Pixilation

Pixilation was first used by the godfather of stop-motion animation Georges Melies, this was used in his short piece 'Le Diable Noir' (1905) although his technique of pausing a recording then continuing again was originally an accident whilst filming a passing bus on the street, Melies continuously explored the possibilities of this technique. However no one exployed the possibilities of Pixilation like British/Canadian film maker Malcolm McLaren did in his career during the 1950s the stop-motion technique once again uses the persistence of vision to make it look as though the subjects in the film are defying the laws of physics (i.e. floating/flying/skating/sliding etc.)

This is done by taking a photograph frame by frame moving the subjects (or props) as carefully as possible or as drastic as possible depending on the desired effect the film maker wants to utilize. When using an Apple Macintosh there is a programme called iStopMovie when taking pictures frame by frame an onion skin appears this shows where the subject appeared in the last image moving it as much or as little as you want while seeing exactly where the subject appeared in the last photo. By using the onion skin you can see the composition of your last photo frame, this gives you the availability to create your animation with pain staking accuracy.

Using human subjects (or puppets) instead of using illustration was one of Malcolm McLaren's most valuable gifts to stop-motion animation, creating a world of oppurtunities for film makers such as Jan Švankmajer and short feature animator Adam Pesapane commonly known as PES.

 

The subjects tend to be real life rendered subjects that move only slightly frame by frame using a tripod and video camera with the necessary software the pictures are taken and then played back again in a sequence to make it seem as though subjects are moving in a surreal way.

Model Based

Model based animation is where models are produced using plasticine clay, this form of animation first became popular in the 1920s mainly because of its three-dimensional qualities and versatility. 

 

Art Clokey and Gumby 

Art Clokey was a pioneer of clay animation in 1955 he released his experimental film 'Glumbasia' influenced by his professor.  Clokey went on to produce 'The Gumby Show' which was originally aired in 1955 and continued to air up until 1989.  Gumby had returned in many incarnations through the years a Gumby revival had been successful in the 1980s where the character was even parodied by Eddie Murphy in his early stand up days in the early 1980s. The show was originally produced through clokey productions its continuous distributer is DreamWorks Classics. 

Aardman Animations

Aardman Animations was first established by Peter Lord and David Sproxton in 1972 they united through their mutual interest for working with clay animation. Morph was one of the first animations made famous by Aardman and the much creator of the character morph Tony Hart.

By 1989 Nick Park's involvement fluctuated the company's efforts and the establisment of Park's characters 'Wallace and Gromit' first came to attention in 1989 with 'A Grand Day Out' which was shown in theatres around the UK. The character Wallace is a simple man with a love for tea and particularly wensleydale cheese along with his companion Gromit an intelligent but silent dog. The
feature was nominated or an academy award but lost to another one of Park's animations 'Creature Comforts'.  Wallace and Gromit are seen as positive british figures in international culture, often sporting quentisentially british attitudes and a love for britain itself. These short/feature length animations returned with three short feature sequels 'The Wrong Trousers' 'A Close Shave' 'A Matter of Loaf and Death' and one feature length film 'Curse of The Were-Rabbit'.
The studio have came a long way and have introduced new animation techniques as 3D-animation and CGI animation to their later productions.

Cut-Out Animation

Cut-out animation is a method of animation that was first pioneered by the german stop-motion animator Lotte Reiniger, who produced the first feature length animation in history 'The Adventures of Prince Achmed' in 1926. After escaping the Nazis and emigrating to England she was commissioned by The Post Office to produce advertisements up until her death in 1981.

Terry Gilliam is the animator/director who is possibly best known for his work on 'Monty Python's Flying Circus' used cut-out animation almost exclusively in early stages of his career. He used cut-outs from magazines because it was the "quickest" and "easiest" method of animation he could find. He would get his cut-outs from magazines, newspapers and scrapbooks. He used to voice all of his animations which are usually high pitched, abstract sounds and impersonations.

In other popular culture cut-out animation featured in the American animated sitcom South Park.
This method of animation was used for the early series and as the series progressed the producers used flash animation instead. Other notable animations are Angela Anaconda and Charlie and Lola.

Below is a video from the 70s where Gilliam explains how he comes to produce his cut-out animations:

Here's one of his animations that originally featurtes on 'Monty Python's Flying Circus'.

I began by sourcing magazines and then looking for images that stood out to me.

I cut out an image of a leaf-headed women so I decided that my stop-motion animation will be based on nature.

I then found a body of a female model wearing similar colours.

MUSIC / IN \ MOTION

Below is the music video for Radiohead's 2003 single release 'There, There' from their come back guitar record 'Hail To The Theif' (a reference to George W Bush's winning election). The video features pixelation techniques and Radiohead's Thom Yorke exploring a very strange, and very british fairy tale landscape. Which ends with poor Thom morphing into a tree (which he probably secretly enjoyed, being an eco warrior n' all!)


 

Below is an early 2010 music video for the new psychedelic gods Tame Impala. The music video for 'Half Full Glass of Wine' features lots of colourful uses of stop motion animation, cut out models and images of the band performing. 

 

 

A chief figurehead for the american underground alt-rock scene of the 1990's, Stephen Malkmus and his band The Jerks, released an incredible video in 2005 with the use of stop motion animation.  The video is surreal and I also enjoy the way Malkmus steals Lou Reed's pronunciation of "door" in this song tactfully.

 

 

 

Animation from the 1980s - Present Day

Animation 1980's - Present Day

Animation has changed considerably over the last thirty years due to advances in technology and software that's been produced and is now made readily available for animators all over the world.  This makes it easier for aspiring animators to experiment with their animations, it is also alot more affordable and accessible for people to create and release their own animations.  Another aspect of the change in animation is attitude, cartoons share some common traits but ever since the success of the US television show The Simpsons, cartoons seem to involve adult themes for example Larry in one episode alludes to be a transvestite. There is overtones of adult humour in cartoons everywhere today and its not seen necessarily as a bad thing.

The Simpsons

The Simpsons are created through cell based animation but not in the classical sense cell based animation rendered through computers and software.  According to The Simpsons' homepage the show is 'the longest-running scripted show in television history' The Simpsons was created by Matt Groening who first started out illustrating comic strips, perhaps his most famous being 'Life in Hell' these strips first featured in the Los Angeles Reader.  James L Brooks a well known american producer was working on the semi-successful 'Tracey Ullman Show'. He decided he wanted short animations to feature before and after the commercial breaks on this particular show. Brooks asked Groening if he would pitch an idea for a series of animated shorts, originally Groening was going to use his Life In Hell series and expand that into moving animation but Groening knew he would require the publication rights to his Life in Hell series from the LA Reader. While Groening sat in Brooks' lobby, he formulated an idea for these animations to be centered around a dysfunctional family, this family would become The Simpsons. The Simpsons is known for its tongue in cheek humor parodying american society, films, music, politics, media, internet and religion.  It was also voted the number one cartoon of all time by UK viewers in Channel 4's '100 greatest cartoons ever' poll. Since the shows launch in December of 1989 The Simpsons has broadcast a total of 510 episodes. The show has garnered controversy from broadcasting associations in other countries due to the stereotyping and at times "crude" humour that feature in the show. As a result other countries not as familiar with westernisation have sanctioned the show from being aired.

Ren and Stimpy

Ren and Stimpy paved the way for satirical shows like Beavis and Butthead and South Park and the chief writer/animators Allan Neuwirth and John Kricfalusi brought in the grotesque close up technique using different colours and hues this set a trend for later animations a direct example would be Spongebob Squarepants, which use that same technique occasionally to emphasize the grotesqueness of a situation. During the production stages the creator of the show John Kricfalusi emphasised that they worked extensively in the layout side of the production, especially the story boards which is said to have helped in the post-production stages helping them incorporate ideas previously discussed during focus groups their production team held. The 'Ren and Stimpy Show' was first produced by Kricfalusi's own animation studio production company  Spümcø. For the first two seasons aired from 1991-1993 on Nickelodeon alongside late night re-runs of 'Doug' and 'Rugrats'.

Kricfalusi had made an agreement with the board of directors that in exchange for some heartwarming episodes he could "make a few crazy ones". One Kricfalusi was dropped by Nickelodeon due to irreconsilable differences the instiution moved the show from Spümcø to Nickelodeon's newly found subsidiary Games Animation. The show ran for another three years but soonafter critics found the original flare that set the tone for the Ren and Stimpy Show had declined. The show's planned programming came to an end around christmas 1995. 

 

Beavis and Butthead

Beavis and Butthead are two hand drawn slacker adolescent animated characters created by the chief animator/writer of the show Mike Judge (creator of 'King of The Hill' the longest running animated primetime programme third to 'South Park' and 'The Simpsons). Mike Judge is known for using his animations as a vehicle for his satirical criticism of society. The characters originated from a short movie Judge created in 1992 'Frog Baseball'. After producers from MTV seen the short they contacted Judge and asked if he'd be interested in creating a series for the institution. The characters live in the town of Highland Beavis and Butthead are two heavy metal loving juvenile idiots who are often bullied or embarressed by their counter-parts. Their cynical and immature lookout on life and looser lifestyles lead them to be bullied, disregarded and victims of their own stupidity. The show features music videos which both Beavis and Butthead criticize and often allude to the sexual, violent or lyrical content of the music videos they are seen to be watching. The show still maintains a cult following and is often used as an example of 'Generation X' comedy from the 1990s (Generation X the post WWII baby boom) it seems as though animation comedy for children and young adults has become more juvenile and almost annoying but one can see how the show would amuse people, the character flaws, the social commentary and the musical presence one can see how it would be amusing, the show largely appeals to a more alternative audience. The show was realeased in 1993 and continued to air till the late 1990s, Judge later produced a film around that time 'Beavis and Butthead do America'.



  

Our Stop Motion Short - The Table Slide

Today we (Jack, Ben, Leah and Me) created a stop motion short using pixilation techniques.  
Pixilation is a method of stop motion animation that is a frame by frame (step by step) process that involves live actors. Each frame requires the tiniest bit of movement, the tinier the movement the better the effect seems. 

We used iStopMotion at its default setting of 12 frames per second, we were careful to make sure the photos were taken with some precision. Once we were happy with the 9 second short Jack uploaded it from his computer to his youtube account. After it was uploaded I found the link via Jack's account and used the 'insert a video' link and included it in the post seen above ^

Animation from the 1950's-1970's

Looney Tunes

Looney Tunes popularity sky rocketed in the 1950's when Warner Brothers were producing the shorts to be aired on network television. The program became immensely popular by the 1960's.


The characters reckless behavior included smoking, drinking and ingesting pills but this isn't what rose to controversy it was the racial stereotypes made within the characters that became a problem, later leading to the censorship of Speedy Conzales in 1999.

The animation is appealing to look at and the content delivers for both children and adults, its a clever medium for cartoons not just to appeal to those of young ages but old to.

1930's-1950's Prominent Animators

Cel Based Animation

Cel Based animation became the basis of traditional animation by the 1930's anything pre 1930 was post-synced, each frame is drawn by hand and was the dominating medium of feature length animation until the age of computer animation occurred. Each character would need a model sheet which would show a character or characters from different perspectives animators may use maquettes to see what these characters would like in a three dimensional perspective.

Walt Disney

Perhaps one of the world's most recognized animators and character creators to this day. Walt Disney had a vision to transpose to the world, an almost dream-like landscape full of rich content and colorful, memorable characters. 

Walter Disney was born in December of 1901 in Chicago Illinois. Walt father was of Irish/Canadian and his mother was of German/American ancestry.  He was one of five children, ever since Walt was young he began drawing, painting and selling pictures to neighbors in his neighborhood. 

He first rose to commercial success after creating the cartoon character Mickey Mouse.  The character first appeared in some short silent animations 'Plane Crazy' and 'Gallopin Gaucho'. But soon-after sound and film were united and Walt Disney helped write and create 'Steamboat Willie' a cartoon that surely will never be forgotten.  Seeing both moving picture and hearing it was groundbreaking at its time. 

On December 21, 1937, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first full-length animated film, premiered in Los Angeles. It generated an astounding $1.499 million worldwide, regardless of the depression and won a total of eight Oscars. During the next five years, Walt Disney Studios completed another string of full-length animated films, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo and Bambi.

The Fleischer Brothers 

Fleischer Studios Incorporated was first launched when Max Fleischer invented the rutoscope a true line animation method he had been inventing from 1915 up until its completion in 1917. When the true sound revoloution did come (post 'Steamboat Willie') the Fleischer brothers kept up with appearances by introducing their biggest star Betty Boop, some years being followed by Popeye the Sailor once licenses were born from King Features Syndicate. Popeye was well received as the character had been in publication previously. This enabled Paramount to keep producing Fleischer Studios productions, even in a Disney dominated animation industry.

The Fleischer brothers did go onto invent the 'Three Dimensional Setback' (a tiny vault with animation cels hung infront of it, creating a three dimensional effect). This device proved to be a worthy contender for Disney's multi-plane camera, that is until Disney created the never before made feature length animation Snow White. The Fleischer brothers did rise to the bait producing two feature length films 'Gulliver's Travels' (1939) and 'Mr. Bug Goes To Town' (1941) they did retain artistic credibility but didn't profit from the venture, the features were a box office flop, thus resulting in Paramount cutting their company funding and finally firing the Fleischer brothers.

 Norman McLaren

Norman McLaren is known as a pioneer and a historical indictment to the audio/visual filmmaking industry.  McLaren was born in Sterling Scotland in 1914, he is synonymous with his abstract style and experimental techniques. His strange use of method and 'trick shots' came underway after McLaren obtained a Cine'-Kodak camera which was the world's first 16mm film camera produced in 1923.  McLaren went on to get involved with political issues even once joining the British Communist Party. This went on to influence his following work 'Hell Unltd' (1936) which was created in the inter-war period, the film was a fusion of found footage, animation and graphics, creating a pastiche of visual and audiable warfare.

McLaren went onto find success winning an Oscar for his anti-war masterpiece 'Neighbours' the film's purpose and content was influenced by his year long stay at the People's Republic of China.

The film's simple and metephorical justice is clear, Norman's socialist expose' which helped him reach unforgetable status. The two puppet actors fight to death over a flower that grows inbetween both their homes when once appearing civil to one another. McLaren went on to live in America for the rest of his life retaining his credibility as a visual artist. He was a pioneer of Pixilation, a method in which a frame is taken and the subject's posture or figure moves or is altered slightly this gives the illusion that the subject which would be an actor appears to be moving in a puppet-like fashion. This is done by carefully taking hundreds of pictures frame by frame, McLaren will not be forgotten for his innovations and artistic endeavours.



The Godfathers of Stop Motion Animation...

George Melies

George Melies was born in 1861 in Paris, France to a middle class family, his father was a wealthy shoe manufacturer.  Melies showed an interest in the creative arts since an early age often sketching and designing backdrop sets for his own marionette shows, however his parents did not encourage his interests instead when he grew older he was allowed to take art classes in exchange for good behavior while he worked for the family business.  

The aspiring Melies interest in theatre grew and he attended as many performances as possible, after his father retired Melies sold his share of the family business and bought a theatre house.

Although he originally started out as an illusionist due to his admiration for the likes of the late Houdini,   he first discovered the 'Cut Up' technique completely by accident. This happened while he was filming traffic, a bus he was filming disappeared in the moving picture which resulted in the discovery of editing film (who'd have thought it!). This became a common technique for Melies he is probably best known for his classic 'Le Voyage Dans La Lune' otherwise 'A Trip To The Moon' which was filmed in 1902.  It took Melies three months to complete the film a phenomenal feat at that time, which catapulted Melies instantly to legendary status. 

Winsor McCay

Winsor McCay was born in Spring Lake, Michigan in the September of 1869 into a lower middle class family.  He was the son of a grocer and once real estate agent. McCay's parents wished for him to study business at Cleary's Business College in Ypsilanti, Michigan. McCay had very different ideas and instead intended to study at the Art Institute of Chicago. However McCay struggled due to a lack of financial backing and instead worked as an artist for Kohl and Middleton's Vine Street Dime Museum.

Winsom McCay is probably most famous for his strip series 'Little Nemo' 'Dreams of a Rarerabbit Fiend' and his most remembered 'Gertie the Dinosaur' animation.  This animation has been credited as the first animated character in film to demonstrate realistic characteristics. For example Gertie is asked to raise one leg and then the other and is disciplined by McCay after drinking a whole lake of water. The animation was created in 1914 the original film was selected to be preserved in the United States National Film Industry.








Lotte Reiniger

Lotte Reiniger was born in June 1899 in Berlin-Charlottenberg in the German Empire. As a young child she took a great interest in the art of Chinese silhouette puppetry. After attending a cinema viewing of one of Melies films she was interested in pursuing art of her own after recognising the endless possibilities available through animation.

After enrolling with avant-garde artists she pursued her own short animations eventually producing feature length animations.  Reiniger is more than likely known for her 1926 feature 'The Adventures of Prince Achmed' an adaptation of the book '1001 Arabian Nights'.  The film is often screened on the Turner Classic Movies channel. No original nitrate film was found of the picture in Germany post World War II.

She was then extradited to the United Kingdom where she lived for the rest of her life, she made advertisements for the Post Office until the 1980s. 

Introduction to...

Stop Motion Animation

The Persistence of Vision

Stop motion animation originated from the persistence of vision technique.  This technique was first discovered several thousand years ago by using a series of images and having them move in a certain way, this creates the illusion that the images are in fact moving.

Inventions that demonstrated the persistence of vision technique are:

• Zoetrope (180 AD China)
• Phenakistoscope (1839 Belgium)
• Ketoscope (Was first described by Thomas Edison late 18th century)
• Thaumascope (Was used in a London P.O.V. exhibition in London 1824)
• Mutoscope (1894 Herman Casler USA)