GPS Standards:
AAVTC-AVTFII-4 Perform advanced editing operations
4.4 Demonstrate special effects processing to include color correction, keying and digital compositing.
4.5 Demonstrate maintaining proper continuity for a production
AAVTC-AVTFII-4 Perform advanced editing operations
4.4 Demonstrate special effects processing to include color correction, keying and digital compositing.
4.5 Demonstrate maintaining proper continuity for a production
Stop Motion History
Stop motion animation is a filmmaking technique that has been around for years. But just what is stop motion animation? Stop motion is the process of animating an inanimate object like a doll or action figure. But you can animate anything using stop motion, like food or office supplies, even people!
The History of Stop Motion
The origin of stop motion dates back to the golden age of Hollywood. The first time the technique was used was in a film called The Humpty Dumpty Circus (1897), where a toy circus and animals come to life on screen. While the technique was used periodically, it wasn’t until after animator Willis O’ Brien animated a giant gorilla in the original King Kong (1933) that stop motion animation started to really make an impact in the world of film. It has really experienced a re-birth in the past twenty tears, thanks to movies like The Nightmare Before Christmas. (1993)
Creating Stop Motion Today
Despite the fact that stop motion takes lots of time and effort to create—And that many studios prefer to use computers to animate characters—it’s still a popular art and filmmaking form.
Most recently, the animated films ParaNorman (2012) andFrankenweenie (2012) used stop motion and so does the Cartoon Network hit Robot Chicken. Of course, probably the most popular and most well-known use of stop motion in a movie is in Tim Burton’s classic, The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Chris Butler is the director of the ParaNorman, which was nominated for a Oscar. Butler’s Laika Studios is located in the small village of Hillsboro, Oregon. “People really do love this medium,” he told the Los Angeles Times, “They respect it as an art form…They understand how much of a Herculean effort it is to make these movies — the hands-on, workshop-full-of-crazy-people aspect of it.”
Despite the fact that stop motion takes lots of time and effort to create—And that many studios prefer to use computers to animate characters—it’s still a popular art and filmmaking form.
Most recently, the animated films ParaNorman (2012) andFrankenweenie (2012) used stop motion and so does the Cartoon Network hit Robot Chicken. Of course, probably the most popular and most well-known use of stop motion in a movie is in Tim Burton’s classic, The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Chris Butler is the director of the ParaNorman, which was nominated for a Oscar. Butler’s Laika Studios is located in the small village of Hillsboro, Oregon. “People really do love this medium,” he told the Los Angeles Times, “They respect it as an art form…They understand how much of a Herculean effort it is to make these movies — the hands-on, workshop-full-of-crazy-people aspect of it.”
Below you will see a stop motion commercial for X-Box. The commercial is 30 seconds. Please watch it to see the different animations
The video below is a time lapse video about how they made the X-Box Commercial. The director of the commercial, Shaun Sewter, stated, Well, It was a while ago now but think it was somewhere around 15 days to shoot. Thats me back there. We had 3 matching tops to rotate around so yes they were washed a few times. I had to double stick the sleeves to my arms top stop them sliding around, I had a hairless band around each arm for weeks Some parts took longer than others Shrek was particularly time consuming. We had a pretty intensive testing period of about at month before the shoot where we worked out all the steps beforehand. It was a really challenging job but a great experience