Stop Motion Animation
Here is something I done quickly using the stop motion technique.
Stop motion is done by taking a series of images, but altering the subject every time you take a photograph (frame).
This makes the object or subject look like it is moving, once the series of frames has been combined together and played in sequence to one another.
The way I made the GIF above was created by taking roughly over 50 pictures using an iPhone 5, I did not use a tripod however. This was a little bit tricky as I could not afford to place my hand too far out of position, I had to measure with my eyes and try to position the camera in the same composition as the last frame.
I made sure I used large white card as the background, I didn't want the animation to be disrupted by anything that could be seen as a distraction.
I wanted the viewers attention to be focused on the 'doodle' on my hand.
The thing I would change if I were to do this again would be to slow the frames per second down (FPS), because the frames are being shown at a faster rate it doesn't give the 'doodle' much justice. I created this animation using 'gifmaker', an online editing platform for stop motion animation.
Stop Motion - Toilet Roll Animation (Object Animation)
After experimenting with 2D animation, I wanted to create an animation that included 3D forms. I was influenced by Nick Park's claymation called "creature comforts". I enjoyed the comedy that he presented from the characters he created, I also liked the way that the characters could relate to one another about things that they like or problems they have.
Nick Park - Creature Comforts - 1989
I respected the way that he made all the characters have some sort of animation, wether if they're action was small or large. He made sure they were included no matter how important the characters roll was in the scene. It makes the entire animation look legitimate, the claymation has close resemblance to real life due to the body and facial expressions of all involved.
Character Design - Toilet Rolls
For my character design I wanted to it to have some resebalance towards creature comforts, I wanted the characters to have some chemistry. Also I wanted them to have their own personality.
I decided on a story that involved toilet paper being 'fed up' of all the shit they have to take, literally. Because if toilet paper was real and had a voice, I have no doubt in my mind that this is how it would play out!
Reasons for choosing toilet paper as my object to animate is because I feel like this particular object already has a lot of background information, it wasn't difficult to come up with a story board for this object so to speak. For instance if I used a pillow as my object with the same sort of facial features, the story wouldn't of been that interesting because pillows are referenced to sleep! And toilet paper can be referenced to many disgusting things, but I decided the best way to create a story would be to animate an angry toilet roll that is fed up of all the shit he has to take from people!
This toilet roll can reflect many peoples lives, I'm sure most people are sick of other peoples shit too!
Toilet roll 'lip syncrinisation sheet'
Toilet roll #1 facial features & speech
I created three different sheets like the ones above for the three different characters involved, I made life easier for myself to include which mouth action determined which letter.
This defiantly helped me when animating the speech(text) I was using, I could always use the lip sync sheet as a reference point.
Because the toilet roll is a non malluable ridged object, the main body of the characters mainly remained the same. The roll as an object to animate with was pleasing and forgiving, because of its soft compound it was really easy to change the individual mouth movements between frames. To do this I applied a blue tac on the cut outs I made, and applied them on a point I marked on the roll.
It was crucial that I made the mouth actions be in sync with the text that was going to be portrayed, because this was going to be the main focal point.
Movement of the roll's was also a joy, I wanted them to walk and not slide across the scene.
To represent this I placed a small ball of tissue under the characters 'edge' to tilt the object to one side, I repeated this process again by placing the tissue on the opposite from the frame before.
I repeated this method to give the illusion that the roll is 'waddling' across frame (Roll #3), I also used this process also for Roll #1 & #2 to represent 'staging' of their speech.
Lighting and background set up of toilet roll stop motion animation
This is how I configued my set for the animation, I used a bath mat for the foreground, large white card as the backdrop, and also the remaining toilet rolls in the packaging placed on the outskirts of the foreground (not pictured above).
All these things enhanced my animation because they are in contrast to each other, they look like they belong to the set. Originally I was going to shoot this animation in my bathroom, however doing this would not allow me to get the lighting how I wanted it.
For the lighting I used my main light in my bedroom which is quite dim as it is, as the overhead light. But to enhance the facial expressions of the subjects I used a lamp to shine at a angle, doing this encreased the tone and contrast of the entire scene also added shadows which makes it look more human.
As you can see I used a tripod help create these images, using a tripod makes the work production of animation much more easy going. I placed the tripod parrallel to the toilet rolls, I was trying to implicate the composition of Nick Park's characters from 'creature comforts'.
To record this I used my iPhone 4 attached to a tripod, It took 109 photos to create this animation. I then used Photoshop to help make the images 'move'. Photoshop has an editing platform which allows you to flatten layers into frames and vice versa, the platform is called 'timeline'.
Timeline helped me depict the correct fps for the animation (30fps), I also massively appreciate how straight forward it was to insert text at the right moment. I could literally press 'play' to animate the layers, and 'stop' on the layer that needed the text to be inserted.
'Timeline' - Photoshop
Another example of process similar to my own with different objects.
Stop motion animation by 'Klutz' (klutz.com)
'While its hot' Stop Frame Animation
Before creating the 'Toilet roll' animation I first practised using a tripod for stop frame animation, I used an iPhone 4 for everything. (excluding 2D animations. Scanner)
Im glad I practiced this beforehand as stop frame animation can be very easy to mess up, if you notice the animation below of the pizza being eaten. You can see the position of the camera moves when its nearing the last frame, it was going so well to.
It is very difficult to move the camera back to its correct position if the tripod has been tampered with, I now knew this was something to avoid at all costs. Its very annoying!
"EAT OUT"- Food stop motion animation video (Vimeo)
Walk Cycle - Split Pin Stop Animation
A walk cycle is very important in animation as a whole, if you do not get this right the final animation will look poorly finished.
It is important to know that the body and head do not follow the same path on a linear line, its more like a waved line. This is because the head reaches a 'high point' and a 'low point' when walking, the arms should be the furthest apart when at the lowest point.
The 'animation survival kit' (sketch below) by Richard Williams best describes how a walk cycle should be portrayed.
The walk cycle I have done was my first attempt at doing this, I have forgiven myself for not doing it correctly. The arms and legs start off very well, also the head and torso meet a high and low point at the start. But then it started to go wrong, when the cycle repeated itself it began to look rushed and not legitimate. The head stays on the same line as its walking also, this is something I need to avoid doing in the future.
Animations would usually have the character stay on the same spot but portray the whole walk cycle, the only thing that would move would be the background. This save the person who is animating drawing across the whole frame, however if you do that having marked out measured steps will help you make the correct placements. I should have considered this when creating the stop motion animation below, It would of helped me focus on the position of the limbs much more easier.
Assets: Walk cycle, split pin with paper, stop motion, tripod, card background, ariel shot.
Walk cycle tutorial by Alan Becker
A walk cycle is very important in animation as a whole, if you do not get this right the final animation will look poorly finished.
It is important to know that the body and head do not follow the same path on a linear line, its more like a waved line. This is because the head reaches a 'high point' and a 'low point' when walking, the arms should be the furthest apart when at the lowest point.
The 'animation survival kit' (sketch below) by Richard Williams best describes how a walk cycle should be portrayed.
The walk cycle I have done was my first attempt at doing this, I have forgiven myself for not doing it correctly. The arms and legs start off very well, also the head and torso meet a high and low point at the start. But then it started to go wrong, when the cycle repeated itself it began to look rushed and not legitimate. The head stays on the same line as its walking also, this is something I need to avoid doing in the future.
Animations would usually have the character stay on the same spot but portray the whole walk cycle, the only thing that would move would be the background. This save the person who is animating drawing across the whole frame, however if you do that having marked out measured steps will help you make the correct placements. I should have considered this when creating the stop motion animation below, It would of helped me focus on the position of the limbs much more easier.
Assets: Walk cycle, split pin with paper, stop motion, tripod, card background, ariel shot.
Stop Motion - Time Lapse
Bedroom Window
Bedroom Window
Front Window
Tony Ross - East London
Stop Frame Animation - Final Piece (did not do)
Originally for my final piece I was going to shoot a stop motion animation of a 2D character in a 3D backdrop, it was quite a compacted idea to begin with.
Original Storyboard of "Friday"
Character Design - Boss & Main Charachter
Armature of character
Steel wire & tin foil
Diorama - room with computer (office)
In the grand scheme of things, I think I made things way to difficult for myself. The work load I had was not appropriate for the deadline, I had to make a load more backdrops like the one I made already. For instance I wanted one shot of a entire street, so I could have a long camera angle like the pixilation animation I done previously. But making a entire street from paper seemed a little to time consuming, so I tried settling on the first scene.
the choice of mediums I used for the subject was also not very pleasant to work with, the wire I used was a little bit still when bent also with tin-foil over the top made it less malleable and harder to capture natural body movements.
In the end I took the tin foil and play-doh off the armature and decided just to use the armature as my character, movement was easier like this. I shot as far as opening the door of my scene and closing it, this took about 50 frames to do. This is when I decided I did not want to continue with this certain project of mine, It was completely different to what I planned. I felt I was wasting valuable time doing this, I haven't give up on it ill just come back to it when I have better circumstances.
Draft of final
The other ideaI had while creating this was to have my wire armature do the same action as above, but then continues to computer and activates 'Facebook'. From here a virus pops up and says "sure you want to download" - Armature clicks "yes", then downloads 'face' onto sculpture. (Playdoh will mould into a face from the computer)
Squash & Stretch
Idea for "Facebook" Animation
Guldies - "Magic Water"
I gained influence for the background of my own stop motion of "toilet rolls", originally I was going to shoot in the bathroom. But I had better lighting facilities in my bedroom.
Also note that I have tried to implicate the use of claymation in my own terms, I tried 'squash and stretch' using playdoh. Also made a rough animation of playdoh coming out of a computer, eventually I wanted to create a scene where the playdoh formed a face onto the wire sculpture.
Whiteboard Stop Motion Animation
Assets: Tripod, Camera, Whiteboard, Pens, Stop motion
