A stop motion animation is a series of still images or frames in a sequential order; it usually consists of inanimate objects in different positions to give an illusion of movement (when edited and played back at a certain frame rate). The frame rate in which it is played back in ultimately depends on the budget and time put into the animation, the lower the frame rate the more ‘jumpy’ the animation may look not meeting professional standards, however the standard frame rate for film is 24FPS, therefore concluding the more photo’s or ‘stills’ taken for your animation in different positions, the smoother it will flow.                    

Pioneer of animation Peter Mark Roget tried to explain how this illusion work, with his theory on the persistence of vision in 1825.Roget  introduced the thaumatrope, it is a card with a picture on both sides and is attached to two pieces of string. The strings enable the flickering two images together to set the basis of an ‘illusion’ which has had a significant influence on cinematography today. For this illusion to be created the speed of the spinner is significant as if it is too slow there would be no animation, if its too fast it would not look realistic, creating that basis of FPS and how important it is in the animation. According to Roget, the human eye supposedly keeps a very brief (1/25th of a second to be precise) image on it’s retina of the last thing which it was exposed to. I find this hard to believe as if we do things consciously it stands a chance, however most things such as crime incidents are not deliberate therefore had to recall. The ‘Beta movement’ and the ‘Phi Phenomenon’ disprove this, arguing that it is our human cognitive functions not being able to send or perceive information quick enough, consequently not realizing that movement is actually not happening. The zoetrope which was invented in 1833 by William Horner has allowed this influence to develop by placing a series of images in cylinder with holes which spins around simultaneously creating an illusion effect due to these splits causing it to blur the image creating a motion. The zoetrope is an

improvement on the thaumatrope as it has more than two images therefore making the movement more detailed and realistic, somewhat like the frames per second has increased rather than been repeated.

In 1877, Eadweard Muybridge pioneered the idea of motion picture by capturing motion in stop action photographs, which was then projected with his zoopraxiscope allowing him to make his photographs sequential by projecting motion pictures, before the perforated film strip was used with cinematography. And finally, the Lumiere brothers who fully developed cinema in 1892, and held the first cinema in 1895. They used multiple processes which lead up to the filming camera such as film perforations on projectors and cameras, making cinematography and animation what it is today.

In Wladyslaw Starewicz’s ”The Cameraman’s Revenge” in 1912 the movement of the beetles has a limited frames per second (FPS) as it is very jumpy and not smooth, there is multiple non diagetic sounds to represent the mood of the animation as there is no actual dialogue, or any diegetic sound – as ‘sound’ in film has yet to be invented in.  Around 1.41 into the film there are inter titles to explain the story behind the animation, as there is no ability to talk or ability to have any lip-syncs in the animation, consequently due to the fact that sound is still yet to be invented at this period in time. This reflects the contextual content of the animation as it was made in 1912, a time where stop motion had not evolved to what it is today. This is manifested in just the simple moving of the beetles as anyone can notice that it is not flowing as smoothly in real time, or realistically as we do in reality. A predominant reason for this is because technology had not fully developed at this time, especially because cinema and film itself had only been invented in 1895. The whole illusion of moving animation was very fascinating at this time as majority of middle classed people did not get a chance

to actually experience the cinema, yet alone see inhuman objects move. This is mainly because cinema is only just 18 years old, and is still very new to people of this generation. About 14 minutes into the film, there is an ‘action’ scene of two characters fighting which suggest an action genre; however a continuous stationary long shot camera angle has been used during this scene. This is very different to action scenes in the 21st century as there are a lot more close up shots and mid shots that frequently change, especially in rhythm to enhance that action scene feel, which a stop motion animation in  the early 20th century did not really have. This is due to the undeveloped film language at this point in time, no one had really considered the possiblities of camera movement or montage editing of different camera angles. The technology could not allow for it, and it was even more difficult considering a stop motion animation has a more restricted use of different camera angles and movements. This reflects the low budget of this animation, as the audience was not as huge in 1912 mainly because there was not yet a ‘mass’ audience for film, at this point it had not developed into an industry or business consequently meaning not much profit is being made as it is today. For this reason, this has a profound effect on the technology and audience as their is not enough money to developed equipment and to sell the film to large audiences. It was only in the 1930’s cinemas started being a mass entertainment of 1000’s of people, as the more demand grew for different films the more profit was made, meaning ultimately the more better, grossing films are available to be shown - however the audience is very limited as at this time you would have to be well off with money to be able to go to a cinema, to some extent you would be lucky if there is a cinema near you as there were a limited amount of cinemas as film itself is a new technology. Furthermore not many people in 1913 had money to go to cinema as the tickets would be a lot more expensive back in the 20th century than it is now. Another stop motion film by Wladyslaw Starewicz was an innovator of the stop motion technique who continued to develop his skills in animation for many years. His

film  “The Tale of the Fox” made in 1930, about 20 years later, shows a significant improvement in stop motion animation techniques as there is actual sound (both diegetic and non-diegetic), lip syncing, and an improved level of frames per second, a more detailed set and particularly a lot more smoother, more fluid movement. This in comparison to ‘Camera mans Revenge’ shows a development of stop motion animation as he manages to make the illusion of inanimate objects appear more realistic and believable, for example the smoothness of the fox’s movements, especially when speaking as the lips sync actually makes it as if these inanimate objects are talking; this in comparison to the jumpy movement of the beetles who do not speak at all is a major improvement.

Twenty one years later, Willis O’Brien’s King Kong was released in 1933 and was a magnificent development from “The Cameraman’s Revenge”  with a number of improvements in stop motion techniques evident. The biggest improvement is the use of facial expressions which were not used in the earlier film and sound which “The Cameraman’s Revenge” also lacked. King Kong’s character is expressed through facial expressions and body language a lot more; when Kong discovers the beauty, he has multiple facial expressions as to why she is so scared of his appearance, his eyebrows and face literally change to a confused look which implies to the audience he is somewhat not as evil as society seems to deem him, just because of his fearful appearance. This in effect with actual synced sound really gives an idea of a live action film even though it is stop motion animation. In fact the techniques of stop motion in this film is an early example of the technique’s use as special effects, and the improvements in technology creates a way in which the audience can be amazed by monsters and other fantastic things on-screen with real people in films; in a way All green screen and CGI methods began where this film was first released, as if it was not for these early experiments in films none of the special effects we have today

would have been where they are. The method they used here is back screen projection, in the jungle scene where Kong first discovers this beautiful woman who seems to be paralysed of fear from his appearance, you can tell the difference in depth, as Kong seems to be more 3d then the woman chained up herself who seems to be just projected on to Kongs actions. She and the chains acts like a layer that covers everything in her way, which is why you can see Kong's part of body where she is is covered, allowing it to look more realistic instead of Kong’s actual layer overlapping everything.You can tell the actual Kong character and dinosaurs are illusions of a small model however they have created a set around it to make it look like to the audience that it is a full sized figure. This is a major improvement from “Cameraman’s Revenge” as it gives the illusion of the people and the monster together, making it look a lot more realistic and more dramatic in a sense because it makes the audience really relate to the human. “King Kong” is classed as an action genre as well but the difference in the amount of camera shots and angles from “King Kong” and “The Cameraman’s Revenge” is relatively high, although the FPS in “King Kong” is not brilliant and the movement is still jumpy however it is fascinating how you can create fantastic characters and monsters on-screen at the same time as “real life” people to create a special effect live film.  However, this is the main development of stop motion techniques between the two films as audiences had never seen this sort of thing before, whereas the motion and movement is not that much of an improvement. Technology hasn’t advanced very much in movement but the improvement of stop motion animation, special effects and back screen projection in mainstream films have increased significantly, especially with the invention of sound and the development of facial expressions for the stop motion ‘creatures’ is also an important development that creates a greater level of ‘realistic’ monsters and stop motion characters. This allows O’Brien to create more realistic depictions of a character in his animations. Moreover, the budget of King Kong has increased

in comparison to “The Cameraman’s Revenge as in 1933 you have access to much more money from Hollywood who are now an industry and will invest large budgets in films, which means the technology used will be ‘cutting edge’ as the size of audiences will mean that large profits can be made from mass audiences in cinemas. Mix of animation and live action is revolutionary at this point – one of the first time people would of seen these cutting edge special effects find a lot more fascinating and more entertaining meaning a mass audience of 1000’s more people are available to see king Kong; as it is reasonably cheap and more people can afford the cinema at this time. This means they will make more profit out of it enabling them to have more money for budget for the next film they produce; and this system continues on repeating. 1930s and 1940s was when there was a increase of people going to cinema this is why the budget is a lot higher then Wladyslaw Starewicz’s “The Cameraman’s Revenge”

From about 1960 onwards the development of stop motion animation continues to improve. In ‘The time machine’ by George Pal the first thing you notice that stands out in this animation that it is actually in colour, rather then black and white. This is a big improvement in cinema and TV in general yet alone stop motion animation. It is a lot more clearer and easy to spot illusion of movements as about in the scene where the character starts time travelling, the clocks and flowers show all the little changes which suggests that the FPS of the animation has increased to increase realism this contrasts to ‘the camera mans revenge’ as it the footage is not jumpy, the camera is stationary and does not shake. As the character goes faster in time you see less frames per second but more movement so it shows the audience a variation in stop motion animation and how it can be used to show something going a lot faster, this is something that has not been done before at this time period. There is a lot of change in camera angles and scenes yet again to suggest time is moving and to give you a better reality

feel of the situation especially at 1.05 where a first person camera angle shot is used to show what the actual character is seeing. This in combination with the 3d stop motion animation gives a dramatic ‘time is flying’ effect, which is especially achieved through the flicker of day and night lighting special effects which most likely would not be visible with black and white TV therefore improving realism. There is also improvement in the combination of  personal narrative thoughts, direct speech in perfect sync with the non-diagetic background sounds which help fit the theme and mood of the scene. As the character goes faster in time travelling and risks it at 2.54 mysterious sound track is played and then at 3.59 the sound track has a much faster rhythm and beat to show excitement. All of these effects together create an intense level of realism in animation than ever before, hence the high budget of $829,000 for this experimental animation production. This high budget made over $2,000,000 as Hollywood cinema was at its peak in the 50’s and 60’s before every household got a TV, therefore targeting mainstream audience who can afford cinema tickets as a TV would be a lot more expensive to own. The improvement in technology has also helped develop this film, enabling George Pal to experiment and pioneer animation further.

Also around in the 1960 time period Ray Harryhausen ‘Jason and the Argonauts’ which was released in 1963 enhances the development of stop motion techniques by combining it with back screen projection. It is a huge development from King Kong’s back screen projection however you can still notice how flat the actors are projected, as the skeletons look a lot more 3D and real then the actors themselves who just like 2D and flat. Special effects from 14 seconds of the skeletons coming out of the ground shows how more advanced special effects are now as it actually looks like this fake skeleton is coming out of the ground giving it that realistic illusion that stop motion animation provides. He is well known for drawing distinctions between films that combine special effects animation with live action, and films that are completely animated.

Another action genre film as there is a lot of movement and multiple camera shots suggesting that the FPS is high especially for the skeletons as 2.14 in on the clip the skeletons reactions to the warrior is very real and seems as if the actor is generally having a fight with a skeleton. This is a huge improvement from Wladyslaw Starewicz’s ”The Cameraman’s Revenge” action scene where there is no way near enough FPS and camera shots to show a realistic fight. The budget was fairly high for this animation in the time ( $1million ) which grossed $2.1million in cinema in the full feature film.The amounts of CGI effects happening in combination with back screen projection reflect how expensive and time consuming it will be to create scenes like this. Around the 1960’s period no one would of ever seen something like this and be utterly astonished by  e the improvement in technique used for the animation. Yet again similar to George Pal’s animation, non-diagetic background sounds are used to enhance the realism and build tension especially in the fighting scenes. Hollywood was a real big thing around here as it was rapidly getting bigger and better, films such as Jason and the Argonauts is what continued to increase its target audience as the economy around this time was way more well off then what it was back in early 19th century.

The Hoth fight sequence in ‘Empire Strikes Back’ in 1980 has exemplified a huge improvement in stop motion as it is seamless that you can't see any type of faults due to the special effects running throughout the whole film, which in the period of the late 20th century was a magnificent sight. The budget was over $32 million which shows how much money and time has been spent in achieving these special effects of space crafts flying around trying to execute these huge robot dinosaurs; these effects were so unique at this time that the film earned more then $538 million worldwide in the box office. Just within 17 years between production, you can see how the sophisticated technology in green screening looks a lot more real then back screen projection; this is mainly manifested in ‘Jason and the argonaughts’ as you can physically see how live

action and effects are layered, however you cannot in ‘Empire Strikes Back’ due to its high frames per second which is shown by the fluent movement maintained throughout the film. It is predominantly due to the large potential for target audience that this film has a high budget, however it is in combination of the rapid growth in technology that makes this film very fluent in FPS.

The Terminator ending scene in 1984 is mainly consisting of live action, however there is a few minutes where the mechanical robot is moving around with stop motion animation. I was fairly shocked as there was not only no improvement in animation, but there was a down grade in comparison to ‘Empire Strikes Back.’  If you look clearly enough you can spot out how the terminator seems to have an inconsistent fluent approach to the characters like when the robot walks through the flames, considering this ending scene is mostly live action and not special stop motion effects raises the question why has this animation’s quality not met its potential. However, here one could argue because the characters are robots in both ‘Empire strikes back’ and The Terminator, therefore this clunky motion is suitable for the robots in order to characterise their narrative further.This question raises questions like this to me predominantly because the terminator was actually released 4 years after the star wars hit, and fails to improve on this stop motion progress as ‘Empire Strikes Back’ has really raised the bar here. After more research I found out this situation is due to the Terminator’s budget, it was filmed to be aimed at all ages in cinemas however the budget was only $6.5 million, a shocking difference compared to ‘Empire strikes back whopping $32 million. On the other hand the terminators animation is not blatantly visible compared to ‘Jason and the Argonauts’ mirroring how this improvement in stop motion animation has still continues, it just depends on the budget how high quality and real, this live action mixed with stop motion going to look to it’s desired audience. Still a huge difference to

films like ‘King Kong’ so in terms of realism to films released over a decade ago, the terminator still does represent an improvement with stop motion.

In Bagpuss, when they walk there is limited character movement as well as limited facial expressions when talking which overall concludes it has a low budget when producing the ad. For example when there’s a shot of the mice surrounding a box in the scene they push away a character Professor Yaffle as well as approach the box in a group, what was shown was limited movement in doing these actions as the frames kept skipping/having jump cuts which suggests it has a low FPS. The only way these characters show their characteristics are via sound of the mice squeaking as there is hardly any detail in any of the facial expressions of the characters, as even their eyes do not blink throughout the ad. The explanation for this can be due to the place of exhibition this animation was targeted at, which was for television in combination with the year off the animation was first aired which was 1972. Technology in these years was a lot harder to get in terms of really good quality and the costs to acquire this technology made this even harder. The target audience off bag puss is aimed at kids which is what to some extent allows the animation to be of such quality as kids animation’s are not meant to be as high tech as something you would see in the cinema, more or less the kids will not mind how much FPS is in the animation just as long as they acknowledge movement within the animation.

In Wallace and Gromit, there is a magnificent level of detail put into a Claymation animation, all of the dialogue is mimicked in perfect sync and the movement of the characters in the programme has potential to mistake people for this animation almost being real and humane. This instantly will suggest that not only does this programme have a high rate of FPS, it also suggests the programme is high budget and uses a lot of modern technology.

There is a scene where a policeman is talking in a church about ware rabbits to the fellow citizens, the police man in that specific scene has a lot of detail in his facial expression. The reason for this much amount of detail put into this animation is that the budget is well over 5 million, the first series of Wallace and Gromit started off in 1989 however in 2005 there was a movie out called curse of the were rabbit which had a huge £30 million budget. Wallace and Gromit targets mainstreamers and family as it has been a successful showing film at the cinemas winning over 10 BAFTA awards out of being nominated in 16. This animation needed high quality equipment to produce, it helps that in the 20 th century it is a lot easier to get access to this equipment however still expensive. This contrasts to Bagpuss animation as they did not have this much access to all these high tech equipment and if they did the price would be over 5 times of what it is now.

Norman McLaren ”Neighbors” in 1952 is one of the first pixilation animations to use live actors as 3d models in a sequence of shots to create an illusion of a film. “Neighbors” won an Oscar in 1953 for the best animation including Canadian film awards for this unique animation. I am not surprised because the professional fluent movement from 2.50 is so precise and clear even if the actors are floating around in the air, everything seems to follow a smooth transaction, on ground or not. The camera does not seem to shake at all no matter how much is moving, and an interesting sound track is played to further intrigue the audience with these live actors literally floating in the air. Considering there is no actual dialogue mirrors how successful this film is as it carries an anti-war message. The audience of this film is potentially aimed at everyone as it is about war, with a high budget to create this unique fluent animation as it was a big hit in the cinemas which also explains the budget for this stop-motion film.

Sledgehammer 1986 by Peter Gabriel jumps a huge step in using pixilation animation with live characters after 32 years since

Norman McLaren animation shocked the world. Within 50 seconds of this music video animation you can see that this pixilation animation is a lot more effective due to actual dialogue and soundtrack fitting in together, which helps emphasize his music as well as visual pictures. The music video won over 9 MTV awards including British film awards for a music video, I personally think this is due to the effective change in the background scenery which “neighbors” did not include, Gabriel seems to use effects with the animation itself this is exemplified in at 2.25 as the fruit literally looks like it is singing, CGI effects are further evident in at 2.40 with loads of wood flying around the scene, the use of his sound track “sledgehammer” really compliments the flow of the video as a whole. The budget of this film was very big as it is a very intriguing high quality music video animation; its target audience was aimed at everyone but particularly for TV. The camera does bit shake at all, the professionalism is apparent throughout the animation as so much is going on in the screen action and nothing seems to disturb the fluency of the animation.

 

The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb is a pixilation stop-motion animation film which hit the cinemas in 1993, the films content is rather disturbing to young viewers so its target audience is ultimately aimed at adults as in 3.50 in the clip there is fetus-like child with graphic bloody surroundings which is animated through use of what may be CGI effects in combination with live actors in a picture sequence to look like a film. The effects of the creepy sound track really compliments the spooky effect of the situation of this fetus like child which ultimately shows an improvement in pixilation animation as soundtracks are now being used not only in music videos like “sledgehammer” it is now playing a part in creating suspense within a film which represents animation playing a part in the Hollywood scene. The budget for this animation was

significantly huge, so huge that the BBC had funded a majority of the development of the animation, the constant use of pixilation animation throughout represents how much time and effort it took to create however it was a huge hit in the cinemas concluding it as a successful pixilation animation film, a lot more successful then “neighbors” due to the advance in technology within the pixilation animation category.

 Lottie Reiniger - “The Adventures of Prince Achmed” cut-out animation from the 1926 represents how cut out animation can be used to create tension in screen action. This is exemplified at 0.48 onwards in the 2 minute animation as there are these two characters who are in a battle, however this animation would be dull and boring if it was not for the epic sounding sound track used, it is used effectively in sync with when these characters transform into another creature which I think is very cool as eventually the audience can associate the change in soundtrack to the change in screen action before it even happens. This allows narratives to be formed more clearer, I can see the budget of this animation not being too high considering the year of release however in 1926 it is an impressive move towards the evolution of stop motion animation as a whole. The movement is fluent throughout however it lacks audio and a change of scenery as it is based only in one place. I can see the target audience being aimed for TV and everyone as a whole however I think this sort of animation mainly interests children.

Terry Gilliam - TV comedy sketch show Monty Python animated sketches using cut out animation in 1969 reflects a less serious production when compared to “The adventures of Prince Achmed,” it is obvious within the first 40 seconds of the clip that this cut out animation was not intended for holly wood as the FPS is very jumpy and this moving bus almost jumps, this also mirrors the low budget of the animation. Although it was released many

years before Lottie Riegners production it is not as professional as it, this is due to the target audience though, however it contains synchronized audio within the screen action therefore showing that technology has improved even if it is not as professional.

David Yates animation in 1981 titled “Pigeon Street” looks a lot more professional then Terry Gilliam’s Monty Python animation however still does not meet as professional standards as Lottie Riegners as its target audience is primarily aimed at children, with children’s animation if the FPS is slightly jumpy as you can see 1.35 on with the bird that it almost slightly jumps when it flaps its wings however this is not a major issue as with kids animations simplistic works a lot better then over complication as then it would fail to impress its desired target audience. The budget of the animation is not too high however this animation would be commonly found on TV by children channels therefore the budget cannot be too low, the quality of sound with the animation is clear which reflects the budget is not too low. The sound in Pigeon Street is a lot more clear and simplistic then Monty Python in 1969 representing the sound technology improving towards the 20th century.

The quality of South Park, which was first released in 1997, is a lot higher then David Yates “Pigeon Street” as the visuals are a lot more clearer. This is evident in at 21 seconds as there is detail on furniture showing it is 3d. However its FPS lacks fluency as when this character walks onto stage at 17 seconds in, he literally bounces his way up to the microphone rather then smoothly walking up to it however this is not a very serious issue as south park is a TV series, but not a very serious one and is more aimed at comedy and humour. The budget of South Park is significantly higher then David Yates children’s animation however this is due to the high demand in South Park as it is mainly aimed at adults as it contains crude comedy, which is not suitable for children and is on air regularly which also could suggest why the animation is not

as perfect as it could be. In terms of scenery and sound effects with audio, technology has definitely improved up into the 20th century as south park has multiple different sceneries throughout with lots of dialogue and sound tracks to help convey certain moods, this is not as clearly evident in David Yates animation.