Stop motion
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| '''Stop motion''' (or '''frame-by-frame''') animation is a general term for an [[animation]] technique which makes a physically manipulated object appear to move. The object is moved by very small amounts between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence. Clay figures are often used in stop motion animations, known as [[Clay animation|claymation]], for their ease of repositioning. | '''Stop motion''' (or '''frame-by-frame''') animation is a general term for an [[animation]] technique which makes a physically manipulated object appear to move. The object is moved by very small amounts between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence. Clay figures are often used in stop motion animations, known as [[Clay animation|claymation]], for their ease of repositioning. | ||
| == History == | == History == | ||
| + | Stop motion animation has a long history in film. It was often used to show objects moving as if by magic. The first instance of the stop motion technique can be credited to Albert E. Smith and [[J. Stuart Blackton]] for ''The Humpty Dumpty Circus'' (1897), in which a toy circus of acrobats and animals comes to life. In 1902, the film ''Fun in a Bakery Shop'' used the stop trick technique in the "lightning sculpting" sequence. French trick film maestro [[Georges Méliès]] used true stop motion to produce moving title-card letters for one of his short films, but never exploited the process for any of his other films. ''The Haunted Hotel'' (1907) is another stop motion film by [[J. Stuart Blackton]], and was a resounding success when released. [[Segundo de Chomón]] (1871–1929), from Spain, released ''[[El hotel eléctrico|El Hotel Eléctrico]]'' later that same year, and used similar techniques as the Blackton film. In 1908, ''A Sculptor's Welsh Rarebit Nightmare'' was released, as was ''The Sculptor's Nightmare'', a film by Billy Bitzer. Italian animator [[Roméo Bossetti]] impressed audiences with his object animation tour-de-force, ''[[The Automatic Moving Company]]'' in 1912. The great European stop motion pioneer was [[Wladyslaw Starewicz]] (1892–1965), who animated ''The Beautiful Lukanida'' (1910), ''The Battle of the Stag Beetles'' (1910), ''The Ant and the Grasshopper'' (1911). | ||
| - | Stop motion animation is almost as old as film-making itself. Of the forms already mentioned, [[object animation]] is the oldest, then [[direct manipulation animation]], followed (roughly) by sequential drawings on multiple pages, which quickly evolved into [[cel animation]], with [[clay animation]], [[pixilation]], [[puppet animation]], and [[time-lapse]] being developed concurrently next. The first instance of the stop motion technique can be credited to Albert E. Smith and [[J. Stuart Blackton]] for ''The Humpty Dumpty Circus'' (1898), in which a toy circus of acrobats and animals comes to life. In 1902, the film, ''Fun in a Bakery Shop'' used clay for a stop-motion "lightning sculpting" sequence. French trick film mistro [[Georges Méliès]] used it to produce moving title-card letters for one of his short films, but never exploited the process for any of his other films. ''The Haunted Hotel'' (1907) is another stop motion film by James Stuart Blackton, and was a resounding success when released. [[Segundo de Chomón]] (1871-1929), from Spain, released '''''[[El Hotel eléctrico]]''''' later that same year, and used similar techniques as the Blackton film. In 1908, ''A Sculptor's Welsh Rarebit Nightmare'' was released, as was ''The Sculptor's Nightmare'', a film by Billy Bitzer. French animator Emil Cole impressed audiences with his object animation tour-de-force, ''The Automatic Moving Company'' in 1910. | + | One of the earliest clay animation films was ''Modelling Extraordinary'', which dazzled audiences in 1912. December 1916 brought the first of Willie Hopkins' 54 episodes of "Miracles in Mud" to the big screen. Also in December 1916, the first woman animator, [[Helena Smith Dayton]], began experimenting with clay stop motion. She would release her first film in 1917, an adaptation of [[William Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]''. |
| - | One of the earliest clay animation films was ''Modelling Extraordinary'', which dazzled audiences in 1912. December 1916, brought the first of Willie Hopkin's 54 episodes of "Miracles in Mud" to the big screen. Also in December 1916, the first woman animator, Helena Smith Dayton, began experimenting with clay stop motion. She would release her first film in 1917, ''Romeo and Juliet''. | + | In the turn of the century, there was another well known animator known as [[Willis O' Brien]] (known by others as O'bie). His work on ''[[The Lost World (1925 film)|The Lost World]]'' (1925) is well known, but he is most admired for his work on ''[[King Kong (1933 film)|King Kong]]'' (1933), a milestone of his films made possible by stop motion animation. |
| - | The great European stop motion pioneer was [[Ladislas Starevich|Ladyslaw Starewicz]] (1892-1965), who animated ''The Beautiful Lukanida'' (1910),'' The Battle of the Stag Beetles'' (1910), ''The Ant and the Grasshopper'' (1911), ''Voyage to the Moon'' (1913), ''On the Warsaw Highway'' (1916), ''Frogland'' (1922), ''The Magic Clock'' (1926), ''The Mascot'', (aka, ''The Devil's Ball'') (1934), ''In the Land of the Vampires'' (1935), and the feature film ''[[The Tale of the Fox]]'' (1937), to name but a few of his over fifty animated films. | + | O'Brien's protege and eventual successor in Hollywood was [[Ray Harryhausen]]. After learning under O'Brien on the film ''[[Mighty Joe Young (1949 film)|Mighty Joe Young]]'' (1949), Harryhausen would go on to create the effects for a string of successful and memorable films over the next three decades. These included ''[[It Came From Beneath The Sea]]'' (1955), ''[[Jason and the Argonauts (1963 film)|Jason and the Argonauts]]'' (1963), ''[[The Golden Voyage of Sinbad]]'' (1974) and ''[[Clash Of The Titans (1981 film)|Clash Of The Titans]]'' (1981). |
| - | Starewicz was the first filmmaker to use stop-action animation and puppets to tell consistently coherent stories. He began by producing insect documentaries which, in turn, led to experiments with the stop-action animation of insects and beetles. Initially he wired the legs to the insects' bodies, but he improved this substantially in the ensuing years by creating leather and felt-covered puppets with technically advanced ball & socket armatures. One of his innovations was the use of [[motion blur]] which he achieved, most likely, by the use of hidden wires, which, because they were moving, didn't register on film during long exposures of each frame. | + | In a 1940 promotional film, [[Autolite]], an automotive parts supplier, featured stop motion animation of its products marching past Autolite factories to the tune of [[Franz Schubert]]'s ''[[Three Marches Militaires (Schubert)|Military March]]''. An abbreviated version of this sequence was later used in television ads for Autolite, especially those on the 1950s CBS program ''[[Suspense (U.S. TV series)|Suspense]]'', which Autolite sponsored. |
| - | His techniques took hold among the [[avant-garde]] in Eastern Europe in the 1920s and '30s, growing out of a strong cultural tradition of [[puppetry]]. One such artist was Russian/Ukrainian filmmaker [[Alexander Ptushko]], whose first major work, ''[[The New Gulliver]]'' ({{lang-ru|''Новый Гулливер''}}, Novyy Gullivyer) ([[1935 in film|1935]]), was the first [[feature film]] to use 3-D stop motion animation ([[Lotte Reiniger]]'s feature film ''[[The Adventures of Prince Achmed]]'' had used 2-D stop motion in [[1926 in film|1926]]) and the first to combine stop-motion with live action footage. Ptushko built 1,500 separate puppets for this remarkable film. Each of the puppets had a detachable head, which made them capable of a wide range of expressions and personality. | + | ===1960s and 1970s=== |
| + | In the 1960s and 1970s, independent clay animator [[Eli Noyes|Eliot Noyes Jr.]] refined the technique of "free-form" clay animation with his Oscar-nominated 1965 film ''Clay (or the Origin of Species)''. Noyes also used stop motion to animate sand laying on glass for his musical animated film ''Sandman'' (1975). | ||
| - | Other notable artists include the influential Czech animator [[Jiří Trnka]]. The aesthetic tradition of the puppet film was continued by [[Bretislav Pojar]], Kihachiro Kawamoto, [[Ivo Caprino]], [[Jan Švankmajer]], Jiri Barta, Stephen and Timothy Quay ([[Brothers Quay]]), the Bolex Brothers, and Galina Beda. | + | In 1975, filmmaker and clay animation experimenter, [[Will Vinton]], joined with sculptor [[Bob Gardiner (animator)|Bob Gardiner]] to create an experimental film called "Closed Mondays" which became the world's first stop motion film to win an Oscar. Will Vinton followed with several other successful short film experiments including "The Great Cognito", "Creation", and "Rip Van Winkle" which were each nominated for Academy Awards. In 1977, Vinton made a documentary about this producess and his style of animation which he dubbed "claymation" and he title the documentary "Claymation". Soon after this documentary, the term was trademarked by Vinton to differentiate his team's work from others who had been, or were beginning to do, "clay animation". While the word has stuck and is often used to describe clay animation and stop motion, it remains a trademark owned currently by Laika Entertainment, Inc. |
| - | A notable stop motion object animator was Germany's Oskar Fischinger who animated anything he could get his hands on in a series of impressive short abstract art films during the 20s and 30s. The best example is his 1934 film, ''Composition in Blue''. Fischinger was hired by Disney to animate the "rolling hills" footage used in the opening "Toccata & Fugue" sequence of ''Fantasia'' (1940). | + | Sand-coated puppet animation was used in the Oscar-winning 1977 film ''[[The Sand Castle]]'', produced by Dutch-Canadian animator [[Co Hoedeman]]. Hoedeman was one of dozens of animators sheltered by the [[National Film Board of Canada]], a Canadian government film arts agency that had supported animators for decades. A pioneer of refined multiple stop motion films under the NFB banner was [[Norman McLaren]], who brought in many other animators to create their own creatively controlled films. Notable among these are the [[pinscreen animation]] films of Jacques Drouin, made with the original pinscreen donated by [[Alexandre Alexeieff and Claire Parker]]. |
| - | The great pioneer of American stop motion was [[Willis O'Brien]] (1886-1963). In 1914, O'Brien began animating a series of short subjects set in prehistoric times. He animated his early creations by covering wooden armatures with clay, a technique he further perfected by using ball & socket armatures covered with foam, foam latex, animal hair and fur. ''[[Birth of a Flivver]]'' (1915), ''[[Morpheus Mike]]'' (1915), ''[[The Dinosaur and the Missing Link: A Prehistoric Tragedy]]'' (1916), ''[[R.F.D. 10,000 B.C.: A Mannikin Comedy]]'' (1917/18), ''[[The Ghost of Slumber Mountain]]'' (1919), [[The Lost World (1925 film)|''The Lost World'']] (1925), ''[[King Kong (1933 film)|King Kong]]'' (1933), ''[[The Son of Kong]]'' (1933), and, with the assistance of a young [[Ray Harryhausen]], ''[[Mighty Joe Young (1949 film)|Mighty Joe Young]]'' (1949), yet these were but a few of the many films he animated. O'Brien's ''[[Nippy's Nightmare]]'' (1916) was first film to combine live actors with stop-motion characters. His partnership with the great Mexican-American model makers/craftsmen/special effects artists/background painters/set builders, [[Marcel Delgado]], [[Victor Delgado]] and [[Mario Larrinaga]], led to some of the most memorable and remarkable stop-motion moments in film history. | + | Italian stop motion films include ''[[Quaq Quao]]'' (1978), by [[Francesco Misseri]], which was stop motion with [[origami]], ''[[The Red and the Blue (series)|The Red and the Blue]]'' and the clay animation kittens ''[[Mio Mao|Mio and Mao]]''. Other European productions included a stop motion-animated series of [[Tove Jansson]]'s ''[[The Moomins]]'' (from 1979, often referred to as "The Fuzzy Felt Moomins"), produced by Film Polski and Jupiter Films. |
| - | O'Brien's imaginative use of stop-motion, and his ambitious and inventive filmmaking, has inspired generations of film greats such as Ray Harryhausen, [[George Lucas]], [[Steven Spielberg]], [[Peter Jackson]], [[Jim Danforth]], [[Art Clokey]], [[Sneaky Pete Kleinow|Pete Kleinow]], [[Tim Burton]], [[David W. Allen|David Allen]], [[Phil Tippett]] and [[Will Vinton]], as well as thousands of lesser known animators, both professional and amateur. Many leading Science-Fiction and Fantasy writers also credit him as a great source of inspiration. | + | One of the main British Animation teams, John Hardwick and Bob Bura, were the main animators in many early British TV shows, and are famous for their work on the ''[[Trumptonshire]]'' trilogy. |
| - | One of the more idiosyncratic early users of stop-motion techniques was the American comedian and cartoonist [[Charley Bowers|Charles Bowers]] who employed stop-motion techniques (which he called the "Bowers Process") in his series of silent short comedies in the 1920s and early 1930s. In his 1926 film ''[[Now You Tell One]]'', he skillfully uses stop-motion to create such effects as a straw hat growing on a man's head, cats growing out of a plant, and a mouse firing a gun. [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0017214/] | + | Disney experimented with several stop motion techniques by hiring independent animator-director [[Mike Jittlov]] to do the first stop motion animation of [[Mickey Mouse]] toys ever produced for a short sequence called ''Mouse Mania'', part of a TV special commemorating Mickey Mouse's 50th Anniversary called ''Mickey's 50th'' in 1978. Jittlov again produced some impressive multi-technique stop motion animation a year later for a 1979 Disney special promoting their release of the feature film ''[[The Black Hole]]''. Titled ''Major Effects'', Jittlov's work stood out as the best part of the special. Jittlov released his footage the following year to 16mm film collectors as a short film titled ''[[The Wizard of Speed and Time]]'', along with four of his other short multi-technique animated films, most of which eventually evolved into his own feature-length film of the same title. Effectively demonstrating almost all animation techniques, as well as how he produced them, the film was released to theaters in 1987 and to video in 1989. |
| - | Puppeteer [[Lou Bunin]] created one of the first stop motion puppets using wire armatures and his own rubber formula. The short, satiric film about World War II entitled ''[[Bury the Axis]]'' debuted in the [[1939 New York World's Fair]]. Bunin went on to produce a feature-length film version of ''[[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland#Cinematic adaptations|Alice in Wonderland]]'' with a live-action Alice and stop-motion puppets portraying all the rest of the characters. Bunin was [[blacklist]]ed in the 1950s but still managed to create numerous TV commercials using stop motion techniques, as well as a number of children's short films. | + | ===1980s to present=== |
| + | In the 1970s and 1980s, [[Industrial Light & Magic]] often used stop motion model animation for films such as the original ''[[Star Wars]]'' trilogy: the chess sequence in ''[[Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope|Star Wars]]'', the Tauntauns and AT-AT walkers in ''[[Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back|The Empire Strikes Back]]'', and the AT-ST walkers in ''[[Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi|Return of the Jedi]]'' were all stop motion animation, some of it using the Go films. The many shots including the ghosts in ''[[Raiders of the Lost Ark]]'' and the first two feature films in the ''[[RoboCop]]'' series use Phil Tippett's [[go motion]] version of stop motion. | ||
| - | Willis O'Brien's student [[Ray Harryhausen]] made many movies using a more elaborate version of puppet animation called [[model animation]], first pioneered by O'Brien, mainly for his feature length films, the difference being that model animation strives to be "photo-realistic" enough to be able to be combined with live action elements to create a final fantasy sequence that allows the audience to suspend their disbelief that they are watching animation elements. Example of his model animation techniques; most famously, are the seven-skeleton sequence from ''[[Jason and the Argonauts (film)|Jason and the Argonauts]]'' (1963). But aside from the more "disguised" stop motion efforts of O'Brien and Harryhausen, America and Britain were slower to embrace the stop-motion film, and so its use mainly grew out of other locations and sources. | + | In 1980, [[Marc Paul Chinoy]] directed the 1st feature-length clay animated film; a film based on the famous ''[[Pogo (comics)|Pogo]]'' comic strip. Titled ''I go Pogo'', it was aired a few times on American cable channels, but has yet to be commercially released. Primarily clay, some characters required armatures, and walk cycles used pre-sculpted hard bases legs. |
| - | One acclaimed European puppet animation producer to break out in America was Hungarian animator [[George Pal]], who, partially working in The [[Netherlands]], produced a series of films in Europe during the 30s before coming to Hollywood to create more shorts in the 40s, now called ''[[Puppetoons]]'' under the [[Paramount Pictures|Paramount]] banner, seven of which were nominated for Academy Awards for best animated film. In the late 40s, Pal evolved into feature film production, incorporating puppet animation into a live action setting in such films as ''[[The Great Rupert]]'' (1949), ''[[tom thumb (film)]]'' (1958), and ''[[The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm]]'' (1963). Pal used model-animation (animated by Jim Danforth) in two other feature films, ''[[The Time Machine (1960 film)|The Time Machine]]'' (1960) and ''[[7 Faces of Dr. Lao]]'' (1964), the latter nominated for a Special Effects Oscar, and the former winning the EFX Oscar award. Pal's work is documented in two feature films by Arnold Lebovitt, released in the mid-80s, ''[[The Puppetoon Movie]]'' and ''[[The Fantastic World of George Pal]]'' which are currently available on DVD. More of Danforth's skilled model animation can be seen in ''[[Jack the Giant Killer (film)|Jack the Giant Killer]]'' (1962), the ending fire ladder sequence for ''[[It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World]]'' (1963), "[[The Zanti Misfits]]" and "[[Counterweight]]" episodes of the original ''[[The Outer Limits#1963-1965|The Outer Limits]]'' TV series (1963), and, with equally prolific model animator David Allen, in ''[[Equinox (film)|Equinox]]'' (also titled "The Beast") (1967, 1970), ''[[Flesh Gordon]]'' (1974), and the prehistoric comedy ''[[Caveman (film)|Caveman]]'' (1981). | + | Stop motion was also used for some shots of the final sequence of ''[[The Terminator|Terminator]]'' movie, also for the scenes of the small alien ships in [[Steven Spielberg|Spielberg]]'s ''[[Batteries Not Included]]'' in 1987, animated by [[David W. Allen]]. Allen's stop motion work can also be seen in such feature films as ''[[The Crater Lake Monster]]'' (1977), ''[[Q (film)|Q - The Winged Serpent]]'' (1982), ''The Gate'' (1986) and ''Freaked'' (1993). Allen's King Kong [[Volkswagen]] commercial from the 1970s is now legendary among model animation enthusiasts. |
| - | Dominating children's TV stop-motion programming for three decades in America was Art Clokey's ''[[Gumby]]'' series, which lasted into the 70s, and spawned a feature film, ''Gumby I'' in 1995. Using both freeform and character clay animation, the series also used much object animation as Gumby and his clay pals interacted with various toys. Clokey started his adventures in clay with a 1953 freeform clay short film called ''Gumbasia'' (1953) which shortly thereafter propelled him into his more structured Gumby TV series. | + | In 1985, Will Vinton and his team released an ambitious feature film in stop motion called "The Adventures Of Mark Twain" based on the life and works of the famous American author. While the film may have been a little sophisticated for young audiences at the time, it got rave reviews from critics and adults in general. Vinton's team also created the Nomes and the Nome King for Disney's "Return to Oz" feature, for which they received an Academy Award Nomination for Special Visual Effects. In the 80's and early 90's, Will Vinton became very well known for his commercial work as well with stop motion campaigns including [[The California Raisins]]. |
| - | The [[Walt Disney]] studio dabbled with puppet-object animation in 1959 with the release of a 21-minute experimental short, ''[[Noah's Ark (1959 film)|Noah's Ark]]'', nominated for an animated film Oscar for that year. Disney didn't exploit the technique until their association with Tim Burton, starting with Burton's short film ''[[Vincent (film)|Vincent]]'' in 1982. | + | Of note are the films of Czech filmmaker [[Jan Švankmajer]], which mix stop motion and live actors. These include ''[[Alice (1988 film)|Alice]]'', an adaptation of [[Lewis Carroll|Lewis Carroll's]] ''[[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland]]'', and ''[[Faust (1994 film)|Faust]]'', a rendition of [[Faust|the legend of the German scholar]]. The Czech school is also illustrated by the series ''[[Pat & Mat]]'' (1979–2004). Created by Lubomír Beneš and Vladimír Jiránek, and it was wildly popular in a number of countries. |
| - | Although not technically animation, American children's television in the 1950s had often used string-puppets (also called marionettes, an entirely live-action process which some people have mistaken for a form of animation), such as those in ''Howdy Doody'' and various children's science fiction series such as ''[[Supercar (TV series)|Supercar]]'' and ''[[Fireball XL5]]'' in the early and mid 60s, spoofed in the 2004 feature film, ''[[Team America: World Police]]''. In Britain the glove-puppet had been part of popular culture from the days of [[Punch and Judy]], with American glove puppet counterparts featured in Bob Clampett's late 1940s & 50s TV show of ''[[Time for Beany]]'' in the Los Angeles area (an early multiple Emmy winner, which he developed into the animated cartoon series ''[[Beany and Cecil]]'' in the early 60s), and [[Shari Lewis]]' [[NBC]] hand puppet shows featuring "Hush Puppy", "Charley Horse" and most famously "[[Lamb Chop (puppet)|Lamb Chop]]" in the early 60s, all influences on the later highly developed and refined puppet work of [[Jim Henson]]. | + | Since the general animation renaissance headlined by the likes of ''[[Who Framed Roger Rabbit]]'' and ''[[The Little Mermaid]]'' at the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, there have been an increasing number of traditional stop motion feature films, despite advancements with [[computer animation]]. ''[[The Nightmare Before Christmas]]'', directed by [[Henry Selick]] and produced by [[Tim Burton]] was one of the more widely-released stop motion features. Henry Selick also went on to direct ''[[James and the Giant Peach (film)|James and the Giant Peach]]'' and ''[[Coraline (film)|Coraline]]'', and Tim Burton went on to direct ''[[Corpse Bride]]''. |
| - | In November 1959 the first episode of ''[[Sandmännchen]]'' was shown on East German television, a children's show that had [[Cold War]] propaganda as its primary function. New episodes are still being produced in Germany, making it one of the longest running animated series in the world. However, the show's purpose today has changed to pure entertainment. | + | Toward the end of the 90's, Will Vinton launched the first prime-time stop motion television series called [[The PJs]], with creator Eddie Murphy. The Emmy winning show aired on Fox then UPN for 3 seasons. |
| - | In the 1960s, the French animator [[Serge Danot]] created the well-known ''[[The Magic Roundabout]]'' (from 1965) which played for many years on the [[BBC]]. Another French/Polish stop-motion animated series was ''[[Colargol]]'' (''Barnaby the Bear'' in the UK, ''Jeremy'' in Canada), by [[Olga Pouchine]] and [[Tadeusz Wilkosz]]. | + | Another individual who found fame in clay animation is [[Nick Park]], who created the characters [[Wallace and Gromit]]. In addition to a series of award-winning shorts and featurettes, he won the [[Academy Award for Best Animated Feature]] for the feature-length outing ''[[Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit]]''. ''[[Chicken Run]]'', his first feature-length production, grossed over $100 million at the North American box-office, and garnered critical praise. Other notable stop motion feature films released since 1990 include ''[[Fantastic Mr. Fox (film)|Fantastic Mr. Fox]]'' and ''[[$9.99]]'', both released in 2009, and ''[[The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb]]'' (1993). |
| - | A British TV-series ''[[The Clangers]]'' (1969) became popular on television. The British artists Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall ([[Cosgrove Hall Films]]) produced a full-length film ''[[The Wind in the Willows (film)|The Wind in the Willows]]'' (1983) and later a multi-season TV-series ''[[The Wind in the Willows (TV-series)|The Wind in the Willows]]'' based on [[Kenneth Grahame]]'s [[The Wind in the Willows|classic children's book]] of the same title. They also produced a documentary of their production techniques, ''[[Making Frog and Toad]]''. | + | ==See also== |
| - | + | * [[List of stop motion artists]] | |
| - | Disney once again experimented with several stop-motion techniques by hiring independent animator-director [[Mike Jittlov]] to do the first stop motion animation of [[Mickey Mouse]] toys ever produced for a short sequence called ''Mouse Mania'', part of a TV special commemorating Mickey Mouse's 50th Anniversary called ''Mickey's 50th'' in 1978. | + | * [[List of stop motion films]] |
| - | + | * [[Go motion]] | |
| - | Jittlov again produced some impressive multi-technique stop-motion animation a year later for a 1979 Disney special promoting their release of the feature film ''[[The Black Hole]]''. Titled ''Major Effects'', Jittlov's work stood out as the best part of the special. Jittlov released his footage the following year to 16 mm film collectors as a short film titled ''[[The Wizard of Speed and Time]]'', along with four of his other short multi-technique animated films, most of which eventually evolved into his own feature-length film of the same title. Effectively demonstrating almost all animation techniques, as well as how he produced them, the film was released to theaters in 1987 and to video in 1989. | + | * [[Still motion]] |
| - | + | * [[Brickfilm]] | |
| - | Italian stop motion films include ''[[Quaq Quao]]'' (1978), by [[Francesco Misseri]], which was stop-motion with [[origami]], ''The Red and the Blue'' and the clay animation kitties ''[[Mio and Mao]]''. | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | A stop-motion animated series of [[Tove Jansson]]'s "[[The Moomins]]" (from 1979), often referred to as "The Fuzzy Felt Moomins", produced by Film Polski and Jupiter Films was also a European production, made in different countries like Poland and Austria. | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | In North America, [[Jules Bass]] produced a series of popular Christmas specials such as ''[[Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer]]'' and ''[[Frosty the Snowman]]'' (using '[[Animagic]]', their trade name for their version of stop motion puppetry) (1964). The specials were animated in [[Japan]] by Japanese stop-motion pioneer [[Tadahito Mochinaga]]. Another clay-animated children's TV series ''[[Davey and Goliath]]'', produced by Art Klokey, lasted from 1960 to 1977. [[Rankin/Bass]] also produced a puppet animation feature length film, ''[[Mad Monster Party]]'' in 1967 and combined puppet animation with live action in ''[[The Daydreamer]]'', their feature film released in 1966. | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | A puppet animation feature-length film directed by [[Marc Paul Chinoy]] and based on the famous "[[Pogo (comics)|Pogo]]" comic strip was produced in 1980. Titled ''I go Pogo'', it was aired a few times on American cable channels but, sadly, was never released to video. | + | |
| - | + | ||
| - | Although seemingly a natural marriage, stop-motion has very rarely been shot in ''[[stereoscopic]]'' ''[[three-dimensional space|3D]]'' throughout film history. The first '''3-D stop-motion''' short is ''In Tune With Tomorrow''[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0292010/] (aka ''Motor Rhythm'') (1939) by '''John Norling'''[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0635408/]. The second stereoscopic stop-motion release is ''The Adventures of Sam Space''[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0446267/] (1955) by '''Paul Sprunck'''[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0819879/]. The third and latest stop-motion short in stereo 3-D is ''The Incredible Invasion of the 20,000 Giant Robots from Outer Space''[http://www.the3drevolution.com/3dinvasion.html] (2000) by '''Elmer Kaan'''[http://www.moonridge5.com/credits_elmer_kaan.html] & '''Alexander Lentjes'''[http://www.moonridge5.com/credits_alexander_lentjes.html][http://www.the3drevolution.com/animation.html][http://www.linkedin.com/in/the3drevolution]. This is also the first ever '''3-D stereoscopic stop-motion & CGI''' short in the history of film. Allegedly, the very first all-stop-motion 3-D feature is scheduled for a 2008 release: ''[[Coraline]]''[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0327597/] by '''[[Henry Selick]]''', being produced out of Nike shoe founder Phil Knight's new "Leika" animation studio in Portland, Oregon, formerly Will Vinton's "Claymation" studio. | + | |
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Revision as of 11:37, 30 December 2018
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Stop motion (or frame-by-frame) animation is a general term for an animation technique which makes a physically manipulated object appear to move. The object is moved by very small amounts between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence. Clay figures are often used in stop motion animations, known as claymation, for their ease of repositioning.
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History
Stop motion animation has a long history in film. It was often used to show objects moving as if by magic. The first instance of the stop motion technique can be credited to Albert E. Smith and J. Stuart Blackton for The Humpty Dumpty Circus (1897), in which a toy circus of acrobats and animals comes to life. In 1902, the film Fun in a Bakery Shop used the stop trick technique in the "lightning sculpting" sequence. French trick film maestro Georges Méliès used true stop motion to produce moving title-card letters for one of his short films, but never exploited the process for any of his other films. The Haunted Hotel (1907) is another stop motion film by J. Stuart Blackton, and was a resounding success when released. Segundo de Chomón (1871–1929), from Spain, released El Hotel Eléctrico later that same year, and used similar techniques as the Blackton film. In 1908, A Sculptor's Welsh Rarebit Nightmare was released, as was The Sculptor's Nightmare, a film by Billy Bitzer. Italian animator Roméo Bossetti impressed audiences with his object animation tour-de-force, The Automatic Moving Company in 1912. The great European stop motion pioneer was Wladyslaw Starewicz (1892–1965), who animated The Beautiful Lukanida (1910), The Battle of the Stag Beetles (1910), The Ant and the Grasshopper (1911).
One of the earliest clay animation films was Modelling Extraordinary, which dazzled audiences in 1912. December 1916 brought the first of Willie Hopkins' 54 episodes of "Miracles in Mud" to the big screen. Also in December 1916, the first woman animator, Helena Smith Dayton, began experimenting with clay stop motion. She would release her first film in 1917, an adaptation of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
In the turn of the century, there was another well known animator known as Willis O' Brien (known by others as O'bie). His work on The Lost World (1925) is well known, but he is most admired for his work on King Kong (1933), a milestone of his films made possible by stop motion animation.
O'Brien's protege and eventual successor in Hollywood was Ray Harryhausen. After learning under O'Brien on the film Mighty Joe Young (1949), Harryhausen would go on to create the effects for a string of successful and memorable films over the next three decades. These included It Came From Beneath The Sea (1955), Jason and the Argonauts (1963), The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (1974) and Clash Of The Titans (1981).
In a 1940 promotional film, Autolite, an automotive parts supplier, featured stop motion animation of its products marching past Autolite factories to the tune of Franz Schubert's Military March. An abbreviated version of this sequence was later used in television ads for Autolite, especially those on the 1950s CBS program Suspense, which Autolite sponsored.
1960s and 1970s
In the 1960s and 1970s, independent clay animator Eliot Noyes Jr. refined the technique of "free-form" clay animation with his Oscar-nominated 1965 film Clay (or the Origin of Species). Noyes also used stop motion to animate sand laying on glass for his musical animated film Sandman (1975).
In 1975, filmmaker and clay animation experimenter, Will Vinton, joined with sculptor Bob Gardiner to create an experimental film called "Closed Mondays" which became the world's first stop motion film to win an Oscar. Will Vinton followed with several other successful short film experiments including "The Great Cognito", "Creation", and "Rip Van Winkle" which were each nominated for Academy Awards. In 1977, Vinton made a documentary about this producess and his style of animation which he dubbed "claymation" and he title the documentary "Claymation". Soon after this documentary, the term was trademarked by Vinton to differentiate his team's work from others who had been, or were beginning to do, "clay animation". While the word has stuck and is often used to describe clay animation and stop motion, it remains a trademark owned currently by Laika Entertainment, Inc.
Sand-coated puppet animation was used in the Oscar-winning 1977 film The Sand Castle, produced by Dutch-Canadian animator Co Hoedeman. Hoedeman was one of dozens of animators sheltered by the National Film Board of Canada, a Canadian government film arts agency that had supported animators for decades. A pioneer of refined multiple stop motion films under the NFB banner was Norman McLaren, who brought in many other animators to create their own creatively controlled films. Notable among these are the pinscreen animation films of Jacques Drouin, made with the original pinscreen donated by Alexandre Alexeieff and Claire Parker.
Italian stop motion films include Quaq Quao (1978), by Francesco Misseri, which was stop motion with origami, The Red and the Blue and the clay animation kittens Mio and Mao. Other European productions included a stop motion-animated series of Tove Jansson's The Moomins (from 1979, often referred to as "The Fuzzy Felt Moomins"), produced by Film Polski and Jupiter Films.
One of the main British Animation teams, John Hardwick and Bob Bura, were the main animators in many early British TV shows, and are famous for their work on the Trumptonshire trilogy.
Disney experimented with several stop motion techniques by hiring independent animator-director Mike Jittlov to do the first stop motion animation of Mickey Mouse toys ever produced for a short sequence called Mouse Mania, part of a TV special commemorating Mickey Mouse's 50th Anniversary called Mickey's 50th in 1978. Jittlov again produced some impressive multi-technique stop motion animation a year later for a 1979 Disney special promoting their release of the feature film The Black Hole. Titled Major Effects, Jittlov's work stood out as the best part of the special. Jittlov released his footage the following year to 16mm film collectors as a short film titled The Wizard of Speed and Time, along with four of his other short multi-technique animated films, most of which eventually evolved into his own feature-length film of the same title. Effectively demonstrating almost all animation techniques, as well as how he produced them, the film was released to theaters in 1987 and to video in 1989.
1980s to present
In the 1970s and 1980s, Industrial Light & Magic often used stop motion model animation for films such as the original Star Wars trilogy: the chess sequence in Star Wars, the Tauntauns and AT-AT walkers in The Empire Strikes Back, and the AT-ST walkers in Return of the Jedi were all stop motion animation, some of it using the Go films. The many shots including the ghosts in Raiders of the Lost Ark and the first two feature films in the RoboCop series use Phil Tippett's go motion version of stop motion.
In 1980, Marc Paul Chinoy directed the 1st feature-length clay animated film; a film based on the famous Pogo comic strip. Titled I go Pogo, it was aired a few times on American cable channels, but has yet to be commercially released. Primarily clay, some characters required armatures, and walk cycles used pre-sculpted hard bases legs.
Stop motion was also used for some shots of the final sequence of Terminator movie, also for the scenes of the small alien ships in Spielberg's Batteries Not Included in 1987, animated by David W. Allen. Allen's stop motion work can also be seen in such feature films as The Crater Lake Monster (1977), Q - The Winged Serpent (1982), The Gate (1986) and Freaked (1993). Allen's King Kong Volkswagen commercial from the 1970s is now legendary among model animation enthusiasts.
In 1985, Will Vinton and his team released an ambitious feature film in stop motion called "The Adventures Of Mark Twain" based on the life and works of the famous American author. While the film may have been a little sophisticated for young audiences at the time, it got rave reviews from critics and adults in general. Vinton's team also created the Nomes and the Nome King for Disney's "Return to Oz" feature, for which they received an Academy Award Nomination for Special Visual Effects. In the 80's and early 90's, Will Vinton became very well known for his commercial work as well with stop motion campaigns including The California Raisins.
Of note are the films of Czech filmmaker Jan Švankmajer, which mix stop motion and live actors. These include Alice, an adaptation of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and Faust, a rendition of the legend of the German scholar. The Czech school is also illustrated by the series Pat & Mat (1979–2004). Created by Lubomír Beneš and Vladimír Jiránek, and it was wildly popular in a number of countries.
Since the general animation renaissance headlined by the likes of Who Framed Roger Rabbit and The Little Mermaid at the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, there have been an increasing number of traditional stop motion feature films, despite advancements with computer animation. The Nightmare Before Christmas, directed by Henry Selick and produced by Tim Burton was one of the more widely-released stop motion features. Henry Selick also went on to direct James and the Giant Peach and Coraline, and Tim Burton went on to direct Corpse Bride.
Toward the end of the 90's, Will Vinton launched the first prime-time stop motion television series called The PJs, with creator Eddie Murphy. The Emmy winning show aired on Fox then UPN for 3 seasons.
Another individual who found fame in clay animation is Nick Park, who created the characters Wallace and Gromit. In addition to a series of award-winning shorts and featurettes, he won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature for the feature-length outing Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Chicken Run, his first feature-length production, grossed over $100 million at the North American box-office, and garnered critical praise. Other notable stop motion feature films released since 1990 include Fantastic Mr. Fox and $9.99, both released in 2009, and The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb (1993).
See also
