For each of the technology listed below, please discuss / include:
- Who invented each technology and when?
- How each optical toy / device works?
- Visual examples of technology in use
- Embedded videos to show YOUR versions of the technology
What is meant by the 'persistence of vision'?
This works by our brains looking at an image of something and processing it while another image is being shown , this then makes our brains merge the two images into one making the images seem as they are moving, this can then be repeated for several minutes to create a movie.
Thaumatrope
Thaumatrope
The Thaumatrope was invented by John Ayrton Paris who was a well respected English physician and in 1825 he invented the Thaumatrope. The Thaumatrope works by having two separate drawings on each side on a round piece of card, then after making hole on the left and right side on the card you can make it rapidly go back and forth between the two picture by using strings or elastic bands in the holes and moving your thumbs up and down. This merges the two images into making it look like one single picture due to persistence of vision. Today it may not seem that impressive but back in the early 1800s it was seen as a very impressive invention.
The Phenakisticope was first invented in December 1832 by two different people in two different places by a Belgian physicist Joseph Plateau and the Austrian professor of practical geometry Simon Stampfer. The Phenakistoscope works by spinning a a disc usually cardboard while its attached vertically to a handle pointing upwards with the disk at the top/middle. This then will create the motion of animation as it seems the before still images are now moving
Zoetrope
The Zoetrope was invented in 1834 by William George Horner who was a British mathematician and was a very popular piece of entertainment for around 30 years. The Zoetrope works by using a cylinder with slits cut vertically in the sides, around the inside of the bottom consists the sequence of images. As the cylinder spins the pictures at the bottom come to life and begin to move.
Praxinoscope
The praxinscope was created as the successpr to the zoetrope. Charles-Emile Reynaud invented it in France (1877). It is very simular to the Zoetrope but the Praxinpscope offers a winder viewing angle by adding mirrors to the inner circle.
Kinetoscope
The kinetoscope is one of the earliest motion pictures devices in history and was designed to be viewed by one person at a time through a 'peephole'. The first Kinetoscope was invented in 1861 by Tomas Edison who is a famous American Inventor and Business man and William Kennedy Dickson who was a Scottish inventor. It worked by creating the illusion of movement by conveying a strip of film which played images over a light source with a high shuttter speed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_animation
Part 2
Developers.
George Pal
George Pal was a Hungarian-American animator, film director and producer. He was born 1st February 1908 in Hungary, He was always making films growing up and when he was 23 he married and moved to Berlin where he founded Trickfilm-Studio where he mainly was involved in Puppet Movies, he first used stop motion in a professional setting when creating add shorts, later in life he moved to America and began working for Paramount Pictures. He mainly worked with puppets using stop motion and other figures then in later life he used animation and live stop motion.
A famous piece of this work called 'Wonderful of the Brothers Grimm' which was made in 1962 using puppets. Credit: Youtube.com
Willis O'Brien
Willis Harold O'Brien was a American motion picture special effects and stop motion pioneer. He was born 2 March 1886 in Oakland California. His most famous pieces of work was The Lost World and King Kong. Willis used model figures in his stop motion animation such as Dinsours and Cavemen.
Wills also revolutionised the technique of paring live action actors with his creations as how in the film 'The Ghost of Slumber Mountain' made in 1918. Credit Youtube.com
Ray Harryhausen
Raymond Harryhausen was born June 29 1920, we was a American-British artist, who also did crucial effects as wel as writing and producing. He created a format of stop motion animation called 'Dynamation'. He was greatly inspired by Willis O'Brien's King Kong movie who was also a mentor to Ray. He even worked on Mighty young Joe with Willis. He worked with Stop Motion and computer generated animation.
Here are some images of his best creations. Credit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9kmjW73-v4
Phil Tippett
Phil was born September 27 1951 in Berkeley California. He is a American director and has a Oscar and Emmy award for is visual effects. He mainly works with creature design and computor based animation. His most known work is being apart of hugely popular films such as RoboCop, Jurassic Park and even the orginal Star Wars trilogy.
Otmar Gutmann
Otmar Gutmann was born April 24 1937 in Germany, he is a German TV Producer, his most seen and appreciated work is the globally loved Pingu. Most of his other work also was made using computer animation.
Tim Burton
Was born Augest 25th 1958 and is a American Film Director, Producer, artist, animator and writer. Is most famous work is Beetlejuice 1988, The Nightmare before Christmas 1993 and Corpse Bride 2005. He started making stop motion projects when he was a teenager and was also heavily involved in art when growing up.
A great piece of animation created by Tim is from the short animation series 'Stainboy' this clip is form episode 1 which was release in 2009. Credit Youtube.com
Henry Selick
Henry is an American Stop Motion director, producor and writer, Born 30 November 1952. His most well know work is also for The nightmare before Christmas as well as James and the Giant Peach. He was born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey. He was inspired at a young age by two stop motion films called 'The Adventures of Prince Achmed and The 7th Voyage of Sinbad.
The Brothers Quay
Otherwise known as Stephen and Timothy Quay are identical twin brothers born June 17 1947 in Pennsylvania, US. They are both Film Directors and Animators, the majority of their animation is done using puppets and other organic materials. There biggest projects are 'The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes' and 'In Absentia
A great example of the type of work the brother produced is this clip from the film 'Street of Crocodiles' released in 1986. Credit Youtube.com
Adam Shaheen
Adam was born 13th October 1964, He is a British-Canadian animator, television producer and screenwriter, he has over 150 international awards for his work. He also in the founder and owner of Cuppa Coffee Studies. His most known work is for Celebrity Deathmatch, Jojo's Circus, Rick and Steve and Life's a Zoo. Adams first animations were made using just clay figures but as more and more resources have became available to film he a strayed more to computer animation
An example of why Adam is so beloved by his fanbase is also throught the cultral aspects of his work for example here is a famous clip of a Celebrity Death Match clip with features Beavis and Butthead. Credit Youtube.com
Nick Park
Nickolas Wulstan is a English director , writer and animator, born 6 December 1958, His most known work is the national loved Wallace and Gromit, Chicken Run, Shaun the Sheep and a bundle of others, He was born in Lancashire, England. He growing up he was fond of drawing cartoon and when we was 13 he started making his own films. He is also one of the key people for Aardman Animators which is a British animation studio based in Bristol. Nick really loves making his films using clay figures along with stop motion.
An great example of Nicks work is if you look back to the earlier parts of his career also to see how he has evolved while keeping his classic style. Clip from the short 'War Short' from the 1990s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_animation
Part 3
Media Platforms and Audiences
Examples for each of the following in the format Stop Motion.
TV program - Children- Postman Pat - This is target towards children because its family friendly and
positive and also ends on a positive message. This movie uses a very modern form of animation which is high definition and very colorful. I believe this is done make to shorts not look like real life as the animations are tying to give it a cartooned vibe while using of the capability of modern computer animation
Adult - Angry Kid - Adult - This is targeted towards adults due to its vulgar humor. This style of animation is very unique, They used Live action and stop motion when creating these shorts.
Feature Film - Children- Fantastic Mr. Fox - This is targeted at Kids as its family friendly and funny to children. This is also a very high quality stop motion animation with a lot of compter generated features also. The animals and humans also look very realistic. They did this by using stop-motion and a very large budget.
Adult- ParaNorman - Adult - This can be viewed by children but does involve large amounts of gore and jump scares. I have never seen an animation style like this before and its due to the animatiors trying to make everything scarys as everything as a creapy feeling to it. This was done by using a form of 3D stop-motion
Advertisement - Children -McCoy's Crips - Children will find this funny. This is a very classic form of animation using live action stop-motion, it look pleasing and is very cheap to produce it would of however taken a bit of time to prefect.
Adult- Honda - Adult - This is targeted towards adults to buy there cars but also towards kids as they are likely trying to also build a relationship with young potential consumers. This is personally one of the most impressive look aniamtions I have seen as it mixes stop motion and computer animation perfectly to create a incredibly well done masterpiece of modern animation
Music Video - Children - OK Go - "Primary Colours" Helps children with Colours. This is also a simpler form of animation using stop motion as well as a ton of hours and man power to make this possible.
Adult- Sledgehammer- This is target towards older people due to the old looking film style, lyrics and backdrops in most scenes. This music video mixes a lot of animation styles together for a 5 minutes of mind blowing animation ranging from stop motion to clay and computer animation.
Ident - Children CBeebies - Children as its on a children TV channel. This a fully computer based animation which is just made as a ident but shows great quality and great smooth animation with multiply things moving at once.
Adult- BBC Hippos- Adults as BBC 1 is a TV channel for adults. This animation is also just a ident for BBC but it mixes a few actual nature shots of hippons along with very pleasing shots of hippos swimming synchronized by editing it using computer programs and animation.
All Clips from youtube.com
Part 4
Who do you think stop motion in made for?
I think that stop motion can be viewed by anyone and loved, its a classic type of cinematography and was a big step in terms of entertainment, it made the impossible possible for a lot film makers, there is also very different types of stop motion in all different genres e.i Wallace and Gromit which is who a younger family friendly audience or there is more scary and thrilling movies such as Beetlejuice or Alice
What do you think holds for stop motion animation e.g., will it disappear and be replaced with computer animation?
I think within the next decade its not too debatable that stop motion animation will be taken over by computer animation, I think the reason for this is the fact that computer animation is getting better and better each year with better colors, and cinematography and with lots of depth and detail. Where as stop motion has improved a lot since it started to become popular and Ido believe there is a ceiling and only so far you can go with it but I would like to think will also be around and the work people have done with it will be looked back on and praised for many years to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment