Research : Stop Motion and examples

Stop motion (also known as stop frame) is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own. The object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence. Dolls with movable joints or clay figures are often used in stop motion for their ease of repositioning. Stop motion animation using plasticine is called clay animation or "clay-mation". Not all stop motion requires figures or models; many stop motion films can involve using humans, household appliances and other things for comedic effect. Stop motion using objects is sometimes referred to as object animation.

Blood tea and Red strings – Darker fairy tale for adults created all by one person apart from the music score.

Blood Tea and Red String is a stop-motion-animated feature film, called by director Christiane Cegavske a "fairy tale for adults". It was released on February 2, 2006 after a production time of 13 years, having been filmed in various places in the West Coast and in two studios. The musical score was composed and performed by Mark Growden.

Cegavske says in the audio commentary to the DVD for this film that it is to be the first in a trilogy.

Nightmare before Christmas – First full length stop motion feature film of its kind with the story told from puppets with songs and performance.

The Nightmare Before Christmas, often promoted as Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas, is a 1993 American stop motion musicalfantasy film directed by Henry Selick and produced/co-written by Tim Burton. It tells the story of Jack Skellington, a being from "Halloween Town" who opens a portal to "Christmas Town" and decides to celebrate the holiday, with some dastardly and comical consequences. Danny Elfman wrote the film score and provided the singing voice of Jack, as well as other minor characters. The remaining principal voice cast includes Chris Sarandon,Catherine O'Hara, William Hickey, Ken Page and Glenn Shadix.

The Nightmare Before Christmas originated in a poem written by Tim Burton in 1982, while he was working as a Disney animator. With the success of Vincent in the same year, Disney started to consider developing The Nightmare Before Christmas as either a short film or 30-minute television special. Over the years, Burton's thoughts regularly returned to the project, and in 1990, he made a development deal with Disney. Production started in July 1991 in San Francisco. Disney decided to release the film under their Touchstone Pictures banner because they thought the movie would be "too dark, and scary for kids."

The Nightmare Before Christmas was met with both critical and financial success. Walt Disney Pictures has reissued the film annually under theirDisney Digital 3-D format from 2006 until 2009, making it the first stop-motion animated feature to be entirely converted to 3-D.

Corpse Bride – Stop motion puppets to have armature motors created inside the heads that can be adjusted with screws for expressions.

Corpse Bride, often referred to as Tim Burton's Corpse Bride, is a 2005 stop-motion-animated fantasy film directed by Mike Johnson and Tim Burton. The plot is set in a fictional Victorian era village in Europe. Johnny Depp led an all-star cast as the voice of Victor, while Helena Bonham Carter voiced Emily, the title character. Corpse Bride is the third stop-motion feature film produced by Burton and the first directed by him (the previous two films, The Nightmare Before Christmas and James and the Giant Peach, were directed by Henry Selick). This is also the first stop-motion feature from Burton that was distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. It was dedicated to Joe Ranft who died during production.

The film was nominated in the 78th Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature, but was beaten by Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, which also starred Helena Bonham Carter. It was shot with a battery of Canon EOS-1D Mark II digital SLRs, rather than the 35mm film cameras used for Burton's previous stop-motion film The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Coraline - Mix of stop motion puppets and some effects, first to use some new techniques in creating expressions and even miniature knitted clothes for the puppets.

Coraline is a 2009 American stop-motion 3D fantasy film based on Neil Gaiman's 2002 novel of the same name. It was produced by Laika and distributed by Focus Features. Written and directed by Henry Selick, it was released widely in United States theaters on February 6, 2009, after a world premiere at the Portland International Film Festival. The film was made with Gaiman's approval and cooperation.

The film opened to very positive reviews from critics^[4] and made $16.85 million during opening weekend, ranking third at the box office. As of September 2009, the film had grossed over $120 million worldwide. Coraline won Annie Awards for best music, character design, and production design and received Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for Best Animated Feature.

The Adventures of Mark Twain - Claymation feature film almost entirealy created with clay puppets as well as certain special effects. Plays on many themes such a good and evil as well as highlighting the personality and works of Mark Twain.

The Adventures of Mark Twain, released in the UK as Comet Quest, is a 1985 American stop motion animated fantasy film directed by Will Vinton. It received a wider theatrical release, still limited to seven major cities, in May 1985. It was released on DVD in January 2006. The film features a series of vignettes extracted from several of Mark Twain's works, built around a plot that features Twain's attempts to keep his "appointment" with Halley's Comet. Twain and three children, Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, and Becky Thatcher, travel on an airship between various adventures.

The concept was inspired by a famous quote by the author:

"I came in with Halley's Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year (1910), and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don't go out with Halley's Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.'"

Twain died April 21, 1910, one day after Halley's Comet reached perihelion in 1910.

Included are sketches taken from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Mysterious Stranger, "The Diaries of Adam and Eve (Letters from the Earth)", "Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven" and a rendering of Twain's first story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County". References are made to his other works, including "The Damned Human Race". This animated film was shot in Portland, Oregon.

Wallace and Gromit - British Stop motion animated duo with many shorts as well as a feature films with good humour and example of two characters complimenting each other.

Wallace and Gromit is a British stop motion comedy franchise. Created by Nick Park of Aardman Animations, the series consists of four short films and a feature-length film. The series centres on Wallace, an absent-minded inventor and cheese enthusiast, along with his companionGromit, a silent yet intelligent anthropomorphic dog.

The duo live in Wigan, England at 62 West Wallaby Street. Wallace is primarily voiced by veteran actor Peter Sallis, and alternatively by Ben Whitehead when Sallis is not available. Gromit remains silent, communicating only through means of facial expressions and body language.

Wallace and Gromit have been translated into over 20 languages and have a particularly big following in Japan, as well as in their native Britain and across Europe and the United States.

Because of their endearing (if quirky) personalities and widespread popularity, the characters have been described as positive international iconsof both modern British culture in particular and British people in general. BBC News has called them "some of the best-known and best-loved stars to come out of the UK". Icons has said they have done "more to improve the image of the English world-wide than any officially appointed ambassadors".

The short films The Wrong Trousers and A Close Shave and the full length feature The Curse of the Were-Rabbit released in 2005 have all received Academy Awards. The first short film, A Grand Day Out first shown in 1989, was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, but lost to Creature Comforts, another animated creation of Nick Park.

Children’s tv shows

For research since they work to a quick timescale and on a budget with short simple stories with usual morals and lessons on their own terms.

Clangers – stop motion puppets that are told through narration and sound effects.

Clangers is a British stop-motion animated children's television series of short stories about a family of mouse-like creatures who live on, and in, a small blue planet (quite similar to, but not intended to be, the Moon). They speak in whistles, and eat green soup supplied by the Soup Dragon. The programmes were originally broadcast by the BBC in 1969–1972.

The series was made by Smallfilms, the company set up by Oliver Postgate (writer, animator and narrator) and Peter Firmin (modelmaker and illustrator). Firmin designed the characters, and his wife knitted and "dressed" the Clangers. The music, often part of the story, was by Vernon Elliott.

In October 2013, the BBC's Cbeebies and US pre-school channel PBS Kids Sprout announced that a new series would be produced for their 2015 transmission schedule.

Bagpuss – Stop motion show with toys and with different styles of animation sequences to tell stories.

Bagpuss is a UK children's television series, made by Peter Firmin and Oliver PostgateThe series of 13 episodes was first broadcast from 12 February 1974 to 7 May 1974 through their company Smallfilms. The title character was "an old, saggy cloth cat, baggy, and a bit loose at the seams". Although only 13 episodes were made, it remains fondly remembered, and was frequently repeated in the UK for 13 years. In 1999Bagpuss topped a BBC poll for the UK's favourite children's TV programme.

The programmes were made using stop-frame animation. Bagpuss is an actual cloth cat, but was not intended to be such an electric pink. "It should have been a ginger marmalade cat but the company in Folkestone dyeing the material made a mistake and it turned out pink and cream. It was the best thing that ever happened," said Firmin.

Herbs – Stop motion animal and human puppets that act out short stories in a Herb Garden with musical introductions and learning about plants.

The Herbs is a television series for young children made for the BBC by Graham Clutterbuck's FilmFair company. It was written by Michael Bond(creator of Paddington Bear), directed by Ivor Wood using 3D stop motion model animation and first transmitted from 12 February 1968 in the BBC1Watch with Mother timeslot. There were 13 episodes in the series, each one 15 minutes long.

A spin-off series entitled The Adventures of Parsley was transmitted from 6 April 1970 in the 5-minute period between the end of children's TV and the BBC Evening News. This had 32 episodes, some of which were released on VHS as Parsley the Lion and Friends.

The Herbs consisted of a fantasy mix of human and animal characters inhabiting the magical walled garden of a country estate. At the beginning of each episode, the narrator (Gordon Rollings) spoke the magic word, "Herbidacious", which caused the garden gate to open.

As with The Magic Roundabout, the sophisticated writing style and narrative delivery of The Herbs meant that the appeal was somewhat broader than was originally intended, and much of Parsley's droll humour undoubtedly went over the heads of the age group that was its main target. Consequently, it still retains a following among those who watched it when it was first broadcast.

Me and Mark also had a conversation about stop motion with some of these examples and how some of the mechanisms work within the puppets.