ANIMATION TECHNIQUES RESEARCH & TESTS

ANIMATION HISTORY



Animation is a technique of using a seqence of images to create an illusion of movement. Animation can be created with a camera or video programme, however there are other methods. Animation techniques can be created by hand rendered art, computer generated imagery, three dimentional objects or a combination of techniques together such as rotoscope or stop motion animation. To flow animation smoothly the devices usually use 25 frames per second. Animation started as early as when Paleolithic cave painings were created. The paintings usually had multiple sets of legs in different positions, however this could be seen as trying to convey motion.

Traditional animation also knowsn as 'cel animation' or 'hand-drawn' animation was used for most animated films of the 20th century. To create the illusion of movement each drawing was changed slightly from the previous one. The name 'cel animation' was formed because the artists would trace there drawings onto acetate sheets which are called cels. 20th Century Fox Animation Studios (1977) was one of the first animation companies to create cel form animation, examples of this work can be seen in Wizards (1977) and Fire and Ice (1983).

Animation then developed furthur with Walt Disney Feature Animation (1986-2006) which produced films such as Aladdin (1992) and The Little Mermaid (1989)

Computer animation takes less time that previous traditional animation as it's all mainly created digitally on a computer. Humorous Phases of Funny Faces (1906, considered the first example of animation) and The Haunted Hotel (1907) are good examples of computer animation. Computer Generated Animation took a step in the 1973 movie 'Westworld' produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc.

I'm going to research the more contemporary styles of animation and give examples such as:
Pixelation, stop start animation, computer generated, rotoscope, and 3D animation.

PIXELATION

Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer

In this example, photos of Peter Gabriel have been took of each syllable and action he does, and then combined together to create a smooth animation. What makes this video unique is the fact it wasn't just Peter that used stop motion, other objects around him had been moved to to create an abstract effect. Another reason this is unique is other medias have been used in the process such as claymation.

PIXELATION & MIXED MEDIA
Russell Howard's Good News Title Sequence.

I like this example as realism and pixelisation has been used, and he interacts with the woman on the TV screen at 0:05. I think this video is quite simple but effective because of the props used.

One music video animation which I found when researching that I find inspiring and very interesting is called "Rivers and Homes" by "J.viewz". The animation includes 300 of the band's fans which each hold one frame of the band's music video, then a photograph is taken of the fan and the image they're holding to create a second animation frame. The final outcome is that the music video in the center of the screen appears normally to create a kind of illusion when the two videos are combined together.

STOP MOTION ANIMATION

I like this hand drawn stop motion as it uses 3D obvjects and hand drawn photos that have been cut out an manipulated to fit with the scene.

COMPUTER GENERATED IMAGERY (CGI):

This example is one of my favorites as it looks really well planned out with a variety of imagery and colour to attract the audiences attention.
CLAYMATION: 


Looking at the 'making of xbox' video, I can see the way the video has been constructed, from the use of lighting to keep continuity to the use of editing to reverse the clip to make it look like he's putting the clay together. I think claymation is a good technique to use as it brings the photos to life and can easily be manipulated. However, it may be hard to work with if in a hot environment and the fact the clay could easily be ruined if in the wrong hands.

ROTOSCOPING:

Rotoscoping was invented by Max Fleischer in his series 'Out of the Inkwell' in 1915. Max and his brother both starred as the live film reference for the character Koko the Clown and dressed themselves in a clown outfit. Max Fleischer then went onto creating the Fleischer studios in 1929 (originally Inkwell Studios in 1921).

A-Ha  - Take On Me 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djV11Xbc914

This video uses hand drawn sketches called a rotoscoping animation. The animators Michael Patterson and Candace Reckinger traced frame by frame to create realistic movements in the characters. I like the fact it uses rotoscoping with live-action instead of just full rotoscoping as this creates an alternate reality and a unique video. I like the fact it starts with a comic book as this helps establish the theme of the video it is going to be. The video won 6 awards and was nominated for two others at the MTV Video Music Awards in 1986.

Rotoscoping GIF example.

I decided to test out a few of the harder techniques to see how much planning would need to go into creating the video.

I tried out hand rendered stop start motion, claymation and CGI.

I used the song 'Round Up' by 'Rizzle Kicks' to test out these techniques.

STOP MOTION

Stop motion construction:

Stop motion final test: (ignore last few seconds this was for the CGI test)

CLAYMATION:

I bought some cheap flour and salt to create the base for the clay, and then used different food colourings to make it more realistic.

Final claymation test of 'curtain rising':
I decided to abort this test as the standard of work was really low and I knew it would take time to get real clay to form a good shape.
 

HAND DRAWN/CGI

Planning & Construction: Clown scene construction and final:

Although I'm happy with the CGI technique it was too time consuming. I have looked at After Effects but found it hard to get used to. I also looked at a few tutorials for Anime Studio to create bone structures to have a smoother path but once again found it quite hard to adapt to in the time I have considering I had to changing my idea once already.



I'm going to do some furthur research into some media texts and then decide which animation route I want to go down.