014) Lord the original creator uses original scales to measure the correct weight and use the correct amount of clay to sculpt him from one ball. details like his mouth are carved in with a wooden stick. 


Cutouts- One of the oldest and most straight forward ways to animate a character, pieces of material or paper are cut and drawn to look like objects or people then are altered or added to to look like they are moving after taking a picture of the previous image.

(Chroncom. 2019).  An example of cutout animation is the original 'Southpark' episodes, the characters were made out of sugar paper, the two creators were commissioned to make six full-length episodes however, upon deciding that this task would be to labor intensive they created only the first episode using sugar paper characters, the remainder of the season was made on the editing software Maya this technology meant that effects could be applied to the images to make them look as though they were still paper cutouts. (Parker, T. 2019)         




The advantages of using Armature over sculpting it that an armature model is less susceptible to damage as they are often made of either: steel, aluminium or other similar metals rather than a clay model that can easily be broken when trying to alter the pose of the character or if the figure is dropped. Another point is that it is simple to make precise movements with an armature frame. The difference when using cutouts is that although cutouts mean a single animator can draw as many or as least detail as they please, movement toward or away from the camera is difficult to achieve and facial close-ups don't work well this is also true for lip syncing in general. (Parker, T. 2019)

Post 4: Technological Development/3D Printing

3D printing was used by Laika Studios the creators of 'Kubo and the two strings' in conjunction with Stratasys, to print 3D characters and sets as well as thousands of expressions for the characters faces. The protagonist "Kubo" used to create the film, is only 9 inches tall yet has 11,007 unique mouth positions, 4,429 brow motions and a total of 23,187 different faces. Combined this makes 48 million different possible expressions." (3dprintingindustrycom. 2016)


A variety of possibilities have been opened up by 3D printing not just including examples like 'Kubo's' many faces etc. but also their first fully printed puppet the 'Moonbeast' they were able to quickly print 881 pieces to build a articulated model. making this by hand would have been an extremely time consuming task especially when insuring that the same level of detail is achieved. 3D printing has meant that from just one sculpture of a character many versions can be made and for example different facial expressions can be printed in a small amount of time. (Anya jaremko-greenwold. 2015)

Post 3: Frame Rates Required to Create a Smooth Illusion of Motion

Frame rate is how many photos or frames are put together consecutively to give the illusion of movement even though the object is actually stationary, the more frames the better and smoother.

The difference between 12 fps which is often used for animation and the 24 fps used for movies in the cinema is that the movie footage will look smoother and more realistic as there is more frames so the jump between the movements in each frame is less whereas the animation will look slightly more jumpy however, this is often over looked as animations are not supposed to look realistic. Television uses 25 fps, this is also true for home movies as cinema projectors can only produce up to 24 fps whereas a TV can show 25, this makes it look even more like real life as well as reducing motion blur when an object is moving quickly.

 The Nightmare Before Christmas used 24 frames per second animators had to create different motions for the 100,000 total frames in the film. Only one minute of the film took a week to create and film and the whole picture took a massive three years to complete. (Mentalflosscom. 2018)
Frankenweenie is also 24 frames per second (Ibtimescouk. 2012) Both these films would have been shown in 24 fps in the cinema due to the projector not being able to handle 25 frames which is what the films where shown in when purchased on DVD for home cinema. 

Post 2: Visual Development

Narrative Development: The first step of an animations narrative development is the creation of a story line once this is decided it will be transferred into a film script format, the story may require further development and the script will also be improved. This may mean that several editions of the script are created in total, at the end of this process once a version is chosen the story will have an  approximate length and anymore confusion in the story line are altered (Issuu.com. 2019). An example of narrative development is in the making of the stop-motion picture 'The Nightmare Before Christmas', Tim Burton the writer of the film was employed by Disney and wrote a three-page poem drawing inspiration from other animations and titled it 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' he then intended to create a television special as well as a children's book. He therefore created concept art for the characters as well as a storyboard, after the development of the story line was completed but after being deemed "Too weird" the shows planning was halted. Later a Disney studios chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg decided the a full length picture of the 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' would show that "we can think outside the envelope. We can do different and unusual things." (Wikipediaorg. 2019), (Simpson, B (1993). Burton quickly created a rough story line and two-thirds of the music, he also adapted his poem into a screenplay however, this was after the filming process had begun the script was not created until part way through, then by mid to late 1991 the animators and a 120 strong crew began animation with a script. A different example of a stop-motion animations narrative development is the 2012 film 'Frankenweenie', This film "Is a remake of Burton's 1984 short film of the same name and is a parody of and a homage to the 1931 film Frankenstein based on Mary Shelley's book of the same name" The 2012 film is a combination of a book and two films one being an adaption of the book and the other a short live action film, development started in 2005 when scripts had been written, then a different writer was approached to do a we-write in 2006 however, he was not hired until early 2009. 
(Wikipediaorg. 2019)

Story-boarding: One of the few steps that are part of the visual development process in stop-motion animation is story-boarding, this is a vital piece of planning material as it contains valuable information such as: camera angles and movement, sound effects as well as dialogue and setting. A quality storyboard will be able to clearly convey these specific details to anyone involved in the film especially in a larger production where even more people will need to interpret the storyboard, Especially on the first drafts it is best for the storyboard to be viewed on a 16 panel page due to it being easier to identify if many of the same shot types are being used and to check the pacing of the story. (Theseusfi. 2019)
In animation the storyboard is one of the most important parts of the whole process other than the idea and animation itself, as Jennifer Yuh Nelson (director and storyboard artist for Kung Fu Panda 2) says "A lot of the time in animation is spent getting the story right, that’s something you can’t rush." The use of a storyboard turns the screenplay that can be interpreted in different ways into something more visual which means everyone has the same idea of how the final product should look. (Georgiestclaircom. 2019) An example of storyboard development in the industry is during the creation of 'The Nightmare Before Christmas', from the poem written by Tim Burton and the screenplay both were then developed into a storyboard with supervision from Joe Ranft a Disney storyboard artist, they did not draw every frame as there were over 100,000 once the filming had been completed, but they planned their scenes using basic pencil sketches. Henry Selick the director was not able to over see the animation of all of the filming processes due to the 20 studios being used at once at the height of production made this impossible, so a storyboard insured that the correct shots were taken. One of the storyboard ideas of 'the clown with the tearaway face' when he introduced himself he tore away his skin which was decided to be to grotesque to even shoot as it seemed to make the film a horror which is not the target genre or audience. (Hollywoodreportercom. 2019)
A second example of how storyboards are used in the stop-motion process are in the film 'Frankenweenie' Storyboards are used to plan each shot, but not every frame as that would take an obscene amount of time, a new panel in a storyboard is only drawn when a significant amount of movement has been made or the shot has changed. In an interview with 'oh my Disney' producer Allison Abbate said that "It’s not much different from making any animated film – you start from a script, you storyboard it. The difference is that anything you draw on the storyboard, someone has to make!" (Disneycom. 2012)

Treatments and Pitches: When Pitching an idea for an animation it is important to start by showing the title of the film, then the concept of the product including a log line this gives the producer you are presenting to an idea of what the presentation will be about. The target group and the length that the picture or episodes will be, this is important for the producer to be able coordinate the rest of the production. Then to describe the main character as the story will rotate around them so it is good to introduce them first. Next describe the world where the narrative will take place and some of the most important locations without giving away any plot points, next show the variety of side characters and a brief description of them lead into the story line or lines as the case may be. Including information about the budget is also useful as an estimate will give the production company an idea of how popular the production will need to be and if they can finance it. An example of a real world film that was pitched is 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' Tim Burton pitched his idea to Disney, even though they accepted his idea they later decided that it would not fit with their image and would not resonate well with the company's target audience. However later on a Disney chairman revisited the idea of a Nightmare Before Christmas holiday film but under Disney's more mature film distributor Touchstone Pictures. (Cartoonbrewcom. 2018)
Another example of a pitch for a real stop-motion animation is the pitch for 'Frankenweenie' Tim Burton was hired by Disney to make a full-length remake of the original 30 minute version of 'Frankenweenie' using stop-motion animation, this was more targeted towards Walt Disney studios target audience than the first one, after the original 1984 release date Burton was fired as the film wasn't suitable for younger audiences. Another part of the pre-production process is a treatment, this is a document that gives an outline of the film and often comes just before the full script is written to insure that the production company wants to being production, this document could be anywhere between three and thirty pages. (Johnaugustcom. 2003)

Post-production Editing: The final part of the visual development process is the editing of the frames captured on set, after storyboard completion shooting begins these photos are then given to the editing department to be put in order so they can be viewed as if they were filmed.

Post 1: Bibliography

Narrative Development

Issuu.com. 2019. Issuu. [Online]. [Accessed 12 September 2019]. Available from: https://issuu.com/chitrachandrashekhar/docs/p2report2010

Wikipediaorg. 2019. Wikipidiaorg. [Online]. [Accessed 12 September 2019]. Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Nightmare_Before_Christmas#Development

Simpson, B (1993). "The Concept: Jack-o'-Santa : Tim Burton's new movie for Disney isn't exactly a steal-Christmas-kind-of-thing. It's more like a borrow-it-and-give-it-a-weird-twist-kind-of-thing". Los Angeles Times. pp. 1–4.


Storyboarding:

Theseusfi. 2019. Theseusfi. [Online] . [Accessed 12 September 2019]. Available from: https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/75731/Nassi_Anna-Kaisa.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

Georgiestclaircom. 2019. Georiestclaircom. [Online]. [Accessed 12 September 2019]. Available from: https://georgiestclair.com/blog/get-started-with-stop-motion-animation-storyboarding

Johnaugustcom. 2003. John August. [Online]. [Accessed 11 October 2019]. Available from: https://johnaugust.com/2003/specs-treatments-and-pitches

Hollywoodreportercom. 2019. The Hollywood Reporter. [Online]. [Accessed 12 September 2019]. Available from: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/nightmare-before-christmas-was-forced-cut-joke-tim-burton-1154243

Treatments & Proposal:

Cartoonbrewcom. 2018. Cartoon Brew. [Online]. [Accessed 12 September 2019]. Available from: https://www.cartoonbrew.com/how-to/how-to-pitch-and-sell-an-animated-series-part-1-setting-up-163522.html

Frame Rates:

Mentalflosscom. 2018. Mentalflosscom. [Online]. [Accessed 16 September 2019]. Available from: http://mentalfloss.com/article/60723/21-things-you-didnt-know-about-nightmare-christmas

Framerate Comparison 15/30/60/120fps. 2014. YouTube. 31 October, [Viewed 18 September 2019]

3D Printing

3dprintingindustrycom. 2016. 3D Printing Industry. [Online]. [Accessed 16 September 2019]. Available from: https://3dprintingindustry.com/news/3d-printing-provides-millions-stop-motion-possibilities-101338/

Anya jaremko-greenwold. 2015. IndieWire. [Online]. [17 September 2019]. Available from: https://www.indiewire.com/2015/04/how-3d-printing-has-revolutionized-stop-motion-animation-for-laika-62623/ 

Model Making:

Bleedingcoolcom. 2012. Bleeding Cool News And Rumors. [Online]. [Accessed 17 September 2019]. Available from: https://www.bleedingcool.com/2012/10/14/designing-the-puppets-for-frankenweenie/

Reelrundowncom. 2019. ReelRundown. [Online]. [Accessed 17 September 2019]. Available from: https://reelrundown.com/animation/clay-animation-claymation

Parker, T. 2019. Icutoutannimationhistoryweeblycom[Online]. [Accessed 17 September 2019]. Available from;   http://lcutoutanimationhistory.weebly.com/blog/trey-parker-matt-stone-south-park#

Chroncom. 2019. Chroncom. [Online]. [Accessed 17 September 2019]. Available from: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/cutout-animation-26573.html

Independentcouk. 2014. The Independent. [Online]. [Accessed 17 September 2019]. Available from: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/morph-is-back-9582774.html

Set Making

Frankenweenie Set Construction. 2012. YouTube. 4 July. [Viewed 18 September 2019] 

The Making Of-The Nightmare Before Christmas.VOB. 2012. YouTube. 30 January [Viewed 19 September 2019]

Creativeplanetnetworkcom. 2016. Creative Planet Network. [Online]. [Accessed 11 October 2019]. Available from: https://www.creativeplanetnetwork.com/news/news-features/how-light-stop-motion-animation-aardman-615242


Sound Production

Vulturecom. 2019. Vulture. [Online]. [Accessed 23 September 2019]. Available from: https://www.vulture.com/2015/07/danny-elfman-on-8-of-his-iconic-scores.html

Editing

Behindthecenesofkuboandthetwostrings-stopmotionproduction. (2019). YouTube. Retrieved 26 September, 2019, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1e_OdUzBeY

Foundrycom. (2019). Foundrycom. Retrieved Accessed 26 September, 2019, from https://www.foundry.com/insights/film-tv/katana-kubo

Chromacolourcouk. 2019. Chromacolourcouk. [Online]. [Accessed 27 September 2019]. Available from: https://www.chromacolour.co.uk/stop-motion-pro-eclipse-sd.html

Autodeskcouk. 2019. Autodeskcouk. [Online]. [Accessed 27 September 2019]. Available from: https://www.autodesk.co.uk/products

Creativeplanetnetworkcom. 2014. Creative Planet Network. [Online]. [Accessed 27 September 2019]. Available from: https://www.creativeplanetnetwork.com/news/behind-stop-motion-animated-end-titles-lego-movie-389860

Purposes


Campaignlivecouk. 2019. Campaignlivecouk. [Online]. [Accessed 27 September 2019]. Available from: https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/change4life-aims-children-eating-healthy-snacks-new-45m-campaign/1453349

Youtubecom. 2019. YouTube. [Online]. [Accessed 30 September 2019]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2wNyo1HtTc

Youtubecom. 2019. YouTube. [Online]. [Accessed 30 September 2019]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYFfdP_P5po

Uses & Audience

Youtubecom. 2019. YouTube. [Online]. [Accessed 1 October 2019]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wr6N_hZyBCk

M&M:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgRjB8PEDkM
C4L:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWE_UMno5P8
Ebay:    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nP0cSnJDYWE
STS:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUH8_vWe_PU
PJS:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1tMr5yEwM0
MFF: https://youtu.be/DT-dxG4WWf4
MYT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPyrIlxNa5o

Types of Stop-Motion 

Matlin, J. 2018. NFB Blog. [Online]. [26 November 2019]. Available from: https://blog.nfb.ca/blog/2018/08/13/animation-stop-motion/

Musser, C (1994). The Emergence of Cinema. California: University of California Press.

Peachpitcom. 2019. Peachpitcom. [Online]. [Accessed 4 October 2019]. Available from: http://www.peachpit.com/articles/article.aspx?p=677443

Bendazzi, G. 1996. AWNcom. [Online]. [26 November 2019]. Available from: https://www.awn.com/mag/issue1.4/articles/bendazzi1.4.html

Rowoldt, J. 2001. Linkedin. [Online]. [26 November 2019]. Available from: https://web.archive.org/web/20160227045443/https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-rowoldt-67677233

Blogspotcom. 2019. Blogspotcom. [Online]. [Accessed 4 October 2019]. Available from: http://ryanchandler1995.blogspot.com/2013/01/puppet-animation.html

History
Pfragner, J. "An Optician Looks for Work". The Motion Picture: From Magic Lantern to Sound. Great Britain: Bailey Brothers and Swinfen Ltd. 9-21. Print

Luikerwaal. 2015. Luikerwaalcom. [Online]. [26 November 2019]. Available from: https://www.luikerwaal.com/newframe_uk.htm?/platen1_uk.html

Wikipedia. 2019. Wikipedia. [Online]. [26 November 2019]. Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenakistiscope

Prince, S. 2015. Through the Looking Glass: Philosophical Toys and Digital Visual Effects. [Online]. [26 November 2019]. Available from: http://filmoterapia.pl/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Through-the-Looking-Glass-Philosophical-Toys-and-Digital-Visual-Effects.pdf