Stop motion animation

This week in media we were given the task of creating a small stop motion animation; we could create anything as long as we had the materials to produce it in class. Me and Luke worked together to create a short story of the Eiffel tower getting hit by lightening. I thought the process was really fun, but the finished piece was a bit scruffy as it was our first time doing stop motion animation. I really like the way this form of film making looks and now can appreciate just how much effort goes into making it look good. It is something I would consider putting into my own coursework, however I think I would have to practice it a bit more to try and figure out the best ways to make it look professional. You can watch mine and Luke's animation below, as well as some pictures completing the task:

We also looked at some work by people who had done stop motion animation professionally and discussed what we thought of their work.

Nick Park:

Nick Park was born on December 6, 1958 in Preston, Lancashire, England. He is a producer and writer, known for The Curse of the Were-Rabbit(2005), The Wrong Trousers (1993) and Chicken Run (2000).These are probably some of the most well known stop motion animation pictures which have won multiple Academy awards. The characters are made from moulded plasticine modelling clay on metal armatures and filmed with stop motion clay animation and I think they produce films that are quite fantastic. They demonstrate just how effective stop motion animation can be, and his work made we want to investigate how they were made and look so smooth. You can watch one of my favourite scenes from the film Chicken Run here.

 

Jan Svankmajer:

Jan Svankmajer was born in Prague, where he still lives now. He trained at the Institute of Applied Arts and also at the Prague academy of performing arts. He was originally more involved with theatre, and encountered film later on. He is famous for his surreal style and work with animation; as depicted through his first feature film 'Alice', a rather unique adaptation of Alice in Wonderland. Although I appreciate that his work is an fab example of animation and must've taken a huge amount of effort to complete to that high a standard, I personally find his style quite unnerving and do not like his work as much as some of the people he inspired; such as Tim Burton.