There are many different types and forms of animation, that includes:
-Paper animation: which is a very stylised form of animation and reminded me of the animation style of some Pixar animations. This really surprised me with the potential that stop frame animation had.
Rebecca also showed us examples of augmented animation in which stop frame animation is used with a combination of a green screen. I was introduced to concepts of animation that I had never even considered before, like how fabrics, watercolours and markers could be used to create animation backgrounds or even the entire animation with characters included.
One of the most creative animations I have seen was created by the artist 'BLU' in which they created an animation by painting each frame onto walls on buildings, taking a photo and then painting the next frame over this. This must have been extremely time consuming making the end result something that is much more appreciated and inspiring.
I found the animation style and the affect that it had on the environment very interesting, I have to admit the characters created and the narrative produced is creepy as some of the characters quite literally creep around and lurk within this urban landscape.
More modern examples of what stop frame animation is used in includes the famous characters Wallace and Gromit as well as the classic film 'Nightmare before Christmas', in which Clay animation was combined with Stop Frame Animation. A very sinister and disturbing clay animation by, Jan Svankmajer can be seen below:
Jan Svankmajer was a surrealist artist who drew on his skills of puppetry and experimental theatre within a surrealist group so that they could work on creating an exploration made into three parts, that experimented with how humans communicate and what go wrong within communication. I personally felt the most discomfort from 7 minutes, 25 seconds onward as the concept becomes quite violent and they begin to destroy each other as they fight.
Another form of animation comes in 'Overhead human animation' in which the animation works with the body and other physical objects, it allows for some experimental and abstract work to be created and gravity doesn't need to be realistic as you are posing on the floor which provides you with the freedom to do whatever you want.
Cel animation was used by Disney, originally creating one image after another on transparent cells. Many animators would have worked on creating the thousands of frames required within an episode or full length film. Animation used by Disney and most other mainstream animation teams are now using a modern technique of 3D digital animation.
During the animation workshop there were different tables that involved different animation activities.
Animation table 1- working in pairs moving around a space.
1) Create an info board.
2) Align top of camera to the masking tape to keep the framing the same.
3) Slowly manoeuvre objects to create a narrative that displays what happens within the scene.
Animation table 2- working within a space, creating a sequence from working from above.
1) Create an info board.
2) Align the camera so that it frames the board edges.
3) The objects are all on a coloured shape, explore by moving the object from on shape to another.
Animation table 3- working with space, colour and shape to create an abstract animation that considers movement.
1) Create an info board.
2) Create markers for your alignments using masking tape.
3) Explore by using the materials provided.
4) Consider the static element of the animation whether it's the object on the housing of the projector.
Animation table 4- working with the body and space. Using green screen consider movement and narrative, as well as props and the use of the industry standard program 'Dragon Frame'.
1) Create folder on the desktop area of the computer.
2) Open 'Dragon Frame'.
3) Select a new project.
4) Export as 'FreddieAnim' in folder.
On the first animation task:
- I started by helping Dan create his animation that broke the forth wall of animation. This ended up becoming a grouped project as we worked together one this.
-Dan's hands are visible during the frames of the animation and it is clear that there is a person controlling and manipulating the scene. He is a part of the animation now and it implies that this is an almost surreal animation and experience that merges reality with this small story we had created.
-Dan made the animation humorous by interacting with the miniature objects into a jokes as he tries to use a tiny set of knife and forks to eat his meal. A large portion of the animation was improvised and one of our friends Jay joined the story of the animation as someone who humorously attacks Dan's hand with a tiny weapon and ruins his meal.
The animation is below:
On the second animation task:
-We loaded the program 'Dragon Frame' and this time we just wanted to experiment and explore what we could do without any real use of narrative.
-We messed about with ideas and didn't plan on creating anything serious.
-We also wanted to experiment with the frame rate that we recorded and exported as. WE attempted to record at 60FPS, this meant that it took much longer to record, however it created a smoother animation at the end result (with Dan acting out twice as many frames as normal).
Overall this work workshop had been really fun and allowed for some humorous animations to be made, if I were to do this again I don't think I would change anything as I learnt a lot about animation and had a very enjoyable time executing it.
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