Friday 11 October 2013

Stop Motion Animation

Cut out Animation


Both these videos obey the rules of persistence of vision as the different images put together create a mini animation which shows 2 cut outs moving towards each other and towards a tv. It is clear what the animation is trying to show, for example, the second video shows a man moving towards a tv screen to switch it on.
The animation does and does not follow some of the basic principles of animation. When the person is moving  towards the TV, there is no follow through action or overlapping action which makes the character seem less life like. Although when the person's arms are moving, the action follows one of the basic principles of animation as the arm movement is in an arc, making the movement seem more natural.
I feel like there could be more effort put into creating this animation. Some pictures that were taken were not in focus and this slightly affected the final product. Also, the limbs were moved too much between taking pictures so the animation doesn't flow as smoothly as it should. Next time I would remember to stick down the paper on the desk as well as the cut out on the paper to stop everything moving too much. I like the concept of the animation and how the figure moves to the TV to switch it on. It shows how cut out animation works.


Play Doh


This animation shows a snowman being hit my something and falling over. Again the animation shows how persistence of vision works and how a series of pictures put together shows a motion.
The animation also shows one of the basic principles of animation, exaggeration where the thing that hits the snowman is a lot bigger than the snowman itself, making it seem more threatening.
I think I could have put more effort into making a better play doh animation by thinking of a more creative animation which would properly show play doh animation. I could have made the snowman's arms move or made use of the scaffolding to make better figures. I feel that this animation seems more realistic than the cut out as there are more pictures taken between each movement making it run smoothly.

Sand Animation
The pictures that were taken between each small change in the sand put together create the vision of a small boat moving across the water because of persistence of vision, the brain intercepts the pictures and makes them seem continuous to give the impression of a small animation.
This animation obeys the rules of some of the basic principles of animation. When the boat is moving forwards in the animation, you can see the wind moving behind it which is the secondary action and this makes the animation seem more realistic.
I think my efforts were good when making this animation as the idea was creative and the animation successfully shows how sand animation works. The animation could have been improved by being careful when drawing the images on the sand and making sure the sand doesn't move and looks the same other wise the animation gets ruined and doesn't look professional.

Pixelation
This animation shows a person walking back and forth and another person moving their arms up to down. The pictures taken between each small movement change put together creates this short sequence, relying on persistence of vision to create the illusion of movement.
As the subject of the animation was  not drawn, most basic rules of animation don't apply to this film. Although good and bad staging is important in animation to properly show what the character is doing or saying. We used some staging techniques in this clip, when walking back and forth the person was faced sideways purposely so it is easier for the audience to focus on the foot movement. By facing away and towards the walls, the audience is more inclined to look at the movement of the character which is important to the clip as it's the main part of the animation.
I think we were successful in showing what pixelation is through the animation we made but it could have been better. We could have thought of a more creative idea which would make the animation more interesting. Also, we could have shot it in a different place as we kept getting disturbed and had to rush.


Small Objects

The animation shows a trail of cars moving around where towards the end one of the cars crashes over the other. While taking pictures of the cars, some shots were ruined so I had to take them out of the sequence and this left little gaps in the animation which makes the movement look more jerky.
The animation includes a slight bit of anticipation, one of the basic principles of animation right before the car is about to crash over the other. The audience may not have been expecting this and may cause some surprise.
Again, I feel like we could have been more creative when creating this animation and done something more with the cars. Next time I would make the movement smaller and take more pictures so the animation runs more smoothly.