Animation 1 - Wk 8 - Stop-Motion Exercise 2

Created by: 

Mareena Iqbal 

Yoori Kim

Jiun Wee

Emily Gear 

Although my group had more props last time, we didn't have a tripod and ended up using a box and plasticine as a replacement. We all did work and cooperated effectively as my group changed roles from moving the animals to cameraman but I stayed with moving the Lego figures so the figure move at a same pace. But I felt like the video is moving too fast. Both the Lego figure and the animals are walking too fast. Also, the camera is cutting too fast and sometimes made me dizzy. For improvement, I'll work on the lighting since it is constantly changing and be patient and move the figure slowly. For example, in the first scene, instead of 12 frames, I'll try 24 frames so the figure looks like its walking and not running.

Animation 1 - Wk 7 - My own Animated Piece

Stop-Motion Animation 

The reason why I choose this technique was because I didn’t have a lot of materials and I didn’t have anyone to help make the animation. So, I have to come up with a concept for this animated piece that is simple and ended up using coins and my hand for this entire short animation piece. I found twp principles of animation in my piece and they are anticipation and slow in and slow out.

Anticipation is also a principle that was highlighted in my animation piece when the hand is about to hit the coin. Anticipation is when a character is preparing an action so the audience an idea of what’s about to happen next.  When the hand makes a fist and is raised up, it’s preparing an action; so, the audience knows that it will try to smash the coin.

Slow in and Slow out was used whenever the coin moves fast. This is referred to all movement starting slowly, builds up speed then finishes slowly again.  If the video was slowed down, you will notice that the coin moves back before moving fast then slows down again and moves back. This makes the coin move natural.

In conclusion, only two principals of animation were highlighted in my piece and they were anticipation where the hand is raised and slow in and slow out wherever the coin moves as it slowly backs up then moves fast and finishes slow again. 

Animation 1 - Wk 7 - Peter Gabriel's Music Video Analysis

Peter Gabriel - Sledgehammer

In Peter Gabriel’s music video of “Sledgehammer”, there were three different animation techniques. The techniques were Claymation, Pixilation and Stop-motion animation.

Claymation is when each animated piece (background or character) is made out of a workable material, manly plasticine. In the music video, they used plasticine to model Gabriel’s face and frame by frame, move the model slightly. They also add extra materials such as, hammer for hands and legs on his face. They also do this to the background when adding a window or changing colour from green to red.

Pixilation uses live actors as a frame by frame subject and move vaguely frame by frame for movement. This technique has been used throughout the majority of the music video using different props such as a train set around Gabriel’s head or a roller coaster ride on a chalk board.

Stop-motion animation is used on an object so it appears to move on its own. The object can be both animate like a puppet or in-animatic object like coins when used in animation. The music video used in-animate object such as fruits to animate Gabriel’s face and slightly move the fruits to match with Gabriel’s singing. They also used this with chicken meat to make it dance.

All in all, in Peter Gabriel’s music video, “Sledgehammer” the techniques all used different materials to animate. Claymation used plasticise to add items like legs on face and to change the colour of the background. Pixilation was used the most throughout the whole video and used props like a chalkboard as a roller coaster ride. Finally, stop-motion animation is used to animate inanimate objects like fruit and chicken to look like it moves.

Animation 1 - Wk 7 - Stop-Motion Exercise

When animating the stop-motion exercise, there were not a lot of materials available; just a bunch of animals, one small car, some blu-tack and a tripod. So, when discussing the idea of the stop-motion, we just thought of a bunch of funny action such small animals being chased by the bigger animals and the bigger animals being chased by a small car. We did have a lot of fun animating this exercise and everyone in the group cooperated effectively. When it came time to edit using premiere pro, we agreed that 2 frames were too fast and change it to 3-4 frames. There some problems like the changing of light and the camera shakes a lot in the video. What would have been better is finding a better source of light and to not shake the camera too much.  

Animation 1 - Wk 6 - Flipbook

This flip-book was an improvement from my last one. I still had to come up with a concept for this piece but it didn't require a lot of thinking. Instead of pose to pose drawings for this flip-book, I did it straight ahead. It made the animation look smooth but the only issues I have when animating is when the character either shrink or grow.