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:
Maisha, I am not one for the details of technology, but I found your post interesting since I have seen several of the movies, but never knew how they were made. I was most intrigued by how early this form of animation has been around and I liked how you embedded the King Kong example directly to your post. Well done!
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