Evaluation of Stop Motion Formats

Stop Motion Animation Formats

Claymation

Clay animation is a very effective and simple way of making a stop-motion animation, because of this it is one of the most popular styles of animation to date. The use of clay within animations has been seen in various films and T.V programs, these include; Pingu, Wallace & Gromit, Chicken Run and The Corpses Bride. The Land Rover LR2 advert is a good example of claymation, as it has a model replica of the car they are advertising and the enviroment it is made out of clay and the ever changing environment symbolises how the car can handle any terrain. Clay is great for this advert as it can change and mould into different things, giving a textured and eye-catching look to the piece. This advertisement was filmed in the classic stop-motion, where motion is created through still pictures, where you get a series of stills and play them in order to create a sequence. The reason why I think they have marketed this product with the use of Clay animation is to give it a younger, fun and family orientated connection to the product, and also by using this method it makes this advert stand out compared to other live/real-footage ones.

A great example of a successful claymation brand is Wallace and Gromit, this iconically British duo started in 1989 with the first of many claymation movies which are still going today with there most resent in 2005 with,'The curse of the were-rabbit', but there latest endevour has been a TV series called, 'Wallace & Gromits world of invention'. Wallace and Gromit is aimed at children for family viewing, so it appeals mostly to children but older people will still get enjoyment out of it as well. This is made in the same way as the Land Rover advert, Aardman studios make clay models and armatures  these are used as the 'actors' so they need motion so they will be slowly, carefully and most important accurately moved, whilst the camera will sometimes slowly sometimes rapidly take many stills pictures, these will be played in order and will give the illusion of motion.

A good example of paper-cut out animation would be Captain Pugwash. Captain Pugwash was a paper-cut out animation aimed at children which was first published in 1950 but in 1957 the BBC commissioned a short series of short cartoon films. Originally shot in black and white but quickly getting transferred to colour with the advances of film technology around that time period. Captain Pugwash was produced using the paper-cut out technique, this is basically drawing the character on paper then cutting it out, this is a very time consuming technique. The show doesn't run anymore but later on after it generated mass popularity with the children of U.K, the BBC started to generate the cartoon with computers, this made it a lot easier and less time consuming to produce.

There is a lot of interesting ways people have used stop motion animation to depict a story, it is quite popular to use lego for stop motion as it isn't particularly messy and is extremely easy and quick to use, this is because the armatures are already constructed and ready to use, also just using lego to build backdrops/backgrounds is quick and simple to do as well. On popular video websites I've been able to view some advertisements for Lego using the stop motion technique, these are aimed at children because thats the target audience for this product.




Conclusion
In my opinion if I had to use one of these formats for filming a stop motion animation I'd defiantly me more incline to using Lego as it is a lot easy to handle and doesn't create to much mess, nevertheless I'd still consider claymation, as I feel it gives a much more textured look to the animation and I do like that its so malleable, but in saying this I don't like that its very messy by leaving oily stains/marks on surfaces and also that it takes a long time to mould in your hands because it has to be warmer to shape/mould.