Hello! I’ve created a short stop motion as a test. The plan is to make a longer and more detailed project. But I thought I would share with you what I have created so far!
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Exporing Stop Motion
Doing my research and looking for ideas to create my own project, I did a lot of looking around youtube. It amazed me how many different ways artist have created and used stop motion. I’m going to share some of my favorite examples with you!
This first one is just great because of the quality of the work. The lighting is beautiful and they do a really great job making the models “come to life”.
This one is so cool!!! It’s like a stop motion within a stop motion!
This one is neat because it actually has the world record for largest stop-animation set. Imagine how many people needed to work together to complete this thing!
This is a good example of the variety stop motion can be used.
Marcel the Shell will always be one of my favorites. He is just so darn cute!
WARNING: Watch this one ONLY if you are prepared to cry. It’s a wonderful example of how you can use stop motion for the sake of the feeling of the work. I think we can all agree that this would just not be the same if it was a drawn animation. The artist created this after her grandfather had gotten Alzheimer’s. This is how she imagined it would feel like.
Introducing Stop Motion
The next step of my independent study adventure is stop motion! I’m pretty excited about this project but it will be incredibly time consuming and a ton of work. Because of that I wont be able to post my project for quite some time. But in the mean time I can talk to you about what stop motion is and the history behind stop motion. First of all I found this really great video, and I think it does a better job talking about stop motion than I ever could. So here it is!
Let’s get to the basics. Stop motion can also be called “stop frame” or “stop action”. Stop motion is an animation technique that physically manipulates an object to make it appear to move on it’s own. To make the objects appear to move, the animator moves the object in very small amounts between the photographed frames. When the photos are played in very rapid succession, it creates the illusion of movement. There are many types of stop motion, including object animation, direct manipulation animation, puppet animation, pixelation, and clay-mation. I’ll outline the details of each type for you.
Object Manipulation
- Directly manipulating or moving an object
- Has been around for more than 100 years
- Earliest form of stop motion
- Earliest surviving film is Fun in a Bakery Shop (1902) by Edwins S. Porter and was released by Thomas Edison.
Direct Manipulation Animation
- Similar to standard animation
- Instead of changing each image entirely, only a portion of image is being erased or added in-between each frame
- One of earliest examples is Humorous Phases of Funny Faces (1906) by J. Stuart Blacton
Puppet Animation
- Still technically objects
- Much easier for animators to manipulate
- A good example is the beloved Christmas movie Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Pixelation
- Live-action form of stop motion
- Uses actual people being posed frame by frame rather than inanimate objects or drawings
- A good example of this is The Wizard of Speed and Time (1979) by Mike Jittlov. This exact film uses other types of animation in addition to pixelation, such as object animation.
Claymation
- Possibly most popular form of stop motion
- Been around since at least 1908
- Became more popular after the invention of plasticine, a non-drying clay
- Plasticine is used on top of wire-armature skeletons which allows the animators to move the models even more easily.
- An early example of this is The California Raisins which was created by Will Vinton
Sources: http://www.slashfilm.com/geekbomb-a-brief-history-of-stop-motion-animation/
Early Motion Imagery: Zoetrope
A zoetrope consists of a drum that has a sequence of images facing inwards. Viewers can look through evenly spaced slots to view the images on the inside. Zoetropes have an open top to allow light inside so the images can be viewed. The drum is supported on an axis so that it can be spun. As it spins, the slots provide broken views of the images inside and creates a strobe effect that causes the illusion of the moving image.
The zoetrope was first invented by William Horner in 1834. He named it a Daedalum or “wheel of the Devil”. The Daedalum was forgotten about until and American inventor named William F. Lincoln invented one himself and named it the zoetrope.
Creating my own:
Making my own zoetrope consisted of a lot of trial and error, but I will just show you what worked for me. First of all, I found an old Lazy-Susan in my grandma’s basement. I used that as my base and a way to spin my zoetrope around. I painted it black to make it look nice.
I took some black posterboard and cut them into long strips which I would later use to make the drum of the zoetrope. The paper wasn’t long enough to go all the way around the Lazy-Susan so I had to attach two of the strips to make it longer.
I measured and evenly cut triangles on the bottom of those two strips. I used those as a was to fasten the drum onto the Lazy-Susan.
Before I could start assembling my zoetrope, I had to create images to use inside of it. Many people use drawing in their zoetropes, but due to the nature of my independent study I felt that it was necessary to use photographs. I set up my camera on a tripod and set it on continuous shutter. I had a friend push the shutter for me as I moved in front of the camera. I had a little bit of difficulty getting my camera to cooperate, so I had to do something easy, which ended up being me doing the YMCA with my arms… It’s pretty cheesy, I know. I also have realized that I did the ‘C’ backwards. Whoops!
After taking the images I put them onto my computer. I measured how long of a space I had to put the pictures and divided that by how many images I planned on using to know what size to make the images. After resizing the images I lined them all up on Photoshop so I wouldn’t have to individually cut and paste every single one onto the poster board. I also adjusted my levels just a bit to make the photos look nicer.
After I printed out all of my photos I cut them and lined them all up. I took a ruler and drew a line on the previously cut poster board so I would attach the photos evenly. I then used spray mount to attach them.
After all of the images were attached I evenly spaced out slits that were only about 1/8th of an inch wide above each image.
And then I glued it together to make my drum! After folding in all of the triangles I had cut, it could freely stand on it’s own.
I also cut out a black circle that I placed inside the zoetrope to hide all of the cut triangles.
After attaching the drum and placing the black circle inside, my zoetrope was complete!
Here is a shot of it in action!
Making the zoetrope was a lot of fun and it certainly was a learning experience! For your enjoyment, I am going to add a video of a modern-day zoetrope created by artist Bill Brand!
Sources: http://www.reframingphotography.com/content/animating-photographs; http://courses.ncssm.edu/gallery/collections/toys/html/exhibit10.htm; http://www.randommotion.com/html/zoe.html
Early Motion Imagery: Film History
Alright guys, I have a long one for you!
First things first, in order to even create an illusion of movement, still images must appear in rapid succession. Like I said in my earlier post Early Motion Imagery: Photography as a Precursor, photography is what lead to film/moving imagery. One of the first examples of showing movement in photographs is Eadweard Muybridge’s (American Photographer) series of photos he made of a running horse. He made these photos by setting up a series of cameras because photography was not yet quick enough to use only one camera. Muybridge, however, was more interested in freezing the phases of action rather than re-creating movement by projecting images in succession.
In 1882 Étienne-Jules Marey (French Scientist) created a camera that was able to record twelve separate images on the edge of a revolving disk of film on glass. This was a big step towards a motion picture camera. The next step that gets us even closer is when Marey invented the first camera to use a strip of flexible film on paper in 1888.
At this point, projectors had already been around for many years. they were used to show slides or other shadow entertainments. In order for projectors to be able to be used to show moving film, things such as flexible and transparent film base, fast exposure time, a mechanism to pull film through the camera, a device to stop the film, and a shutter to block off light were all needed. All of these things were achieved in a short amount of time by 1890.
The Kinetoscope was invented by Thomas Edison by 1893. A Kinetoscope held film in a continuous loop that threaded around a series of bobbins. This was used to display films to individual viewers.
Edison, however, thought that movies were a passing fad and therefore did not bother to invent a system to project motion pictures on a screen. This task was left to the Lumière brothers. they invented a camera that could be doubled as a projector. This was done by placing a magic lantern behind the camera. They together held one of the first public showings of motion pictures projected onto a screen.
The first films were very simple in both form and style. They usually consisted of a single shot framing an action and were shot at long-shot distances. The Lumière brothers took the camera outside and filmed everyday activities or news events.
Edison, however, created the first film studio called the Black Maria. There was a hinged portion of the ceiling that let in light. The entire building would turn on a circular rail to follow the sun’s motion throughout the day so the studio would stay well lit.
Until around 1903 most films showed scenic places or noteworthy events, but narrative form has always been there since the beginning. A good example of this is the Lumières famous short film L’Arroseur arrose (The Waterer Watered, 1895) where a boy tricks a gardener into squirting himself with a hose.
After the initial success of film, filmmakers had to find more complex and interesting formal properties to keep people interested. The Lumières would send camera operators all over the world to capture important events and exotic places. The Lumières however eventually quick filmmaking all together in 1905. From then on, narrative form became the most prominent type of filmmaking in the commercial industry and worldwide popularity of cinema began to grow. It kept growing and growing into what it is today.
I hope you enjoyed my brief lesson in film history!
Kasey
Source: Film Art: An Introduction 9th Edition by Bordwell and Thompson
Early Motion Imagery: Thaumatrope
The thaumatrope was a toy that was popular in Victorian times. It was invented in the 1820’s and proved the phenomena of persistence vision. A thaumatrope consists of a disk or a card with an image either side and has a string attached to both ends. When the strings are twisted between the fingers the disk or card will spin and both images will appear to combine into one image. The faster you spin the thaumatrope the more the pictures appear to blend together. The thaumatrope creates illusions dependent on the persistence of vision.
Creating my own:
I used cardboard as a sturdy center of my thaumatrope. I cut the cardboard and two pieces of white paper the same size.
Thaumatrope in Action!
Yes, I realize that my thaumatrope isn’t perfect and that the pictures aren’t perfectly lined up. But hey, I tried my best!
Kasey
Sources: Seizing the Light: A History of Photography by Robert Hirsch and http://www.randommotion.com/html/thauma.html
Early Motion Imagery: Photography as Precursor
Before we can even begin discussing moving imagery, we must first discuss still imagery. Photography is the precursor to film/moving imagery.
The idea of photography was invented long before the camera was invented. As early as the fifth century a Chinese philosopher named Mo Ti discovered that if light reflected from an illuminated object and passed through a pinhole into a darkened area, it would form an exact, but inverted image of the object. In 1490 Leonardo da Vinci wrote the earliest surviving description of the camera obscura (which means dark camber). A camera obscura is a large dark room that one physically entered. Light would come through a small hole in one of the walls and would project an inverted image on the opposite wall.
Various artists and inventors made improvements on the camera obscura, such as using glass lenses to make the image brighter and more clear as well as make a portable camera obscura which artists would use to improve their drawing skills. Wanting to make the images made by the camera obscura permanent, artists found a way to use light to create images on paper, thus the photograph was born.
I hope you enjoyed my brief lesson in photography!
Kasey
Source: Seizing the Light: A History of Photography by Robert Hirsch
My Cross-Media Imagry Independent Study
Hello world!
My name is Kasey Krause and I am currently a photography major at Concordia University Wisconsin. This semester I am taking an independent study, and I thought to myself that a blog would be a great way to present my research and projects.
My independent study is, in a way, combining still and moving images. I will be looking back to early motion imagery and the history of how it all started, as well as complete projects such as making a thaumatrope, and a zoetrope (what a thaumatrope, and zoetrope are exactly will be explained in later posts)! As the semester goes on, I will research other ways that still imagery (photographs) and moving imagery (film) are used together. I will also be creating projects that coincide with my research as well. Here is a list of projects I plan on completing.
- Thaumatrope
- Zoetrope
- Stop Motion
- Cinemagraph/GIF
- Photo Fusion
As I research all of these subjects and complete my projects, I will post them here on my blog. I am looking forward to seeing how this project comes together and I hope you are too!
Talk to ya soon!
Kasey
Cross-Media Imagery 