Just Add WaterAnimation Workshop

14th & 21st March 2012

1824 – Peter Mark Roget presented the idea that persistence of vision could create the illusion of motion

1895 – When movie cameras and projectors are invented, James Stuart Blackton creates ‘The Enchanted Drawing’

1928 – Walt Disney creates ‘Steamboat Willie’ the first animation with sound

1937 – Disney releases ‘Snow White’ – the first feature-length animation

A very brief history of animation

1972 – Ed Catmull develops an animating scripting language for computers

1982 – ‘Tron’ was the first movie with CG premise

1987 – John Lassetter at Pixar publishes a paper ‘Principles of Traditional Animation Applied to 3D Computer Animation’

1995 – ‘Toy Story’ is the first full-length 3D CG feature film

More of the brief history of animation

Necessary tools –

A digital camera Plenty of hard drive space to store photos A tripod – for steady shots Lighting – which needs to be constant within

a scene Video editing software

The basics of stop frame animation

What first comes to mind with the above words? – write it down here...

Just add water

Once you have an idea for your animation, it is good practice to create a storyboard before shooting the animation – that way you’ll know exactly what you need to shoot

You can also show the storyboard to others in your group to convey ideas quickly and easily

Here is a good website which explains this: http://accad.osu.edu/womenandtech/Storyboard%20Resource/

Storyboards

Expect to shoot 10 photos for every second of animation

Using a tripod and only moving the object will make it look like it is moving through the frame

If you make a mistake whilst shooting, you can delete the photo and take another

Ensure you move your object slowly through several frames

Shooting your animation

This varies from camera to camera and computer to computer

Save all your photos in a safe place on the computer

They are now ready for importing into a video editing program, such as iMovie (Mac program)

There are programs for Windows and Linux as well which can do this

Uploading your photos

Import your photos into iMovie or equivalent Your photos should appear in order Select a timing rate of 0.03 for all photos –

3 frames per photo – this means you will see 10 photos per second

300 photos should give 10 seconds of animation

For finishing touches, sound or music can be added

Editing your animation photos

iMovie for Mac (usually preinstalled on Mac) iStopMotion for Mac (around £30)

JPGVideo for Windows (free) Windows Movie Maker (free) – part of

Windows Live package

Stopmotion for Linux (free)

List of programs for editing

Between You and Me – shot entirely in stop motion

Art of Motion – very clever, by Russell Wyner of the University of Rochester

A Town Called Panic, The Picnic – using toy figures

Animal Beatbox – Tropfest 2011 Winner, all cut-out animation

Robot Chicken Star Wars Trailer – toys again NB - All of the above are on YouTube

Great examples of stop motion

Aardman Darkside, A Town Called Panic - The Picnic Part 1 - YouTube. Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GARIlYCInXg&NR=1&feature=fvwp [Accessed March 9, 2012].

Animators World, A Brief History Of Animation « Animators World. Available at: http://animatorsworld.wordpress.com/2010/07/07/a-brief-history-of-animation/ [Accessed March 9, 2012].

Brown, C.S., Animation Timeline. Available at: http://www.cs.brown.edu/courses/cs229/animTimeline.html [Accessed March 9, 2012].

Clayden, J., Basics of Stop Motion animation Tutorial Tips and Tricks. Available at: http://www.stopmotioncentral.com/articles-6.html [Accessed March 9, 2012].

FI, A Short History of Animation. Available at: http://www.fi.edu/fellows/fellow5/may99/History/history.html [Accessed March 9, 2012].

Matte, C., Make a Stop Motion Animated Movie. Available at: http://familyinternet.about.com/od/projects/ss/stopmotion.htm [Accessed March 9, 2012].

Microsoft Windows, Windows Live Essentials: Movie Maker. Available at: http://explore.live.com/windows-live-essentials-movie-maker-get-started [Accessed March 9, 2012].

O’Reilly, D., A Brief History of  Stop Motion animation. Available at: http://www.stopmotioncentral.com/articles-5.html [Accessed March 9, 2012].

Photojojo, How to Make Stop-Motion Video Shorts with Your Digital Camera | Photojojo. Available at: http://content.photojojo.com/tutorials/stop-motion-digital-camera/ [Accessed March 9, 2012].

Sk8king4life5, Robot chicken-star wars trailer - YouTube. Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FbNOOFsVhg [Accessed March 9, 2012].

Tropfest, ANIMAL BEATBOX - Tropfest 2011 Winner (TSI: “Key”) - YouTube. Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxiSP_ch_oI [Accessed March 9, 2012].

Women & Tech, storyboards. Available at: http://accad.osu.edu/womenandtech/Storyboard%20Resource/ [Accessed March 9, 2012].

References