The Techniques and Development of stop motion Animation (History)

The Lumiere Brothers - (Cinematographer) 

Auguste and Lois were seen as the Lumiere brothers. These two were quite clever people with a big passion for science and photography. Auguste was the one who started to manufacture and supply most of the equipment for photography and his brother Lois was doing all the testing to the equipment. The reason these two are so important in the world of media is because they were the ones who was credited for being the first filmmakers in history.

Their main mission was to overcome the kinetoscope. After a lot of experiments and testings the brothers managed to invent a new device in 1895, this was named cinematographer. This new device was much smaller then the kinetoscope and also used less fps. Another advantage was that the hand crank made much less noise.

Kinetoscope:
Invented by Thomas Edison.

                                                Cinematographer:
                                                Invented by                                                              Lumiere brothers.




The stop trick - (George Mellies) 
George Mellies was the man who accidentally came up with this stop  trick idea. This was done when he was filming Paris traffic when his filming stopped until he made it work once again. When he played back his footage he had notice that an omnibus had vanished in the middle of the footage. The stop trick is done by pausing the film and removing the object from the sight of the camera. Once the object is removed and the film carries on it will create an impression that the object disappeared from the footage.

Using this amazing illusion George Mellies bought his own theatre in order to start producing comedic illusions in order to entertain the crowed. This was very successful and made George more popular at that time. With this he started to work behind scenes on his theatre producing films. One of his most popular films made using the stop trick was "A trip to the moon" made in 1902. Resuming its all about a spaceship instead of landing on the moon it flies straight into the moons eye. Again another comedic film which made him more popular. A few years later on he was given the praise of being the first cinemagician. He was congratulated with the legion of honour for his contribution to the cinema in October 1931.

Here is a short example of one of his stop trick film.

The Kinetoscope - (Thomas Edison)

This invention was a large box where people could look into and be able to view motion picture. This was introduced as the standard for movie projection. The Kinetoscope created the illusion of movement by conveying a strip of perforated film with sequential images. Similar to a flip book when you draw a set of images with slight movement and you flip the pages quickly creating an illation of movement. Thomas Edison was the man who came up with this brilliant idea. He was inspired by Eadweard Muybridge when he attended of Muybridge's lectures. He then filled a preliminary claim known as a caveat. This claim announced that he would create something that will "do for the eye what the phonograph does for the hear". The Kinetoscope first came out in August 31 1897, it was a brilliant way of viewing moving images however most of the film strips would get destroyed after a few viewing. The main reason for this was due to film nitrates. Although most of his footage was destroyed he had made paper copies in which he called his contact prints. 

Phenakistoscope - (Joseph Plateau)

Joseph, a Belgian male born in 14th October 1801 was know as "Physics of soap bubbles, Plateau's problem" was the first person to ever create and demonstrate the illusion of moving images. He was the first man to make still images appear as they are moving. The way he done this was by having a set of repeating still images in small increments of motion on one and regularly spaced slits in the other. These images were placed in a rotating disk in which he would call the final product Phenakistoscope. This device was first invented in 1832. 

About Phenakistoscope:
The Phenakistscope was a very simple device, at the same time a very intelligent device. It did what people would most like to see at the time, moving images. The Phenakistoscope was made up of a simple spinning disk attached to a vertical handle. On the spinning disk you would then place series of spaced images with slight movement. Between the images there were series of equal spaced slits where we would see the animation through once it is ready and spinning. While the disk is spinning we are able to see the reflection of the images through the slits where a mirror would be found at the back. This mirror reflects the image in series of repetitive animation.

Here is an example of a Phenakistoscope:



Zoetrope - William Horner

William Horner was a very intelligent man, he was quite good in school especially at maths. He became a British mathematician, schoolmaster, head master and school keeper. He created the first Zoetrope in which he named the wheel of the evil in 1834. This invention was closely related to the Phenakistoscope disk, they did a similar job. The difference is the appearance was slightly different. The spinning disk is found inside a circular drum structure with slits on the side where you can view the pictures through. These pictures would create an illusion of moving image when it spins.

Praxinoscope - Charles Emile Reynaud
Charles lived for 73 years, lets say he lived long enough to ensure his name would be in history. Just like the other few I have spoke about Charles was also an expert on motion images. Throughout his life he was a science teacher, however this did not stop him from doing what he most liked, creating new devices. He apprenticed to a precision engineer and then went onto studying sculptor-photographer. He continued his studies, gaining more and more experience from it. On 1876 he had a brilliant idea of creating a new optical toy for the children, he knew this would amaze them. He named his new optical toy Praxinoscope, and on the 21s of December 1877 he panted this device.
The praxinoscope was a modern version of the Zoescope, it was a better way of viewing moving images by optical illusion. The way it worked was by having a strip of 12 images placed around the inner side of the cylinder, these images would have slightly different movements. We then find another cylinder placed in the middle of the cylinder, there we would find mirrors which would reflect the image back to us in a moving sequence when the cylinder with the strip is span. The praxinoscope was classified as better than Zoescope simply because the image where brighter and easier to see the details. Later on Charles made some addition to his invention and placed an oil lamp to illuminate the images and for the mirrows to reflect them throw a lens creating a projection of the images into the screen.

Zoopraxiscope and Animal Locomotion - Eadward Muybridge
Eadward Muybridge was a very important English photographer, he was born in 1830 and became famous for his amazing photographs and interactions with photographic studies of motion and his early work in motion pictures projection. Today he is also famous for his work on animal locomotion. This first became popular in 1877 and 1878 when Muybridge used multiple cameras to capture motion in stop motions images. Then he used is zoopraxiscope, a device to project motion pictures that pre-dated  the flexible perforated film strip used in cinematography.

Muybridge was very famous simply because his device the zoopraxiscope was a very important device displaying motion pictures. It was the first device considered as the first movie projector. The way this was done was by taking a enormous amount of pictures which the zoopraxiscope would the project in a rotating glass disk in rapid succession to give the impression of motion. "The stop motion images were initially painted onto the glass as silhouettes. A second series of disk made in 1892-94 used outlined drawings printed onto the discs photographically then colored by hand".

Animal locomotion is an act of self propulsion by an animal. This varies depending on the animal, for example swimming, running, jumping, flying etc. In the 1872 Muybridge would be hired by race horse owners for some photographs studies. There was a very interesting question going round at time. Everyone would like to know if it was true that all the horse feet were off the ground at one point while trotting. This would be hard to see by the human eyes as the action was fast. Muybridge took a series of pictures and proven that the point was indeed true.




Otmar Gutman 
Gutman was once a German television producer, director and also animator. He was born on April 1937 and passed away  on October 1993. He is quite known due to his creation of Pingu the penguin. This was a British television show for children. Pingu was done of stop motion claymation. Pingu was first launched in 1986 were they would air several short episodes. This was  then transformed into a short film were Pingu's original name would of been Hugo.
With the death  of Gutman the pygos group were no longer the same, slowly slowly they were going downhill. Due to this all the assets of the company were sold to Hit Entertainment. Pingu was then relaunched by Hit were they put on air 52 episodes. At the end of the episodes Pingu was no longer to be seen again, it ended without any announcement. Unfortunately Pingu was only on air for 14 years, Since 1986 to 2000. With only 12 characters throughout its journey Pingu was seen as the second best television program for children in 1980's. Otmar Gutman was awarded with the Berlin internation film festival in 1987.

They Qauy Brothers
The Qauys were identical American twin brothers, mostly known as the Key brothers. They were famous for their influence in the development of stop motion animation. They had been praised with feed back and critics for their incredible work. From a young age they interacted with eastern European animation. This had an impact on the way they reached and developed their animation. They focus a lot in the small details that could make a difference in the animation. They were also quite careful with their use of texture, focus and camera movement. This only made them a little more known for their unique work.
The feed backs were mostly very good however sometimes they would get one or two critics that were quite dismissive. However this is would simply be due to confusion as some of their animation could go into details that some would say its unnecessary and some would say its amazing.
Here are two examples of the kind of critics they would get, "even the smaller movements can make us feel as if we've never known the film before" however another critic said "on occasions the images are beautiful".

Here is an example for you to get a taste of their piece of work. They named this animation "The Cabinet of Jan Svankmajer".



Nick Park

Nick Park, again another legend on the stop motion animation. Nick is an English director, writer and also stop motion artist. Nick was born in 1958. Nick interest for stop motion animation started from a young age. He started by drawing cartoons and by the age of 13 he had made his own film. Today Nick Park is mostly known for two very famous animation, Shaun the sheep and also Wallace & Gromit. Both of these made using Claymation.
Nick started his career by studying Communication Arts at Sheffield, after that he went straight to National Film and Television were he started working on his first Wallace and Gromit film. This was named "A grand day out".

Nick specialized in claymation and he uses clay and Plasticine in order to produce all his animation. Claymation is when you use clay or any other flexible material built around a wired skeleton called armature. These are then placed in the scenery where shots will be taken before it is slightly moved by hand an prepared for the next shot.

Here is a very famous quote I found online from Nick Parker.

"Plasticine was available when I was a teenager and started doing animation. I wanted to be like Disney, trying to film with plastic cells, but it was all too expensive. And you would make whatever you like come out of the blob of Plasticine".   

Some examples of his most successful stop motion animation:

•  Wallace and Gromit - 2007/2010 
• Shaun the sheep - 2007/2010
• Chicken run - 2000
• Creature comfort - 2003/2006

The long years he spent making Wallace and Gromit animation only grew his experience and gave him more confidence to move into stop motion quick action/adventure films. His first one naming Chicken run making his first big screen debut.
He was nominated for an Academy reward 6 times and he won 4 of these with Wallace and Gromit and also Creature comfort.

Tim Burton 
Timothy had many good qualities in animation. Timothy is an American director, producer, writer, artist, poet and also stop motion animator. He always had a big interest for dark and Gothic horror movies. He followed this interest and became popular and well known for his horror films such as "Edward Scissorshands and Sleepy Hollow".
Tim also started his animation career at a very young age, at 13 years old he created his very first animation named "The island of doctor Argo". This is seen as an adaptation of Herbet George Wells "The island of doctor Moreau".
With further creation of new shorts he had been influenced by the work of Dr. Suess and Roald Dahl.




Here is a trailer of one of Timothy's famous animation called " Frankenweenie".


With the success Tim was soon spotted by Walt Disney productions where they offered him an apprenticeship as an animator at the studio. He immediately started to work on his first piece of work at Walt Disney which became quite a success. Timothy started to work on "The Fox and the Hound" and also "The Black Cauldron". He worked on these as an animator, story board artist and concept artist.
Timothy dark side did not go well with Disney so he soon dropped out and went into working alone on his projects.  

Dreamworks Animation
Dreamwork is situated in California, it is an American animation studio which creates and displays animated films, television programs and virtual worlds (animated computer games). Dreamworks studio is also known as Dream work SKG was formed and funded on October 12 1994. Dreamwork had became very successful over the past years. They have specialized in computer animation. They also have managed to release a total of 30 movies which have been a success. Based on all the featured films since the launch they have made a profit of 12 billion worldwide. In 1995 Dreamworks made a co-production deal with "Pacific Data Images to form subsidiary PDI, LLC". This deal had mean that Pacific Data Images owned 60% of the PDI, LLC while Dreamworks owned 40%.  A limited liability company (LLC) is simply a " flexible form of enterprise that blends elements of partnership and corporate structures." This is "not a corporation, it is a legal form of company that provides limited liability to its owners in the vast majority of United States jurisdictions".

Like I have mentioned before dream work have been quite popular with the movies they have released. Over these years they released 30 movies. Im sure a lot of them you have came across. For example Shrek, Madagascar, Mega Mind, How to train you dragon, and many more.

Pixar
Pixar started its journey on Luccasfilm, during their time there they were first Known as Graphics Group. Pixar soon left and started their own studio, this was thanks to a man named Steve Jobs who funded Pixar. Pixar started out their career as a hardware company but later on started to develop into animation. Pixar always loved animation as most of their staff included background with animation varying from stop-motion, computer and cel animation.
Although pixar had a passion for all kinds of animation they specialized in 3D computer animation.

Here is an example of one of Pixar short 3D animation:

Pixar has also released longer version movies whioch have also became incredibly popular. They released their first full lenght film in 1995 and this was "Toy story". Ever since they have released 13 more, today pixar has 14 full length animation movies released.

Although doing well Pixar was later on bought by Disney company. This transaction happened in 2006. Pixar had cost Walt Disney a value of 7.4 billion. With this purchase there were some complications and at times where Disney and Pixar fell out due to some changes. However further negotiations were done in order to ensure Pixar "remained its own entity and would not merge with Disney" so there are no further problems.


Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli
Hayao Miyazaki, again a well known animator. He is also known for his illustrating skills, producer, screenwriter and manga artist. This man was born in January 1941 and he began his carter in animation at the age of 22 in 1963 when he join Toei Animation.
His very first animation he worked on was named "Gullivers travel beyong the moon". He did not stop there, he carried on an immediately started working on a new animation called "Lupin 3". In 1984 he made another successful film which was "valey of the wind". He then decided to join and co-fund the studeo Ghibli where he continued his great work and developed many known and successful films.



Miyazaki has had a big impact in the animation history. Many animators see him as one of the greatest, especially Pixar. Here is a quote i found online from John Lasseter, he is "Chief creative officer of pixar and director of toy story".

"Miyazaki is one of the greatest filmmakers of our time. At Pixar when we have a problem and we can't seem to solve it we often take one of Mr Miyazaki's films and look at a scenein our screening room for a shot of inspiration. And it always works! We come away amazed and inspired. Toy story owns a huge debt of gratitude to films of Mr Miyazaki."

More influences from Mr Miyazaki:
(screen shot)

Walt and Roy Disney - The Walt Disney Company
Walt Disney born 5th December 1901 was an American cartoonist and a filmmaker. At the age of 22 he started his film making career. He did this by producing his very first film "Alice's in Wonderland". This included a young girl actress interacting with other animated characters. The film itself had many genres, it was a musical, fantasy, comedy adventure film.

Here is a trailer of the film:



Walt disney inspired and determined to carry on he managed to create their first mascot in which is known by many people around the world, "Mickey Mouse". This was done in 1928; a few years later in 1934 Disney managed to produce their first feature length animated film "Snow White" which again was a success.
With all the success Disney only grew bigger and better, in 1972 they started to produce live action features alongside their animations. They also specialized in hand drawing 3D animation. They released their ever first 3D animation in 2005. "Chicken Little"; this was their very first 3D film however their 46th animated feature.


George Pal - Puppetoons
Another successful man in the animation history. Pal Was born in 1908 originally in Hungary, He was an American animator and film producer. His films were normally related to science fiction due to his interest. He became an American citizen after he had emigrated from Europe. His animation skills were at the top, he was nominated for an academic reward 7 years in a row, in the area if cartoon/animation. In 1944 he was awarded with an honorary award.

Before starting his career George Pal first graduated with a degree in architecture and advanced drawing skills. His career began in when he was employed by Hunnia films in Budapest. During his time there he learnt motion picture cartooning where he originally specialized. He soon became head of the cartoon department at UFA studios. With this achievement he made a big decision and decided to take his work into his own studio where he discovered and learnt "his own way of making inanimate objects move by using stop motion animation".

On his own studio he later developed three wooden puppets were he named each individual but together he named them Puppetoons.

Here is one of his most known creations made and named "Tulips shall grow" in 1942:

The idea for this great piece of work had came from his background history and what was happening at the time. When he was developing his skills in animation at his own studios the "Nazi's were installing themselves in Germany and surrounding areas". This had an impact in his life due to all the moving he had done. Resuming this short animated film, it is about a young boy and girl living their  happy life, but this was shortly ruined by what they called it "screwballs". These would demolish and destroy anything in their way. This pretty much sums and portraits the conquer y of Holland by the Nazi's.
In 1946 George Pal and one of his colleagues Ray Harryhausen got together and develop another successful stop motion animated short named "Mother Goose".

Willis O'Brien 
Willis O'Brien born in 1886 was an american motion picture special effects and stop motion animation pioneer. O'Brien experience many job roles in his early life by the time i actually got into animation he had gone through farmhand, factory worker, fur trapper and also has a bartender.
Never giving up on what he actually wanted he would use his free time to participate in sculpting and illustrating. After a period of time this part time thing got him employed as a sports cartoonist for Francisco Daily News.

Willis O'Brien specialized in stop motion animation.With the development of his ever first film he managed to grab the attention  of  Thomas Edison who then employed in in order to animate some of his films such as R.F.D 10,000 B.C.


He then worked on other films such as:

• The lost world - 1925
• King Kong - 1933

His ever last film he work on was "Its a mad mad mad mad world in 1953.