isaacbewleystopmotion

[isaacbewleystopmotion]

For our stopmotion, we decided to create it based off the classic platformer Mario games in 2D so we could use pixilation/cut-out stopmotion techniques to add movement to an environment similar to ones found in those games. We mainly referenced from older games such as Super Mario Bros. as these games had the style and perspective that we were going for, and they held the right amount of charm that would fit our stopmotion and contribute to the ‘hand-made’ effect we were going for.

Using Super Mario Bros. and other similar titles as reference, everyone in the group created unique and original pixel blocks of our own design to use in order to emulate the style of the Mario levels. We used an online program named Piskel to create them, and after drawing the blocks we transferred them into Adobe Animate and created our final environment using the grid tools to lay down our blocks consistently.

The final idea for our stopmotion animation was a platforming game level inspired by the likes of classic Mario and Sonic games, using cutout stopmotion to add a person running and completing the level. We arrived at this after discussing the different methods of stopmotion, and combined with our love for classic video games we decided that cutout animation would be excellent for creating an animation like this. We considered pixilation to create something similar but in the end we realised it would take too much time by far and the effect could be more easily achievable with cutout.

Obviously, we were heavily inspired by games such as Super Mario Bros, Limbo, Coma and the first Sonic the Hedgehog games, although we took into account some newer 3D games such as Mario Odyssey and the mix of 2D and 3D from Sonic Generations. Since we were doing cutout animation we decided that the classic games were more important to study, so we focused mainly on the 2D games when considering designs and inspiration. Our final block designs were mostly inspired from Mario although we used colour schemes mostly inspired by Sonic. The more bland and stark colour schemes of Limbo and Coma did not fit well with our vision for the project, so we discarded the designs we made based off of those games.

Originally we used a DSLR and a greenscreen to film ourselves doing various actions, such as running and jumping. The goal from this was to take the frames of thes videos and use them in the stopmotion, but we ran into technical difficulties when the images turned out blurry and unusable. In order to overcome this issue, we instead filmed Theo’s sibling doing the various actions and put the frames into Photoshop to cut around and use for the animation. This was a success and we were able to use those frames in our final animation, although we did waste vital time when doing this and this may have negatively impacted our final piece.

We learned a lot of things during this project, especially when it came to teamwork and understanding the capabilities of each other when we worked in a team. Prior to this project we knew little about the different techniques and methods for stopmotion, and researching them enabled us to make the decision to try out these alternate methods and use them for our final piece. While researching these methods we learned which ones we would clearly not have time or skill to finish properly to a suitable level, such as proper pixilation or claymation, and this helped us decide to do computer-aided cutout stopmotion instead. This helped us a lot as we saved time and managed to complete the task efficiently and to a decent standard which we are happy with - the experience of working in a group also helped with this as we could effectively share out the tasks and make sure everything was finished with our combined teamwork.

If we could do this project over again, I think I would do more research and try to work more efficiently. Despite working as a group we had some difficulty in finishing and agreeing on what to do for the stopmotion which held us back and may have effected the quality of our work, and next time we should try to avoid this to make sure our work is up to standard. I also would consider trying out other methods of stopmotion as cutout stopmotion is common and it is hard to do many unique and original things with, and I would definitely consider methods such as pixilation and shadow animation as these would be a fun challenge and provide good  opportunities to create a more memorable and interesting animation.

Despite this, I am content with many aspects of the stopmotion animation we did. The work we did on the individual blocks of the background shows how hard we worked and the effort we made to show our inspiration and also make it unique - we also spent a lot of time taking the images we used for the actual stopmotion and cutting them out in Photoshop, and I think the effort we took for this shows in our work and gives it a certain charm of its own. In the future we should continue to put a lot of effort into our work so that the final piece reflects our motivation and love for what we created.

While there are plenty of good aspects about our piece, not everything is perfect and there is clear room for improvement. I dislike that we didn’t manage to do much dynamic movement with the technique we used, although that was the disadvantage we already considered when deciding to use cutout stopmotion. In future if we ever did stopmotion again, I would for sure consider other methods first as although cutout isn’t too difficult it is hard to create interesting movement with the strict 2D limit we have. 

[isaacbewleystopmotion]

Stopmotion Final Animation Video

[isaacbewleystopmotion]

Stop Motion Animation Evaluation

What was your final idea?

Our final idea was adding a real life person into a video game setting. We decided to design a Mario inspired level based on the original 1985 Super Mario Bros. game for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). We came up with a couple of ideas in our group before deciding to go with this idea. One of the other ideas was making a person do a fighting scene against an enemy that was drawn on paper. Because we were inspired by the original Super Mario games, this pixilated look is what we used in our stop motion.

Because we decided to create it based off the classic platformer games, we used pixilation/cut-out stop motion techniques to add movement to an environment similar to ones found in those games. We mainly referenced from older games such as Super Mario Bros. because these games had the style and perspective that we were going for, and they held the right amount of charm that would fit our stop motion and contribute to the ‘hand-made’ effect we were going for.

How did you arrive at this idea?

Using Super Mario Bros. and other similar titles as reference, everyone in the group created unique and original pixel blocks of our own design to use in order to emulate the style of the Mario levels. We used an online program named Piskel to create them, and after drawing the blocks we transferred them into Adobe Animate and created our final environment using the grid tools to lay down our blocks consistently.  

What specific approaches did you practice?

We practiced taking the pictures for our animation. At first, we tried using the green screen to take these pictures, however we encountered problems while using it, the videos turned out blurry which meant we couldn’t cut them out because it wouldn’t look correct against the background. Instead we took a slow motion video and converted that into the pictures that we then used in our animation.

What went well during this final production stage?

What went well was the creation of the animation on Adobe Animate because it allowed us to create the animation in a shorter time that if we made it all on paper like we initially decided to do. The other things that went well were the creation of the pixel art blocks. Another thing that went well was the actual animation that Theo did because he could finish it in less time and we could do some much more with the help of a computer.

What issues did you encounter along the way?

Originally we used a DSLR and a green screen to film ourselves doing various actions, such as running and jumping. The goal from this was to take the frames of these videos and use them in the stop motion, but we ran into technical difficulties when the images turned out blurry and unusable. In order to overcome this issue, we instead filmed Theo’s sibling doing the various actions and put the frames into Photoshop to cut around and use for the animation. This was a success and we were able to use those frames in our final animation. Another issue we had was that Isaac half-heartedly cut out the pictures of the actions to cut out and he cut though most of the person so the rest of us had to spend more of our time cutting out the picture again.

What have you learnt during this project?

We learned a lot of things during this project, especially when it came to teamwork and understanding the capabilities of each other when we worked in a team. Prior to this project we knew little about the different techniques and methods for stop motion, and researching them enabled us to make the decision to try out these alternate methods and use them for our final piece. While researching these methods we learned which ones we would clearly not have time or skill to finish properly to a suitable level, such as proper pixilation or Claymation, and this helped us decide to do computer-aided cut-out stop motion instead. This helped us a lot as we saved time and managed to complete the task efficiently and to a decent standard which we are happy with.

What would you do differently if you could do this over again?

If I could do this project over again, I think I would do more research and try to work more efficiently. Despite working as a group, we had some difficulty in finishing and agreeing on what to do for the stop motion which held us back and may have affected the quality of our work, and next time I should try to avoid this to make sure our work is up to standard. I also would consider trying out other methods of stop motion as cut-out stop motion is common and it is hard to do many unique and original things with, and I would definitely consider methods such as pixilation and shadow animation as these would be a fun challenge and provide good opportunities to create a more memorable and interesting animation.

What do you like about your SMA?

Despite this, I am content with many aspects of the stop motion animation we did. The work we did on the individual blocks of the background shows how hard we worked and the effort we made to show our inspiration and also make it unique - I also spent a lot of time taking the images I used for the actual stop motion and cutting them out in Photoshop, and I think the effort we took for this shows in our work and gives it a certain charm of its own. In the future we should continue to put a lot of effort into our work so that the final piece reflects our motivation and love for what we created.

What don’t you like about your SMA?

While there are plenty of good aspects about our piece, not everything is perfect and there is clear room for improvement. I dislike that we didn’t manage to do much dynamic movement with the technique we used, although that was the disadvantage we already considered when deciding to use cut-out stop motion. In future if I ever did stop motion again, I would for sure consider other methods first as although cut-out isn’t too difficult it is hard to create interesting movement with the strict 2D limit we have.

Who did what?  

Personally, I wrote all of the evaluation with the exception of some edits of text. I also contributed to the design of the map, although I did not do many concepts for this as I was more focused on the writing aspect of work. I also did work for 4 sprites in the animation, although in the final video only 3 sprites made the cut, and also put in my fair share of work in cutting around the picture frames for the stopmotion animation. 

Theo did the majority of the actual animation work on Adobe Animate, and also contributed to level design and did several sprites for the map. He was also the one who took the images for use in the stopmotion with his sibling, and contributed to cutting out the frames for use in the animation.

Rhiannon helped the most with the core level design, and also created some sprites in the animation. She mainly tackled the humanoid creatures we needed and did her fair share of cutting out frames for the animation. She also created a wonderful lava sprite that was utilised in the final level.

Katie did not do much work in the group, although she created a singular sprite and wrote around 3 small paragraphs for the final evaluation that I took and edited to be more coherent. She did the coin sprite as well, which can be viewed below.

[isaacbewleystopmotion]

Researching stop motion animation

Stop motion animation is an animation technique where physical objects are captured in frames to give the illusion of them moving on their own. This is primarily done by taking many pictures of the objects and moving them slightly for each photo and then playing the images very fast, somewhat similar to zoetrope animations.

Due to the nature of stop motion animation being for physical objects, the use of physical materials are mostly used to make the models and objects. Clay was used primarily in the early days of stop motion and is still used to an extent in the modern age of stop motion, although the discovery of new alternatives has led to materials such as foam latex and plaster to be used for covering clay bases of models and making the objects look more aesthetically pleasing. Wires are often used with clay to make the models more stable and give more potential when moving the objects around. However, even the most basic of materials used in everyday arts and crafts can be used in stop motion very effectively, with films being created out of things made of LEGO bricks, and models made of felt held together with pipe cleaners.

There are several methods to doing stop motion animation, with the most popular and prominent technique being claymation. This technique is where the models and objects are made of clay, hence the name. Most of the set from backdrop to models will be made of clay for claymation, due to the versatility of the material. Puppet animation is very similar to this, with the clay models being replaced with puppets made out of felt, latex or other similar materials. Wires are often used in both techniques to make sure the models are positioned correctly and move easier, which makes production more smooth.

Cut-out animation is a subgenre of stop motion that is used much less, but is still utilised to an extent in modern films. For this, flat characters and backgrounds are created on paper, cardboard or other materials and manipulated on a flat surface to appear to move. A notable example of this technique is on the show South Park - while the animation style is now digitally created to replicate cut-out animation, the original pilot for the show was created with physical cut-out animation.

Pixilation and object stop motion animation are very similar subgenres, with the subject matter of the animation styles being the main difference. Pixilation is a method where actual human actors are used, and the same photo frame technique is used to capture them. Due to the use of human actors, this method is commonly seen as the most difficult form of stop-motion due to how time-consuming and inaccurate it can be when moving for new frames. Object animation is essentially the same - however the use of human actors is swapped for physical objects that are premade, such as rubiks cubes, dice and tinfoil.

Silhouette animation is another subgenre, although it is much rarely used compared to other methods, even pixilation. It involves characters who are only seen as black silhouettes, with a plain white background to make the silhouettes stand out. The silhouettes tend to just be cardboard cutouts or paper with back lighting, making this technique similar to cut-out animation. The use of silhouettes and a stark colour scheme seem to be heavily referenced and inspired from shadowplay (an example of shadowplay is the ‘shadow’ segments in the children’s show ‘Big Bear in the Big Blue House’).

The Nightmare before Christmas is a extremely well-known stop motion film created in 1993 by Henry Selick. It is regarded very highly and has excellent reviews, remaining a classic horror/christmas film for decades after it was released. It took around a week to make one minute of the film, and took 3 overall years to finish. The Tim Burton style of the models and overall theming make the film very popular and stand out from other more lighthearted stop motion films, and marked a new trend in using stop motion for more horror-relating films. The film shows how stop motion can not only be used for innocent and funny plots and characters, but can also support more creepy plots and designs well.

Coraline was made much later in 2009 but is very similar in theme and popularity to Nightmare before Christmas. Directed again by Henry Selick and taking twenty months to complete, this film has achieved cult status much like Nightmare did before it after using creepy theming through the stop motion style. Unlike Nightmare, Tim Burton was not involved in this project, however the production team was extremely large and had at peak 450 people helping. People were even hired to make miniature clothing for the models, even using knitting needles as thin as hairs in order to make realistic looking clothing.

Kubo and the Two Strings was also made by the same company that directed Coraline. It was completed in 2016 after being directed by Travis Knight for 5 years, with several being dedicated to the animation aspect alone. One of very few modern stop motion films, it recounts a tale based in asian culture around the power of music and magic, and was critically acclaimed for the intricate animation - the crew even went as far as to build a 16ft animatronic of a skeleton for the film. It was the second animated film ever to be nominated for Best Visual Effects in the Academy Awards, alongside the Nightmare before Christmas.

Another notable film in stop motion was the Wallace and Gromit film, Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Released in 2005 by the duo directors Nick Park and Steve Box, it received critical acclaim and success and won numerous awards including the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature (the only other Dreamworks film to win besides Shrek). After the failure of Flushed Away, this classic W&G film was a critical and commercial success for the Aardman and Dreamworks partnership. It shows the classic slapstick and charm of stop motion animation alongside the rest of the animated shorts, although this is the first feature film.

Chicken Run was created in 2000 by Peter Lord and Nick Park from Aardman. It was the company’s first feature length film, and was released to critical acclaim and is the highest grossing animated film ever. It recounts the tale of chickens trying to escape from a farm before being turned into chicken pot pies, and uses classic clay models in order to achieve a charming soft style. The film took 18 months to fully shoot, and shows good examples of special effects in stopmotion that I can take into account when creating my final piece.

Lego Movie was also a groundbreaking film released in 2014, directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller from Warner Bros. While the film is not created fully by actual stopmotion, the animation style is made to replicate that method and is worthy of study for that purpose. It uses 3D computer generated animation rather than traditional stopmotion, but makes use of choppy, blocked movements to replicate the actual look of real stopmotion, Whether it achieved the look well is up for debate, but it shows that it isn’t too hard to replicate stopmotion by other methods and other alternatives can be used in my project if I cannot create a effect I want with plain stopmotion alone.

Corpse Bride is another cult classic film with Tim Burton influences. Made in 2005 under the direction of Mike Johnson and Tim Burtion, it tells the story of a man who is thrust into a love triangle between a dead corpse and an alive woman whom he does not love. The film is another excellent use of stopmotion style to be creepy and unnerving, with the puppets used having bold, outlined and sunken features to almost appear dead and sickly, like the subject matter of the film.

Fantastic Mr Fox was created in 2009 by Wes Anderson in American Emperical Pictures, based of Roald Dahl’s book of the same name. It gained commercial success, with a high score on internet critic website Rotten Tomatoes. This film is especially interesting as it used a vastly different style of stopmotion modelling to create the animal models, which makes it stand out from other films done with the same technique. This could be interesting to learn from as I want my piece to be different from every other stopmotion film, and something as simple as a model style change could be the key to achieving a unique look,

James and the Giant Peach is an older film, shot in 1996 by Henry Selick for Disney. It is once again based off a Roald Dahl book of the same name, and incorporates live action and stopmotion into one singular film. This technique created an interesting effect when the divide between live action and stopmotion is shown side by side, and this interests me as I could create something similar by using humans in my stopmotion. However to avoid outright copying of this, I could try using this method through pixilation or cut-out stopmotion instead of simply filming live action alongside the actual stopmotion.

Jason and the Argonauts is a classic film created in 1963 by Don Chaffey. The majority of the film is shot in live action, but the film gained fame for including stopmotion creatures in fight scenes - the most iconic use of stopmotion is the famous skeleton scene where they rise from the ground to attack the soldiers. Again, this film is interested to study when considering the possibility of combining humans and stopmotion, although I think that it would be easier for me to use a method like pixilation for this instead of shooting live action and then shoot actual stopmotion.