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[theodrabblestopmotion]

Stop Motion Animation

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 I took slow motion videos of my sibling at home and converted them into the pictures that I 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 I 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, I instead filmed my sibling doing the various actions and put the frames into Photoshop to cut around and use for the animation. This was a success and I 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?

I 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 the rest of the group 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 save time and managed to complete the task efficiently and to a decent standard which I was 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, chose a better team to work with and try to work more efficiently. Despite working as a group, I 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 I did. The work I did on the individual blocks of the background shows how hard I 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 after the videos failed and cutting them out in Photoshop, and I think the effort I took for this shows in my work and gives it a certain charm of its own. In the future I should continue to put a lot of effort into our work so that the final piece reflects our motivation and love for what I 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 I didn’t manage to do much dynamic movement with the technique I 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?  

We made sure that everyone in the group had at least one task when it came to finishing this project:

Katie: cut out one action cycle of the pictures of the character in the animation, made two of the blocks used in the animation and she also did some of the write up.

Isaac: made three of the blocks that were used in the animation and did some of the write up.

Rhiannon: made one of the blocks in the animation, designed the enemy that was used in the animation, cut out three action cycles of the character and helped with the write up.

Theo: was responsible for making the animation itself, cutting out two action cycles of the character, took the pictures and designed two of the blocks in the animation.

While all of us had designed a background, due to time restraint we could only use one. Because of this, we decided to use the background that we all agreed was best.

These are the block and who made them:

Theo:

Katie:

Rhiannon:

Isaac:

Process

To make the animation I used Adobe Animate and had to move each individual asset one frame at a time. This meant that the animating was easier to do because it was on a computer.

This was the final animation that I created:

[theodrabblestopmotion]

Stop Motion Research

What is stop motion animation?

Stop motion animation is animation that is created by moving an object a bit, taking a picture of it and then repeating to create fluid movement. It also creates the illusion that the object is moving by itself.

What are the common materials used in stop motion animation?

The most common materials used for feature length films are clay with armatures underneath. Some other materials that are used for small stop motion animations are: movable toys, LEGO, 3D printed characters.

The first stop motion animation films started with the use of store brought toys and now more of the larger stop motion businesses are starting to use a wider range of animation materials e.g. The LEGO Movie which uses a few LEGO sets throughout (even though it is mostly CG) and Kubo and the Two Strings (Laika) which uses 3D printed faces.

What common technical methods are used to film stop motion animation?

To create a stop motion animation in the industry, you will need to have a camera, camera rig, computer and software. The camera will be put into the rig, both the camera and the rig will be connected to the computer, and controlled by the computer software. The software will move the camera back a few millimetres and take a picture every time the object or character is moved. The software then places all the pictures together and creates the animation.

If you were to create a stop motion animation at home, you could use a camera, a phone/tablet or a webcam, a computer and some free or paid software. The camera will be used on its own to take the pictures and then copied onto the computer and pieced together in the software. The webcam will be put

Research ten different films that use stop motion animation, make sure you have the following information to support your findings: - Title - Date - Director - Time to make the film - Image / link to film trailer or clip

1. The Humpty Dumpty Circus 1898 J. Stuart Blackton Unknown

2. A Grand Day Out 1989 Nick Park and Aardman Animations Over 6 years https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ablYsAGtuSM

3. The Nightmare Before Christmas 1993 Henry Selick 3 years https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wr6N_hZyBCk

4. The Wrong Trousers 1993 Nick Park and Aardman Animations Around 15 months https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZrEzkLmgRM

5. James and the Giant Peach 1996 Henry Selick Around 28 months https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73ax6ZrcUx4

6. Chicken Run 2000 Aardman Animations 18 months https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVdlxwX6A7g

7. Corpse Bride 2005 Mike Johnson and Tim Burton 7 months https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tpLNUI9rQU

8. Fantastic Mr. Fox 2009 Wes Anderson 12 months https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2igjYFojUo

9. The Boxtrolls 2014 Graham Annable 12 months https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2dFVnp5K0o

10. The LEGO Movie 2014 Phil Lord and Christopher Miller 10 months https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ_JOBCLF-I