Stop MotioNimation

Okay. So once in your life you have probably seen a type of movie like this (The Nightmare before Christmas or more recently The Lego Movie anyone?) These types of movies fall under the category of stop motion animation. Stop motion is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own. The specified object/objects is/are moved tiny increments between frames (which are photographed constantly to capture each detail), creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence. A type of animation that falls under this category is Clay animation. Basically, these types of movies use dolls with movable joints or clay figures and nothing else.  Using these objects is convenient because they are easy to reposition.  The other two methods of Stop-Motion animation include direct object manipulation (stop motion of toys) and pixilation (using live talent and shooting frame by frame).

Stop-motion was originally an experiment and a fad; however, the audience came to appreciate this style of animation and was captivated by its magic, so studios decided to test it out. The first instant stop-motion was used was in Albert E. Smith and J. Vitagraph's The Humpty Dumpty Circus (1897), in which a toy circus of acrobats and animals comes to life. Unfortunately this footage has been lost; however, there are other movies such as Humorous Phases of Funny Faces released in 1906 and King Kong (1933), which utilizes this technique.

*More to come next week’s blog (because this is a huge topic to discuss) for now I leave you with this:

ComputAnimation: A Tribute to Pixar

Let' start this off with something big and enjoyable that everyone in this lifetime has enjoyed: Computer Animation. Computer Animation was around as early as the 1940s and 1950s. John Whitney began experiments in computer graphics, but it was on the early 1960s when digital computers had become widely established and new avenues for innovative computer graphics blossomed. The animation at the time was used for mainly engineering, scientific and other research purposes, but artistic experimentation began to make its appearance by mid-1960s. By the mid-70s, many such efforts were beginning to enter into public media. Much computer graphics at this time involved 2-dimensional imagery, though increasingly, as computer power improved, efforts to achieve 3-dimensional realism become the emphasis. By the late 1980s, photo-realistic 3D was beginning to appear in cinema movies, and by mid-90s had developed to the point where 3D animation could be used for entire feature film production.

Yes it is the animation style that bigwigs such as Disney and Dream Works have employed to reel in the audience. Some notable examples of  movies that employ this style include; Shrek, How to Train Your Dragon, Toy Story, and Frozen. Pixar Studios, however, takes computer animation to a whole new level of intensity. 

When their first movie, Toy Story, came out, it changed the way people saw and thought about computer animation. During this time, studios tended to make animated cartoon films, (such as The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin). Computer animation has been around since the 1960s and slow improvements were made to make it better and better, but despite several attempts to make it a "thing" with the public, it never really took off. At first, Pixar was a company that sold computer software, but then after a while, they were verge of bankruptcy from lack of computer sales. Walt Disney Studios was one of the company's buyers, using Pixar's printers to ease the work between lab and ink framework to the initial 2-D animation process, Pixar then decided to try their hand in animation and relocated to California to begin and continue their relationship with Disney that can be seen to this day. 

With the release of Toy Story, people thought differently about animation. Now we can go far beyond the realms of human imagination and make the screen come alive. This company is now one of the most respected companies in animation and it continuously strives to make it films to the best of perfection, appealing to audiences everywhere. It takes over 4 years to get the animation down for every Pixar film and with better technology, Pixar improves its films to the highest degree of quality. This video outlines the complicated process behind the making of Brave, released in 2012. 

I hoprd that you enjoyed this blog. Tune in next week to read more :). 

AnimaNtertainment #1

Animation is probably the best type of entertainment to ever exist. Like a storybook or a novel, it brings its audience to a whole different playing field. A new world so to say. People watch animation to escape reality and relax their minds from the demands and responsibilities they have at home.
It brings about joy, sorrow, laughter, fear and other heart pounding moments. It conjures up one's emotion through the characters it presents. It is important that any character displayed on the screen has to have qualities relatable to most of the audience members (a.k.a normal people) because it creates an emotional tie. This so called "bond" heightens the audience member's tension, and thus, keeps him/her from getting bored.

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By utilizing this technique, if the movie gets good reviews, then more and more people will come to see it and the profit for the movie heightens, which can create the opportunity to generate sequels (not that all sequels can compare to the original....), but it does give avid followers something to look forward to.

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One of the good things about animation is that about 90% of the time, it is appropriate for children to watch. DreamWorks and Disney does a great job with this. By making and giving their movies a "PG" rating, it gives parents assurance that the movies that are displayed will not "corrupt their child's/children's minds". A good quality animation does to keep its audiences attention is that it builds in really good jokes. Whether it be puns, the actions of the characters or the reactions certain characters get from certain events, animation will almost always deliver its jokes to the highest caliber.  Sometimes the jokes are not as appropriate,

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but nonetheless, it's safe for anyone to watch.
There are also many types of animations. To name a few broad genres, there are: traditional animation, atop-motion animation, computer animation, mechanical animation, and pin screen animation.
This passion blog is dedicated to celebrate all different types of animations and encourage others to watch and appreciated this art to its full content. Throughout this blog, we will both take a journey together to learn the history of the specific type of animation as well as present other forms of entertainment that demonstrate the particular type of animation. From anime in Japan to CGI  technology used in video games, we will discover and learn this art style. I hope that you enjoy this blog and what it has to offer.

[1][2][3]http://www.easybib.com/cite/view