Stop Motion Evaluation

We were given the task to create three animation shorts lasting 10 seconds each. We had to use different things in order to create effective stop motion animation. The three things we based our animations around where Humans, Inanimate objects and Lego, specifically mouth movement. These three things allowed us to understand the positives and negatives that each thing has, and gave us an idea of how difficult stop motion animation actually is. This would ultimately allow us to get an idea of what method we would use when it came to making our actual 10 second E4 Indent.

Positives

The first stop motion short we made was based on humans. For this we decided that in order to create the best stop motion animation possible we would have to do something that would normally be impossible. This is because if we did something simple that a human could normally do then we might as well just film normally. This inspired us to use different props inside the short, we decided it would be a good idea to make it look as if a ladder was gliding along the floor, with somebody riding it. This not only allowed for the video to have an impossible perception, but also made the video a lot more interesting which was the first positive. The next thing we did was have the ladder go round the corner with somebody on it, this then would transform into somebody else riding a ‘Magic Carpet’. The carpet would be sliding along the floor, which is another impossible feature that we managed to show. This would ultimately lead to the person clicking their fingers and transforming into yet another person. The whole stop motion short came out good and endorsed our idea that we wanted to make the impossible possible. We used the editing process to our advantage massively, as we added in a fitting backing track, as well as adding special effects that would help the clips quality get even higher. The use of the camera was also positive as we kept even movement on the camera, which allowed for a smooth movement between frames.

The second animated short we produced was the inanimate object based one. For this we decided to have a pack of playing cards jumping out of their packets and play themselves in a game of poker. This yet again allowed for the video to have an ‘impossible’ feel that is needed in order to make the stop motion worthwhile, instead of just filming.  The things we did well included smooth movements between frames which allowed for a high-quality product that looked smooth. This is always important when creating an animation as without the smooth frame transitions the whole animation would just look like a bunch of images all placed in a row. I fell as if the narrative of this animation was also good, it was creative and had a sense of humour about it, this is shown with the scream that is produced out of the playing card when the human walks back into the room, this then leads to all the playing cards running back into the box, as well as when one of the playing cards wins he does a little shake from side to side in order to show the happiness. I feel as if we put this across well, even though we were just animation with playing cards, I think we created good emotion in the brief time we had. another thing I think was positive about the animation was the originality of the idea, I feel as if we came up with something that few people have done before and I think we demonstrated this narrative in a high-quality manor, through the planning, filming and editing process.

The third video we produced was the Stop Motion animation based around the Lego, more specifically animating the mouths of creatures we created to look as if they had just said “Lego of me” which in my opinion is a great pun. This was challenging as it was essential we used the correct mouth shapes that would correspond with the words that would be said. This was important as if we didn’t get this correct mouth movement it would not look realistic. I feel as if we created this well, and I think we got the mouth movement correct. This was positive as it isn’t necessarily the easiest thing to do. another thing we did well was the editing process, we had effective use of backing music and the audio matched up well with the mouth movement. This animation was the easiest to create out of the three, which made the errors that we did make shine through a lot more clearly than on the previous two. I really liked the zoom we used in the middle of the animation, this zoomed on the creatures’ face to give the audience an even clearer view of his mouth. This also made the camera work a lot more interesting as if this zoom hadn’t been applied the camera would have just sat still and not moved the whole way through the animation, which wouldn’t have been as high quality.

Negatives

The first human based animation had some negatives. The first being the location of the filming, I feel we could have made more effort into the location, which ultimately would allow for the animation to have a higher quality level. The other thing that I thought was negative about the video was the narrative, we didn’t have any strong narrative which didn’t allow for the audience to connect with the video. This is also similar for emotion, emotion is key when using animation especially, this I important as it is what really connects the audience to the characters.

The second video, that is based on the inanimate objects had some negatives too. I feel as if we could have shown slightly more emotion, although we present some emotion, I feel as If we could have shown a bit more. The other thing we could have done Is used slightly higher video production, the fact that we just used a dark table means that a lot of the video has a darker colour pallet then I would have liked. This is something that I would change next time to create a higher production quality.

The last animation we created, based on Lego had some negatives too, we had to have the creature collapse to follow the narrative. We did not do this effectively in my opinion. This is because we jumped straight from the normal standing creature to the collapsed. This shows a slight lapse in the continuity of the stop motion animation. We also had a lack of narrative in the scene. This is something that is crucial. This is something that I will be implementing into the esting I create.

For my animation I think I will be using Lego. This is mainly because it was a good method in which we created a good short clip. The main thing I would like to do is implement both Lego and inanimate objects, I feel as if this is the way that we will create the highest quality stop motion animation, and it also will allow us to creates a highly creative and original esting, with ten seconds it could be difficult to establish a target audience, but with the objects we can create the TA alot easier by simply choosing specific objects to cater for our audience.