Stop Motion Animation

Zoetrope
A Zoetrope is an object that creates an illusion of something moving. This is done by multiple pictures being placed inside the inner edge of the Zoetrope and there are also rectangular shaped holes that are cut all around it that you look through when the Zoetrope starts to spin. When it gets to a certain speed it gives the illusion of movement.

In this video above the Zoetrope is being spun to show how it works, I like how the Zoetrope works because its a simple way of making something move. But the only weakness of the Zoetrope is that it can't make complex movements and it also can't make very long movements because it only can fit a certain amount of images inside it.

Praxinascope
A Praxinoscope is a animation device that is very simular to a Zoetrope. The only difference between the two devices is that whilst a Zoetrope has a little rectangular slots cut around the outside of the circle a Praxinoscope doesn't have any holes cut around it, it has mirrors in the middle of the device that makes reflections of the pictures that line the edge of the circular device. The Praxinoscope works in the same way as a Zoetrope because it moves in the same way and uses speed to make a moving image.

In this video it shows what a Praxinoscope is and how one works. I like how the Praxinoscope works because it's very simple and it is easier to see the movement because you aren't having to look through holes to see the image. But the bad thing about the Praxinoscope is that it doesn't make complex movements and it can only make short clips because of it's size and because of how quick you have to spin it to get that image.

The Nightmare Before Christmas
The nightmare before christmas is a animation made by Tim Burton. This is a clay animation of an imaginary town of Halloween that trys to take of the Christmas town. The runtime of this film is 1 hour 16 minutes long. To make the movement in this film they had to have 24 frames per second which is 24 photos per second and this gave the whole movement of the characters a well flowing and realistic look. In total this film had at the end of it 109,440 frames which made up the 76 minutes of film. To make this film it took about 200 people about 3 years to make this stop motion film.


Chicken Run
Chicken run is a stop motion animation made by Aardman Animations who was the production studio that made Wallace and Gromit. Chicken run was released in 2000 and has a run time of 84 minutes which is 1 hour and 24 minutes. This film also had 24 frames per second which gives the characters a flowing look. In this film a lot of big movements were attempted like doors falling over and planes flying etc and these movements took a lot longer to achieve because they aren't things you can just hold at an angle or have hold in mid air on its own.

Wallace and Gromit A Close Shave
Wallace and Gromit A close shave was released in 1995 and was produced by the BBC and Aardman Animation and was also distributed by both companies. It ran for 30 minutes and had a 24 frames per second which gave the caharcters a very realistic movement and flow. In this short film some big movements were made such as when they were in the motorbike and gromit grabbed the telephone cables so they would lift of the ground and go in a circle and land behind the lorry that was directly behind them and to do this they had to use clear wire so that the models would stay in position and that was only one of the many big movements that are in this animation.


Corpse Bride
Corpse Bride is a clay stop motion animation made by Tim Burton who made The Nightmare Before Christmas. Corpse Bride was the first full feature film that was fully shot with the clay models, After it was done effects were added but none of the film was CGI. It has 24 frames per second which gives the characters a realistic movement. Also Corpse Bride wasn't shot with a high tech animation camera it was shot with a normal Canon camera which is unusual to stop motion animation because the bigger cameras give a clearer picture and are built for making stop motions. It has a run time or 77 minutes.