The Requirements of Working to a Brief

     A brief or a project brief is a set of instructions given to someone containing details about a job or a task, if you're are given a brief then the likely chances are that you work for someone and have been commissioned. When you are commissioned it means that you're working for someone who wants you specific skill set, once you are working for them you will then receive a brief to follow and produce what the commissioner has asked. When commissioned you are working for a company and will be working under that company's name, however the company will offer you a price for once the job has been completed this is often known as a tender. If you are not commissioned you can still sometimes have to work to a brief for example if you're entering a competition for some solo work you may have to follow certain rules and regulations such as we had to when making our E4 Esting. There wasn't many rules to follow however one was that we had to use the 10 second soundtracks provided by E4 and another was that it had to be exactly 10 seconds in length otherwise it wouldn't be accepted.

     When reading a brief it is important to make sure you carefully analyze it and go through every detail so that you can meet the standard that the commissioner expects from you, by using the brief you can use it as a guide to aid you in the making of your product to make sure that it is what is being asked for. Another criteria for the E4 Esting competition brief was that it had to have the E4 logo in it weather it's a picture at the end or integrated into the idea however it does say that the preference is for it to be integrated into the idea so by using the competition brief you can come up with a better idea that may even help you win!



     When working with my brief I made sure that I understood everything in it and if I didn't I would ask for help from my teacher so that I could fully understand. It's important to fully understand your brief in the media industry so that you know what is expected of you and to know exactly what your commissioner wants and doesn't want. When it came to interpreting a brief you may be challenged depending on what was asked of you for example if you were asked to write a script for a TV series then you creativity could be challenged or restricted however there may be some guidelines to help you along the process. If you really are stuck then it can sometimes be a good idea to research the company you are commissioned under and by looking at some of the previous and newest work you can begin to form an idea of what the commissioner may be expecting from you.























     When working to a brief you may face some constraints and legal issues, the main causes for these would be company logos, copyrighted music or other items that may be copyrighted. The best way to avoid this is to not put in any company logos or song that you don't have permission to use however these may not be you're only concerns. Sometimes you can face ethical constraints this can occur if you have used any extreme explicit or offensive content and could result badly in your name. As for my own E4 Estings project I made sure there was no legal or ethical issues meaning that I easily met the brief.

















      When my project was finished the only things I needed to amend were the photos as they were not quite bright enough so during the editing process I would just turn the brightness and contrast up slightly to make the background slightly brighter. Sometimes you may have to make amendments, this can be for multiple reasons such as not being able to afford certain things such as props due to budgeting or maybe there was something specific outlined in the contract that was left it. By talking to your commissioner and getting a budget set for what is needed can save a lot of time and future problems helping to resolve this issue.

     There are many reasons as to why someone would respond to a brief, one of which is to increase their skills and knowledge with directing, camera work or pre-production work depending on what they have been asked to do. Another would be for experience as this would help them in future projects and could even help them get on to future projects if the final product is successful however someone could possibly just respond to a brief based on the money which is a valid reason. When making the E4 Esting I had several opportunities for self development with many things such as directing, camera work, editing and pre-production paperwork. Sometimes I would have to do multiple things at once such as directing and operating the camera, although this was difficult it did provide me with some essential new skills as this time around we were filming with DSLR's which I hadn't done much of before hand so I picked up some new skills for filming on DSLR's. When I look at the project brief I notice that I made some contribution to all of the requirements for the E4 Esting competition. I done this by managing my time effectively and made sure I was always doing something and always contributing to the project and by doing so I met the requirements for the E4 Estings competition.

           

Bibliography:
http://estings.e4.com/competition
http://www3.hants.gov.uk/arts-commissioning/what-is-commission.htm

Animation Evaluation

     There are many different ways to review this animation projects such as using Prezi or presenting a form of Audio commentary however I will be producing a written report to review my project. I am doing this because it is the easiest and quickest way to summarize a lot of information in great detail. Unlike a Prezi or PowerPoint in a written report I am able to provide a lot of detail and makes sure I include everything where as if I were to present it I would have to use bullet points and short sentence and explain the rest so there is a possibility that I might miss something out making it safer, easier and quicker to review it in a written report.

            

     Before I could even begin to review my work I also need feedback from other people so I would have to exhibit my work. I done this by uploading my Esting to YouTube and looking at some of the comments for feedback however I soon discovered that more was needed. I gathered more response by making a survey on surveymonkey.com and put this on social network sites such as Facebook and Twitter and also emailed it to some friends on my college email. I gathered a reasonable amount of responses from this so that I could write an evaluation however I could have gathered more response by disrupting it more widely such as putting it on forums and multiple other websites. Another way to gain the information would have been by doing focus groups or interviews, that way it would have reached a larger audience and I could have got a wider range of responses.

     My main way of obtain responses was through the Survey Monkey questionnaire. I asked mainly people of similar age to me by sending it to friends in college and sharing it with friends on Facebook and Twitter. I thought this would be the best way to collect responses as E4 target audience seems to be my age group so it made sense to me to ask my age group what they thought about it. Most of the people that saw my Esting gave very positive responses saying how it was a unique idea and generally people liked it however there were some pieces of constructive criticism but this will help me if I ever re do it. To get some of these question I had to ask very specific questions including ones to find out who my audience is so what question did I ask?

"Are you male or female?"

     Most of the audience I asked were Male however I would not say this is a bad thing as E4 seems to be just a little bit more male orientated so in fact this works out to my advantage slightly. However as long as I ask the target audience of teenage and young adults weather they're male or female then the amount of males and females asked shouldn't be a problem.

 "How old are you?"

     I managed to ask my target audience of males and females that are teenagers and young adults which is displayed in the graph so the response I gather from the rest of the survey will prove to be very useful to me and how well my Esting turned out and also what I could do to improve it.

"Did you like the Esting?"

     It seems that everybody I asked said they like the Esting which is good as that's also E4's target audience. But what exactly did they like about it?

"What did you like or dislike about it?"

     When I asked what people particularly liked about it I found that a lot of the answers said about how "fluid" or "smooth" it was.Another person said about it being professional which is good to hear because it means people can imagine this Esting being shown on E4.

"What genre and style did you think it was?"

     Most of the responses I received here said that they thought it was an animation or stop frame animation so it was clear to the audience that it was meant to be this style.

"Did you see a narrative (a story)?"

     Although most of the responses I received here said they didn't see a narrative or story someone did mention about there being themes instead such as friendship and fun. This is probably best shown in the Esting through the fact that there are many of us taking part in this project yet we're all wearing the East Norfolk purple t-shirts showing we are friends having fun in a small community.

"Are there any technical features you thought could be better? If so how?"

     Most of the responses gathered from the question were things I had picked up on myself, the main one was people saying about how it could have been in a different location for each photo or to make the background and area around it more bright and colorful as it was an E4 Esting.



     Overall the general reaction received was highly positive however there was the odd bit of constructive criticism here and then which I would agree with but from the responses gathered I wouldn't say that anyone said they disliked the Esting.

     There were some constraints that we encountered whilst developing this Esting, one of them was the fact that we could only use set music given to us by E4 so it was hard trying to find a song that matched our Esting however this was not our biggest problem. I would say the biggest problem we had was printing the photos as they were printed on photo paper so it did cost money and time, this restricted us to how often and when we were able to film however we did get around this. Despite having this problem we managed our time well making sure that we used any spare time we had effectively by filling in other bits of coursework, preparing everything we needed for the next stage of filming or even editing and working with what we already had so this ensured we always had something to do.

     I felt that we meet the requirements of the brief well, keeping to the rules and guidelines that E4 had set and still managing to produce a good Esting that people enjoyed, although there wasn't many rules and guidelines to stick to it is still important to make sure you do so and keep to the brief so that you don't face any issues further down the line. After the Esting was made we set it to obtain some feedback, although most of the feedback received was off of survey monkey we did also ask other people what the thought of it such as family, friends and tutors. Most of the feedback received was generally very positive with only a few bits of constructive criticism here and there but this is to be expected when you showcase your work and this helps you to develop better projects in the future.

     From working on this project it has proven to be a bit of a challenge when it comes to working to a brief. In some ways it can be easier but other ways it can be harder. I find it easier because I know what I have to do but then it becomes more difficult when I start to consider how to do it, this is when I begin to feel that my creativity is being limited and can sometimes find it hard getting creative ideas within that brief. It's for these reasons that I don't feel I would be suitable in working in an environment that meant I had to work towards a brief, it's not that I feel I couldn't do it but I do feel that I would be much better in a situation where my creativity would be allowed to flow much more freely. After doing this unit I feel that animation would not be a viable career option for me. Although I thoroughly enjoy animation in it's finished product and highly respect it I don't really have the patience for making it and it doesn't feel as natural to me as live action does meaning that it would probably not be a viable career choice.

Research & Planning: E4 & The Brief

     During our next unit we will be looking into making an Esting for E4 using stop motion animation either using claymation or live action animation based on our test projects and how easily, or in some cases, badly they went. However before we jump into what Esting I will be making lets have a look at a bit of background information.

A Brief history of E4

     E4 is a channel that is run by the Channel 4 Television Corporation and was launched on January 18th 2001 so has been around for nearly 13 years. Most of E4's program's are comedies such as The Ricky Gervais Show, Skins and The Inbetweeners and they also have a lot of american import shows such as The Big Bang Theory, The Cleveland Show, How I Met Your Mother, Smallville and Scrubs. These are some of the more regular and popular showings on E4 however they do have a wider variety. I would say that the primary target audience for E4 is teenagers and mainly British teenagers as well. I say this because although there are a lot of american shows on E4 British people still watch them and find them funny where as if you get something like The Inbetweeners and show it to an American audience chances are that they wouldn't find it very funny. This is because of how unique The Inbetweeners is to a British audience, the reason we find it so funny is because it appeals to our demographic and this is because we can relate to it because it takes very British things and makes them funny so it's much easier for us to relate to and find humorous.



     When you start to look into Psychographic profiles for the channel you can start to see that due to the wide range of shows that are being shown they really do try to hone into the 40% of the population, the mainstreamers and mostly the 'norm' of the population however I would say that this would include the individuals as well because they are often young and hard to put into a category. So with there main target audience being Teenagers of the British public and mostly being that 40% of the population who is their secondary audience? I would say their secondary audience is mainly young adults between 20-30 but the thing about this channel is they have such a wide variety of shows that it can attract almost anyone. For example I am a 17 year old student who enjoys most of the content on E4 and whilst my parents won't watch The Big Bang theory they will quite happily sit their and watch The Inbetweeners. It's hard to narrow down a secondary audience but I would say young adults in specific whilst still keeping the same Psychographic British Audience, although some American channels would have picked up the British program's such as The Inbetweeners so that an american audience can still view it despite not having access to the channel E4. Other channels owned by the Channel 4 Television corporation include Channel 4, More4, Film4 followed by a long list of music channels such as 4Music, Kerrang, KissTV, Magic, Heat and many more. By the list of other channels owned it seems that the target audience for E4 is not just for that channel but for the whole Channel 4 Television Corporation as most of the channels they own and the program's they show seem to be primarily aimed at a Teenage or Young Adult audience making it seem that the conventions apply to not only the channel but the Corporation itself.



E4 & The Estings

     The main question about all of this really has to be what is an Esting?  An Esting is listen in the urban dictionary as copying "the personality, clothing and/or social group of a person." So the fact that there are E4 Estings could raise a lot of question however I think the most accurate response for a E4 is Esting is about trying to take what the channel stands for and what the channel's personality is and then condense that into a 10 second channel ident. This way it's advertisement for the channel whilst accurately summing up what E4 is all about for a new audience member into a quick 10 second video. E4 has got many Estings, some more memorable and creative than others but here are just a few.



     The content in this Esting displays a clear Sci-Fi genre and the sound track supports this perfectly. I would say the audience for this genre is fairly wide but mainly it would be for young adults. I say this because there are a lot more Sci-Fi based things that are older and the younger generation are not likely to have seen so the Sci-Fi genre is more aimed towards a slightly older audience. What I like about this particular Esting is  narrative and what happens in it, also I like the colors and how vibrant they are, it really catches you eye and stands out which makes it a lot easier to become engrossed with whats going on.



     For this Esting I would say that the content showed displays a Comedy genre and this is shown really well through some of the facial expressions used. I think that once again this is aimed at an audience for teenagers and young adults, the reason I think this is because of the choice of actress in it. She is clearly a young person and very attractive so they use this to their advantage and cleverly use the male gaze to bring in their target audience. There are many things I like about this Esting, one is the smoothness of it and how fluid it is in movements like when she is spinning around, it plays with the possibilities of stop motion animation really well and it looks very effective as a result of that.



     I would say that the content for this Esting is again of the Comedy genre and aimed strongly at a teenage audience but also young adults. The way the animation moves and what actually happens in the narrative is very comical especially to a more immature audience so it pays off really well and appeals to the target audience very effectively. Something that I really like about this Esting is the combination of live action animation and claymation, it works in a very unique way but looks very professional, smooth and clean in the finish especially due to how well modeled the characters are.

Planning & Preparation

     In order to accurately respond to the brief some planning and preparation took place before hand to help use gather an understanding of how animation works and the best ways to effectively manipulate them. We started by looking at some of the oldest forms of animation and began to work our way forward to the modern day.



     The first form of animation we looked at was the Thaumatrope and the aim here was to draw to separate images and when spun on a piece of paper with string at each end it would combine each image to create the illusion of one image instead of two separate ones.



     The next form of animation we looked at was the Zoetrope and this was our first look at how actually animation techniques take place. The aim here was to create a sequence of images that when  spun gave the illusion of movement. This was a bit more difficult than the previous one and required more time and effort however for the best results it was advised to use a sequence that was continuous so the end would link to the beginning.



     The next form of animation we looked at was the Praxinoscope. This was very similar to the Zoetrope however instead of watching it through little slits the illusion of movement was created through the use of mirrors. The aim her was similar to before, create a sequence that when spun around would create the illusion of movement however when drawing it out we had to be careful otherwise we could slip into the next frame.



     The first form of modern animation we looked at was claymation. The objective her was to create a Clay character, in my case it was Oreo the Raccoon, then move them ever so slightly each frame so we can create the illusion of movement. If done carefully this could look very effective and realistic.



     The final form of animation we looked at was Live action. The main aim here was again to create the illusion of movement through multiple images. This could be down in many creative ways, my group done Mario kart and by making cardboard cut outs and moving them a little bit each frame it would give the illusion that the karts are moving however many different and unique methods of travel can be developed this way.

My planned Esting

     After looking at what I have made I have decided that I will make a live action animation for my E4 Esting as opposed to a claymation one due to how much hassle it took making a claymation animation. Although it was hard making a live action one as well I personally found it even harder working with clay as if something fell over you couldn't control it and movements were harder to control in a subtly way. For this reason I will be making a Live action animation Esting for E4.

Research and Planning: Designing an Esting

     For my Esting I will be making it in the format of a Live Action Animation and the idea will be pretty simple and will consist of someone drawing the E4 logo on a whiteboard and the the logo will move move around the board and around the persons head as it then starts to multiple with the biggest one being in the middle. It will be set in a classroom so in regards to locations, finance and practicality it should be fine as it is a simple idea that shouldn't require a big budget at all to film however I do have some concerns with other aspects of it.

      The fact that audio of some kind will be used proves to be a concern but that's only if we use something that E4 hasn't allowed us to as they have given a list of the music and sound effects that we are allowed to use so providing we can find one to fit it shouldn't be a problem. My other concern with it is as we are doing this on a whiteboard and moving the logo around the board will change in each picture because we will have wiped it away meaning that it may leave marks on the board, this may not be a big problem at all it's just something that crossed my mind and may prove to be a problem. The target audience for my proposed Esting fits in with E4's audience as it is mainly aimed at teenagers but more specifically anyone that is in school or college and in that class room environment and that will be easily relateable for them but include some humorous elements in it making the idea of being in a school or college not as bad.

     This is the main character for the animation and he will be the one to doodle on the board whilst the teacher is away and then to witness the chaos that unfolds on the board once the E4 logo starts to fly around the board and multiple. Dave has always been the class clown and does anything to get attention so by doing a simple doodle on the board when the teacher isn't looking is the best way he can think of getting the classes attention.

The location is a class room and as the teacher goes away Dave will go an wipe the board clean before starting his doodling. The location is good for lighting as you can turn all the lights on in the room for a bright picture especially as the room is white as well so the light well bounce around well keeping the characters and board well lit.





     There are some difficulties to consider with this particular Esting, the first being the location as it's a classroom so filming timed will be limited to the lessons we have in there and lunch times as most of the time it will be busy with other lessons. Also there might be some conflict in the actors schedule due to when thy're available for filming and this might even go on to clash with the location itself and when we can use it presenting us with a very limited time period when we are able to film it. It's due to these reason that it might not be as practical as originally thought and if his does prove to be a problem when filming we might struggle to keep within the time frame.

     My main target audience for the Esting is teenagers between the age of 13 - 19 who are studying in school or college as this way it will be easy for them to relate to. It will also be easy for younger or older audiences to relate to as they will all know what it's like to be in that environment as they are either at school or have been to school so they know of the distractions and boredom that occur in the classroom environment.

The History and Development of Animation

The History and Development of Animation Part 1

Persistence of Vision
     Persistence of vision and the way we see images makes up a big part of animation, how it works and what makes it possible for us to see. Without our brains functioning in this way animation would not be how we know it today and it would have had to evolve in a very different way making the way it came to be very unique, but what exactly is persistence of vision? The term Persistence of vision refers to the phenomenon where the retina retains an image for a short period of time after the image was actually seen and this is why when we view in a closely timed sequence from one another it creates the illusion of movement and motion. That is the basics of how animation is possible and upon knowing this we can look into the pioneers of animation, their techniques and those credited for it.


Source: http://animation.about.com/od/glossaryofterms/g/pervision_def.htm

Thaumatrope
     The thaumatrope, whose name means turning marvel, is "credited to the astronomer credited Sir John Herschel. However, it was a well-known London physicist, Dr. John A. Paris, who made this toy popular." The thaumatrope was the first of many optical toys, however unlike later optical illusions the thaumatrope could only really merge to images together to create one, later optical illusions would then improve on that and actually create the illusion of movement. A thaumatrope is a simple device in the shape of a disc with an image on each side with string at each side of the disc. The images would preferable compliment one another such as a bird and a cage or as in the image above Jack Skellington and a pumpkin, then whilst holding the string if you spin the discs it gives the illusion of the two images no longer being separate and looking like they have instead merged together to form one whole image. This is the only illusion it can really create however the phenakistoscope would greatly improve upon this and would become one of the first device to create an optical illusion of movement.

Source: http://courses.ncssm.edu/gallery/collections/toys/html/exhibit06.htm

Phenakistoscope
     The phenakistoscope was invented by Belgian physicist Joseph Plateau in 1832, however "It was also invented independently in the same year by Simon von Stampfer of Vienna, Austria, who called his invention a stroboscope" but Joseph Plateau is the one credited for this invention. The phenakistoscope works with two discs, the first one has slits along the edge whilst the second has images drawn in each respective frame with slight movements in each image. The device would then be spun in front of a mirror whilst looking through the slits in the first disc and it would then give the illusion of movement as you can see in the image above. The phenakistoscope eventually hit the market where it went by many different name such as the Phantasmascope, Fantoscope and phenakistiscope in Britain and many other countries. The device was very popular until the invention of the Zoetrope which also allowed multiple people to view it at the same time.

Source: http://courses.ncssm.edu/gallery/collections/toys/html/exhibit07.htm

Zoetrope
     The zoetrope was invented by William Horner who receives full credit to the zoetrope however it was originally called a Daedalum meaning wheel of the Devil and strangely the device became forgotten for nearly thirty years until it became patented in England by M. Bradley and in America by William F. Lincoln.  Lincoln renamed the Daedalum, giving it the name of "zoetrope," or "wheel of life." The Zoetrope consists of a drum with an open top mounted onto a central axis. It has slots cut into the side of the drum at an equal distance from each other and there are images on the other side which give the illusion of movement when the device is spun and the faster the spin the more fluent the movement as you can see in the image above. The zoetrope allowed more than one person to view it at a time however the praxinoscope offered a brighter and clearer image than the Zoetrope.

Source: http://courses.ncssm.edu/gallery/collections/toys/html/exhibit10.htm

                           
Praxinoscope
     The praxinoscope was invented by Charles Reynaud and was the first device to overcome the picture distortion caused by viewing through moving slots.  The image produced is more brilliant than with any previous devices. Because of this advance, it quickly replaced the zoetrope. The praxinoscope works by having a string of images in a shallow outer cylinder whilst having mirrors in the center to reflect the image and once spun it gives the illusion of movement and is viewed in the mirrors. Using this principle, Reynaud found a way to project the series of pictures onto a screen.  He called this the "Theatre Optique." It featured a standard praxinoscope only with a longer string of images so he was able to create a longer animation and show it to an audience

Source: http://courses.ncssm.edu/gallery/collections/toys/html/exhibit11.htm

                           

Kinetoscope
     The kinetoscope was created William Kennedy Laurie Dickson however he was under the employment of Thomas Edison so full credit was given to him. Kinetoscope is made from the greek words Kineto which means "movement" and scopos which means "to watch", The machines operates on a film threaded roller where a series of images is continually rolled over a tiny projector to give the illusion of a kind of short film look a like once viewed. The video above gives a brief demonstration of how the Kinetoscope works and what it looks like when viewed. The kinetoscope took a big leap into the world of animation and helped shape what it is today. All of these basic animation types along with there creators and those credited for it laid the building blocks for the world of animation that we know and love today. Without these revolutionary techniques animation would not be where it is today and it is thanks to these almost ancient inventions that we can enjoy full 3D animation movies such as Toy Story and Finding Nemo. Animation really has come a long way from two separate images on a spinning disc to where it is today and hopefully it will continue to grow and shape the modern world even further with more amazing inventions.

Source: http://inventors.about.com/od/kstartinventions/a/Kinetoscope.htm

     As animation evolved from moving images in a Zoetrope or looking at them in a mirror the slowly turned into cartoons and 3D models and images but this couldn't have been possible without the help of certain individuals in the film industry.

The History and Development of Animation Part 2

George Pal


George Pal was one of the Pioneers in stop motion animation and has inspired many other top motion artist. His most famous work was that of the puppetoons or the Jasper series. He was born in Austria-Hungary and eventually moved to Berlin but did emigrate to America shortly before the Nazis came to power. Whilst in Berlin George Pal worked for Paramount Pictures and developed severally of his famous animations, the puppetoons, using handcrafted figures which were changed each frame and when played created movement. After working on puppetoons and other cartoon animations George Pal eventually went to live action films where his most famous films where of the science fiction and fantasy genre, George Pal even worked on films such as The War Of The Worlds and it was when he made these films that George Pal really became a big success and these are the one most people will remember him for today but nevertheless his work on cartoon stop motion animations was still highly influential and would go on to inspire others in the years to come.

                                                 

The Brothers Quay

The brothers Quay are identical twins born in Pennsylvania and are said to be two of the worlds most original film makers. They are both directors, screenwriters, cinematographers and animators and they first began making animated shorts together during the 70's. Most of their work is rather unique and seems to be quite surreal and dark to most people as most of their work consists of puppets and dolls coming to life. Some of their most notable works include; a street of crocodiles which I have shown below, This dream that one calls human life and The piano turner of earthquakes. Just from the titles you get the sense that their work is rather dark and sinister but nevertheless they are still regarded today to have made some of the best stop motion animations seen.

                             
    

Adam Shaheen (Cuppa Coffee)


Adam Shaheen is a British animator, television producer and screenwriter, he is also the original founder of cuppa coffee studios which is Canada's oldest privately owned animation studio. Adam is a claymation animator as he use clay and Plasticine to make his characters however some of his work seems to be very similar to the style of thunder birds and his audience seems to be more teenager appropriate due to sexual references and violence. He has made many animation shorts including celebrity death match, starveillance, Jo Jo's circus, Bruno and many others. The style of animation used (claymation) is the same to what is used in Wallace and Gromit, he creates figures out of clay and moves them a little bit each frame, it can be very hard, tiring and tedious work but if done right the final product can look outstanding and he is one of the few animators that can do it right.


                                


Nick Park and Aardman

Nick Park is a British filmmaker of stop motion animation and is best know for creating Wallace and Gromit as well as the spin off TV series Shaun the Sheep. He has been nominated for an Academy Award a grand total of 6 times and has won 4 with Creature Comforts, The Wrong Trousers, A Close Shave and Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit.Nick Park uses claymation and one of the distinctive features about Aardman's style of claymation is that unlike other types of claymation such as Pingu which looks very crisp and clean, Aardman leaves their finger prints on the models to give it a very personal touch to each of the models and figures. Nick Park was into animation at a very early age and by the time he was 13 he had began filming in the attic of his house using his parents recording equipment. His first big break into the industry was in 1975 when the BBC aired his short Archie's Concrete Nightmare and ever since then he has just took of and become a phenomenal inspiration in the world of stop motion animation.

             


Otmar Gutmann

Otmar Gutmann was a German television producer, animator and director. Otmar founded the Pygos group in 1986. He is most memorably known for his creation Pingu. The series Pingu features families of penguins that are able to morph and live in the north pole whilst working on igloos. One of the many reasons why Pingu was so successful is because it contains no real spoken language, most of the words said are of invented penguin language with only the occasionally word of Swedish or English being said and each character would be identified by individual catchphrases making it universal and allows people of all linguistic backgrounds to follow and enjoy the story.


                                 

Phil Tippett

Phil Tippett is a Director and producer and he had a love of stop motion animation from a very early age. When he was seven he was inspired by Ray Harryhausen's special effects classic, The seventh voyage of Sinbad and ever since then has had a love for stop motion animation. A major turning point in Phil's career was when George Lucas hired him and Jon Berg to create a stop motion miniature chess scene for Star Wars: A New Hope. This opened up many doors for Phil and by 1978 he was bringing to life his sinister Imperial walkers for Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back. He has also worked on many other projects such as; Jurassic Park, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, The Spiderwick Chronicles and a lot more. He has won many awards for his work including an Oscar in 1994 for the best visual effects for Jurassic Park, a Special Achievement award in 1984 for Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi and many others, all achievements of his hard work and determination.

            

Tim Burton & Henry Selick

As a child Tim Burton would often make short films in his backyard using crude stop motion animation techniques filmed without sound and it's from then on that Tim Burton began to develop his style into what it is today, he is best known for The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and The Giant peach and Corpse Bride. Henry Selick is an American stop motion director, writer and producer and is best known for directing The Nightmare Before Christmas, Jame and The Giant Peach and Coraline. Tim Burton is well known for his dark gothic style however the cartoony look probably comes from working for Disney in his early days. Several of Tim Burton's films are based on drawings he made as a kid and despite having a typical suburban upbringing in California Tim Burton would spent a lot of his time as a child crafting very twisted and imaginative drawings, some of these drawings later served as inspiration for some of his most memorable characters such as Edward Scissorhands and Jack Skellington.


          

  Willis O'Brien

Willis O'Brien was born in Oakland California and has made some of the best stop motion animation films to date. In 1915 he made his first movie The Missing Link: A Prehistoric Tragedy with a budget of just $5000, he eventually went on to secure an animation role in Harold H. Hoyts The lost world. In 1933 he made the highlight of his career with the RKO hit King Kong which mixed live action footage with stop motion creatures, nothing like this had ever been done before so it immediately became an unforgettable cinema classic. Since then King Kong has been remade twice and been a box office smash on both occasions. On set he would have a selection of animatronic puppets which he would glue animation of in time with footage of actors and actresses in real time, most of the armatures where extremely complex and would have various switches and controls to operate them. One in particular used in King Kong had so many switches that it was covered up by a water line during one of the scenes so that the controls could not be seen. His influence on the stop motion world is massive and it's said that The lost world, a film he worked on, inspired the great Ray Harryhausen to also become a stop motion animator.


                                   

Ray Harryhausen 

Ever since he was a small child Ray Harryhausen had a passion, which never abated, for dinosaurs and anything fantasy related. Growing up his favorite things to do were go to the museums, marionette shows, the ocean, local parks and paying a trip to the movie theaters. It was whilst at grammar school that he learned how to make a model miniature set, this then took him to the next phase in which he began to make three dimensional figures and sets, growing up his parents always encouraged him to pursue what he wanted to, even if his chosen career wasn't what people would consider normal for the time. As a young child he began to recreate images from King Kong and tried to search for how Kong seemed to be alive before stumbling on information about something called stop motion animation. It was then when he found out more about it realized that this was something that he himself wanted to try. During the work of one of his early projects 'Evolution of The World' he meet Willis O'Brien, the man who was responsible for animating King Kong. It was then that he handed some of his work to Willis O'Brien who told him that he needed to study anatomy and learn where muscle connects to bone, this was a big turning point for Ray and his designs as this allowed him to make his designs look more real and natural through the study of anatomy.

After he left high school he applied for a job where he began working with George Pal on his puppetoons series as his first break into the industry. Ray then went on to make The Mother Goose series which is his most notable early work and featured a short series of nursery rhymes such as The Queen Of Hearts, Little Miss Muffet and Humpty Dumpty. After a few years Ray made many films during his career, some of his most famous being, Jason and the Argonauts, The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad, It Came From Beneath The Sea, Mysterious Island, Clash Of The Titans and many many more. He had this idea called dynamtion which would allow the live action to be split so it would enable a model to be inserted directly into the action and appear to interact with the actors. To this day Ray Harryhausen's work continues to inspire others and he is still widely regarded as one of the greatest stop motion animators to have ever lived.

             
   

The History and Development of Animation Part 3

Stop motion animation has been used in a variety of different media types for different reasons. It can vary what it's included in from something as simple as movies or television programmes to something such as music videos or adverts, but what examples are out there?

TV programmes
     There are many TV shows out there that use stop motion animation and some where discussed in the previous blog post such as Pingu, Jo Jo's Circus and creature comforts but what other ones are there? There are many such as Postman Pat, Noddy and many others specifically aimed towards children but one of my personal favorites is aimed towards a slightly older audience and that is Robot Chicken.

                         

Films
     The list of films that are made out of stop motion animation is almost endless and we even watched one in class, Jason and The Argonauts, which is a bit out dated by modern standards but there are still loads of others, one of my personal favorites is a movie which evolved through the TV show, The South Park Movie.

                          

Advertisements
     Again there are many advertisements out there that use stop motion animation so there is a wide range to choose from, one of the most well known ones on modern TV at the moment would be the change for life advert.

            

Music Videos
     Again there is a wide range of music videos that use stop motion animation, from looking at some in class
I noticed that the ones we were shown weren't exactly modern, so a more modern and well known one that came out recently that uses stop motion animation is Somebody That I Used To Know by GOTYE.

            

Channel Idents 
     Another form that can use stop motion animation is channel idents. One of the popular ones that use this would be the channel E4.

            

Who Is Stop Motion Animation Made For?
     This is a rather broad question in itself as it really depends on what is being made and what genre it is but as for general Stop Motion Animation my honest opinion would be that it's made for kids. Although stop motion animation can be for anybody most of the stuff made is very family friendly and allows kids to enjoy it and laugh it it whilst not necessarily knowing what is exactly going on. As I say this is a broad question but when I think about it the only answer that comes to mind, honestly it it's made for children because if it's something that children already find interesting then surely it's going to be easier to make for them and I suppose families in general, most of them time stop motion animation will be very easy and light hearted to watching appealing to children and families alike.

What Does The Future Hold For Stop Motion Animation?
     When I think of the future of stop motion animation I can honestly say that I don't know what lies ahead for it, it's a very exciting and scary idea for stop motion animation. I think the most likely thing is for stop motion animation to become more and more computer based and eventually I think the old forms of stop motion animation will fade out and be classed as ancient techniques as they are rather tedious time consuming processes. This is what I believe to be the inevitable future for stop motion animation as people are getting lazier and won't want to spend all that time adjusting each arm, foot or head ever so slightly just to take a photo and do it all again. I really can't see it evolving in any other way which is disappointing as we have seen some marvelous works from traditional forms of stop motion animation but we will see what the future holds for it and if it does become 100% computerized we will see what wonders it can produce.