The History of Stop Motion

THE BEGGINING - EADWEARD MUYBRIDGE

As with a lot of discoveries Eadweard Muybridge did not set out to come across what would be the foundation of stop motion and cinematography. Muybridge was a young English photographer who had immigrated to United States and before stumbling across motion-picture, he was known for his landscape photography. In 1872 Muybridge was hired by race horse owner and former governor of California to shoot some pictures for a photographic study. The study was a long questioned debate of whether all four feet of a horse come off the ground when trotting. After proving that all four feet of the horse did come off the ground he was then hired again in 1878 to take photo’s which would help the study of a horses gallop. Muybridge placed multiple cameras along the side of the race track which were triggered by thread and a picture would be taken as the horse passed through each piece. Using silhouettes transferred from the pictures which were placed on to a disc for a machine Muybridge himself had created called a zoopraxiscope. The zoopraxiscope was a device which projected images which were drawn as detailed silhouettes on a glass disc. Light shone through the glass disc showing the silhouettes and was then spun as the disc moved and each image was shown one after the other it gave the effect that the image was moving.

The Zoopraxiscope was considered the first movie projector. After transferring the the images of the horse on the race track and placed on the machine, they would see the horses gallop in motion from a collection of still images. You can see the numbers of each image in the bottom corner.

THE KINETOSCOPE

Muybridge's Zoopraxiscope had draw in many others by its amazing concept of moving images. One person who was drawn in by the device was famous inventor Thomas Edison. Motivated by the work of Muybridge and Jules Marey Edison began to experiment. In 1889 Edison met with Marey to witness the result he had achieved with his roll-film Chronograph to help inspire and gain knowledge. After various experimentation with his assistant W.K.L Dickson they developed the Kinetoscope.

The Kinetoscope is a motion picture device designed for films to be viewed by one person by a peephole window on the top of the device. It worked by using the illusion of movement by using a perforated film with a sequence of images over a light with a high speed shutter.

Above was one of the earliest motion pictures displayed on the Kinetoscope. It is a short film created by Edison's assistant W.K.L Dickson called 'Record of a Sneeze' it was created in 1894 for advertisement purposes.

Phenakistoscope

The Phenakistoscope is a device used for early animation. It used multiple images on a spinning disc. Each image was a picture of a different stage of movement in a continuous sequence. Each image was displayed in an equally measure sized section of the device. The user of the device would spin the handle and the vertical disc would spin. They would then move through the moving slits at the reflection the disc in a mirror. The scanning of the vertical slits would prevent the images on the disc from merging together. The rapid movement of the discs would cause the appearance of a single moving picture.

The man behind the Phenakistoscope was Joseph Plateau. In 1829 he submitted a doctoral thesis to his mentor Adolphe Quetelet for his opinion and advice. In the thesis Plateau covered a large amount of fundamental conclusions, which included his first results into research of the effect of colours on the retina. The thesis also covered mathematical research of the intersection of revolving curves, the reconstruction of distorted images through counter revolving discs and the observation of the distortion of moving images. Plateau began planning the Phenakistoscope in 1939 and finally completed it in 1941. But it is said that the Greek, mathematician Euclid recognized the principals used by the Phenakistoscope years before. The creation of the Phenakistoscope and stroboscopic devices creating the illusion of motion eventually lead the development of the early stages of cinema.

Joseph Plateau

A Belgian physicist born in 1801 Plateau was the first person to exhibit the illusion of a moving image and a pioneer of animation. His farther was a well-known and talented flower painter. Plateau was known as a child prodigy in his time as at the age of six he could already read which was a rare thing. It was in primary school where Plateau found his great passion for physics. He was fascinated by the experiments he had seen and made a promise to himself that he would uncover their secrets in the future.

Plateau studied at the University of Liege. He graduated in 1829 as a doctor of physical and mathematical science. He then went on to be a teacher of mathematics in the year 1827 and taught at the Atheneum that was a school in his hometown of Brussels. In 183 he was appointed professor of experimental physics at Ghent University.

Claymation

From the motion pictures evolved a different type of picture which is still used today called clay animation a form of 3D stop motion 1908. This was the use of clay formed in different shapes and photographed to give the impression of movement.

'Producing a stop-motion animation using clay is extremely laborious. Normal film runs at 24 frames per second (frame/s). With the standard practice of "doubles" or "twos" (double-framing, exposing two frames for each shot) 12 changes are usually made for one second of film movement. Shooting a 30-minute movie would therefore require making approximately 21,600 stops to change the figures for the frames; a full-length (90-minute) movie, 64,800—and possibly many more if some parts were shot with "singles" or "ones" (one frame exposed for each shot).'

Article taken from - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clay_animation

Clay animation can take several forms:

"Freeform" clay animation is an informal term referring to the process in which the shape of the clay changes radically as the animation progresses, such as in the work of Eliot Noyes, Jr. and Ivan Stang's animated films. Clay can also take the form of "character" clay animation, where the clay maintains a recognizable character throughout a shot, as in Art Clokey's and Will Vinton's films.

One variation of clay animation is strata-cut animation, in which a long bread-like loaf of clay, internally packed tight and loaded with varying imagery, is sliced into thin sheets, with the camera taking a frame of the end of the loaf for each cut, eventually revealing the movement of the internal images within. Pioneered in both clay and blocks of wax by German animator Oskar Fischinger during the 1920s and 1930s, the technique was revived and highly refined in the mid-1990s by David Daniels, an associate of Will Vinton, in his 16-minute short film "Buzz Box".

Another clay-animation technique, one that blurs the distinction between stop motion and traditional flat animation, is called clay painting (also a variation of the direct manipulation animation process), wherein clay is placed on a flat surface and moved like wet oil paints (as on a traditional artist's canvas) to produce any style of images, but with a clay look to them.

The term "hot set" is used amongst animators during production. It refers to a set where an animator is filming. The clay characters are set in a perfect position where they can continue shooting where they left off. If an animator calls his set a "hot set," then no one is allowed to touch the set or else the shoot would be ruined. Certain scenes must be shot rather quickly. If a scene is left unfinished and the weather is perhaps humid, then the set and characters have an obvious difference. The clay puppets may be deformed from the humidity or the air pressure could have caused the set to shift slightly. These small differences can create an obvious flaw to the scene. To avoid these disasters, scenes normally have to be shot in one day or less.

Article taken from - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clay_animation

 In 1926 this technique became a fad in the industry. One of the pioneers of this technique at the time was Helena Smith Dayton. Some of her work is shown in the video below.

As time went on so did the standard of the claymation. In 1956 a claymation series began which ran for a total of 7 years called The Gumby and Pokey which was created by Art Clokley. The standard was a lot higher compared to the previous video created in 1926.

Claymation also hit the big screen and was featured in the movie Jason and the argonauts in 1963. The famous skeleton scene was created using the technique of stop motion.

One of the most popular and iconic claymation picture is Wallace and Gromit. Created by Nick Park This children's stop motion comedy took the world by storm with a total of 4 30 minute films, 11 short films and feature movie. This is as big as it gets.

Stop Motion Techniques 

One of the most used techniques within 2D stop motion is drawing on something such as a white board. The camera is placed over the white board and a character is drawn and a picture is then taken. the character is then altered and another picture is taken. this eventually gives the illusion of movement. This technique is shown and explained in the video below

Another technique which is very important in the claymation side of stop motion is lip syncing. If your claymation model is speaking then the lips will have to move appropriately in the right shapes depending on the variety of vocabulary. In the video below are the techniques by Michael Parks who works in the stop motion and claymation field.

Another important thing to consider when planning stop motion are the props you will use. It is a very hard process creating a model which will be suitable for stop motion and the movements you want to create with the models. Below is a video which shows an in depth detailed step by step that will aid you in creating you own stop motion model, and things you should consider.

It is very hard to know what is expected when creating a stop motion narrative it is a very tedious slow and precise process. Below is a video of a behind the scenes look at a very famous stop motion feature film called The Nightmare Before Christmas. Taking a total of 3 years to make this will give you and insight to how much work is needed to create stop motion movie.