Chapter 2: What is it?

Stop motion animation, also known as, stop-frame animation, is a very basic form of animation. Commonly applied to make everyday mundane objects appear to be alive. Tiny movements and individually photographed frames provide this illusion. 'When the series of images are put together and played back in a continuous sequence, the magic happens pg58.'Fallman (2011)

  

There are many different forms of stop animation:

Classic Drawing Animation


Classic drawing animation has been around for centuries and has provided children and adults alike, much entertainment and wonderment.

Model Animation Stop Motion Girl Dreaming.


Some quick background information: Eyal Landersman, was the photographer for this video. Landersman won a grammey for this video in 2009 and was nominated for in 2010 for this piece titled: Her Morning Elegance.
 'Her Morning Elegance,' featuring Shir Shomron, achieved popularity on YouTube receiving over 20 million views. Lavie produced and co-directed the video, which was shot in 48 hours without a break.

Stop Motion- Puppets: Coraline.
         Coraline is a stop-motion film released in 2009, and directed by Henry Sellick. Coraline uses the old technique of taking a shot and then moving the model ever so slightly again and again creating the illusion of movement. Coraline uses 24 frames per second, and each shot has around 20 small pieces moved every time. It is a very long process but very rewarding at the end of it. As an example, 24 seconds of film will take an animator around 3 and a half weeks to shoot, because of this multiple identical sets are made so different scenes can be shot at the same time. The process starts with them animating the voices of the actors first so animators know when to move the mouth a certain way and synchronize the character to the voice. An animator working on Coraline said that some of the hardest shots are when there is no dialogue, because you have to act through movement, and emotions of the character.           To animate the model, it must be very flexible. The skeleton must be strong and each joint must be able to move and hold in the desired position of the animator. Each model also has an interchangeable upper part of the face and the lower part, so that there is a vast amount of emotions that the animator can communicate through. 





Everything is made by hand, from the walls to the floors of the environment to the sky outside. Everything is created. Costumes are duplicated a lot of times as are sets and hands. The detail can sometimes be overwhelming but the outcome is worth it. 

 'Everything was touched by hands and hearts.'  Henry Sellick