Stop Motion Animation

Stop motion animation is a technique in animation which is used to physically manipulate objects to make them appear to move on their own. The object is moved gradually between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement.

Aardman Animation is a well know animation studio, which is particularly famous for "Wallace and Gromit". Here is a short documentary by Christopher "Bing" Bingham. In it, we can see Bing looking behind the scenes of the company and exploring what they do. I think this is a good insight into the techniques used in stop motion animation. Or, it at least is entertaining to watch and is kind of to do with the subject.

I have dabbled with stop motion in the past, both physically (like with plasticine) and digitally, with programs (like Pivot Stickfigure Animatior and Macromedia Flash 8). Throughout my middle school years, and partially high school, I spent hours of my free-time animating stick figures. I got quite good at it, not majorly good, but not completely awful. I learnt that it's extremely time consuming and you can spend many lonely hours animating for 6 good seconds of animation. With the more physical side, it's more fiddly and one slip up can ruin a shot. There's no undo button, unfortunately. Also, unless there's a special camera and/ or specific software involved, putting the images together is even more time consuming. Having the physical style of animation can give the film a more organic feel, and I think it looks cool. Bringing inanimate objects to life and giving them a personality deliverers an almost magic-like sense.

Although I do really enjoy it, I'm not sure if it would be wise and time-efficient to create a short film purely from animation. However, having an animated sequence isn't out of the question.

On the right is a tiny piece of animation I made. Yes, there's an explosion in it, no, the explosion isn't stop motion. I just thought it needed some pizazz. This also took ages and with little pay off. Well, it was kinda rewarding to see my little characters move, but I don't think it's right for any of the ideas I have.


-BW