Animation: Stop Motion Animation

Almost every fall, Disney and Pixar would team up and create a family friendly film that would have “anthropomorphic creatures or objects rendered with state-of-the-art computer graphics.”(Babich 235) Then later on in the summer Disney would come out with one of its more classic movies ,a 2D animated film

Animated films are one of the most entertaining forms of media out there. When it comes to animated films, two major film companies may come to mind: DreamWorks and Disney. For the past couple of years, people have been asking which company is better, and the answer is quite simply Disney. They have better stories, they maintain a certain theme, they are consistent, and extremely successful which is what makes them stand out from other studios and film companies. Of course, DreamWorks has some of these qualities as well, but they are far and few in between.

A very prominent form of motion pictures today and even a hundred years ago would have to be animation. The first animated film composed of only illustrated images was released in Paris in 1908 and was called Fantasmagorie. In 1920 the first full color cartoon is released, paving the way for the future of this industry. Soon after that in 1922 the history of animation would be changed for ever with the introduction of the first film created by Walt Disney. This was the start of something special that Disney could have never expected. In 1937, Disney struck gold with the release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves which many consider as the beginning of full-length animated features because it included sound and color. For my actual report

Absolute film was a movement created by a group of artists in Germany in the 1920’s (Wikipedia). Hans Richter, Walter Ruttman, Oskar Fischinger, and Viking Eggeling were the pioneers who created absolute film, and all of them had artistic backgrounds besides Fischinger. Most cinematic projects have a story line, and something you follow through, but with absolute film it is quite the opposite. Absolute film depended solely on the artist’s vision and imagination for the film. It was a remarkable revolution in cinema, that a film could be created simply off a visual spectacle with aid from auditory music. No story line, no characters, nothing… just random images, colors, shapes flowing on the screen to music made to evoke imagination.

The 1800s was a time of, “advancement, invention and enterprise in the world of moving images.” Thomas Edison, with the help of his assistants, created and patented the Kinetograph and Kinetoscope in 1891. These tools later created series of still frames that passed at a continuous rate. Because of the defect persistence of vision, the average person views a moving image. By “1894, attempts [by Lumiere Brothers] were made to replicate and improve Edison’s Kinetoscope design.”

In 1931, Edwin Herbert invented stop action photography. Stop action gave the ability to capture pictures of objects that are too fast for the human eye to pick up; stop action had the ability to take multiple pictures in a fast occurrence, which could capture a bullet flying through the air or a rain drop splashing on the ground. A stop action camera contained film so that the pictures could be later developed.

The National Film Board of Canada had a great amount of cinema and theoretical productions, but they are also well known for their use of animation. Norman Mclauren an animator

Tim Burton is an American film director, artist, producer, writer, and animator known for dark, gothical, and whimsical movies. Some of his most popular films were Charlie and The Chocolate Factory from 2005 and Alice in wonderland from 2011. Tim Burton uses Framing, camera angles, and editing to make the audience feel as if they were in the movie themselves.

This is how early movies were portrayed: (in great detail.) A light is present in front of a strand of film that has many separate pictures. the light shines through the pictures as the strand spins around the light, which shines on a flat surface and presents the image to be moving. Each picture on a roll of film is called a frame.

Tim Burton, known for his movies that, most of the time, can fit into the horrific genre. As a result of his troubled childhood, Tim Burton directed mostly horror movies. He is well known for his films Charlie and The Chocolate Factory, Edward Scissorhands and Alice in Wonderland. Tim Burton was looked at as weird when he was a little kid. He once said ”Everybody in the whole world has been misperceived. At school, you wanted something to come across this way and it didn’t come across… It’s why you struggle as a child and you draw and you want to create. There is an impulse to be seen. For yourself: what you are.”. He grew up to make his all of his movies with at least a bit of horror added into the movie.

During the Modern American Era (1980-present), filmmakers started using CGI or computer-generated imagery to go from 2D animations to fully 3D animations, which were similar to stop motions. In 1984 the first short film created fully this way was “The Adventures of Andre and Wally B”.

Timothy Walter, "Tim Burton" has swept the nation along with all other continents with his wondrous worlds filled with mystifying creatures and horror themes. Burton has directed many films such as the popular, Edward Scissorhands, along with others such as the award winning Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and haunting Corpse Bride. These slightly terrifying, yet child friendly movies have captivated audiences of all ages. Tim Burton has mastered the art of creating a child friendly yet incredibly disturbing world influenced by cinematic techniques to create a thrilling and engaging theatrical experience.

Some movies that Burton is famous for is Edward Scissorhands, Batman Returns, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Alice in Wonderland, and many more.

Stop motion animation is when you take a picture of something, move it ever so slightly (depending on how smooth you want the sequence to be) then take another picture and so on and so on. The sequence of pictures will create an illusion of a moving image. When creating a stop motion animation it can either be done traditionally or a computer can be used to generate the background sets.

In a world where technology is rapidly developing and evolving, it is sometimes hard to keep up with the changes that are made. When looking back on changes that are made it is particularly interesting to look at the development of animation over history. Today when one thinks about animation it is impossible not to think of Disney and their major motion pictures. The Shreck films, Finding Nemo, and Happy Feet, to name just some of the dozens of animated films Disney has produced, raked in million upon millions of dollars at the box office, and have been hit films with people in all age groups.