Stop Motion Animation Formats

Stop motion evaluation

Clay/ paper cut outs/ objects

What went well

My animation was a success, working very well and running smoothly. The materials used for this stop motion animation piece were clay, objects and paper cut outs, surprisingly 

The animation that was created was done smoothly and worked well. I feel stop motion animation is the most effective way of generating animation because it is rather simple and straight forward to create. I feel that the material (clay) we chose was rather easy to mould into whatever shape you wanted to. Also the time limit was rather short to create an animation but this was done carefully and professionally, so this shows that stop motion animation is reliable, quick and easy to use. The paper cut outs also make a great backdrop for the animation to take place. The objects that we used (lolly stick and white fabric) also were easily moveable for the animation, The fabric was stuck in the mouth shape by cello-tape which worked well to sustain the shape. 

Even better if

For this particular animation i think that it would have been goo to have had something to represent or relate to, as the idea was chosen randomly. Also continuity was also a problem within this animation we have just created because whilst the eyes were rolling up the clay balls, it was hard not to get the balls from movie. Also the animation could have added sound to it this would have made the animation much more interesting to watch. Possibly could have linked some of the movements of the objects with some sound. Another element regarding continuity would be that finger dents on the clay can sometimes be visible, a way that could stop this from happening would be to possibly re mould the shape anytime that this happens 

Lego/Paper cut out 

What Went Well

When  testing out these other assets we could use to generate a stop motion piece. We found that using the Lego characters and objects we could  make this piece in a much shorter space of time as we didn't have to build characters or objects like the previous stop motion piece with the clay. We found that creating motion with these objects was much easier than using the clay as this could potentially change the clay's shape.

Even Better if 

I feel that the tea was an extremely delicate material to use within this piece as changing the motion of direction the tea was moving in had to be done using extreme care as we didn't want each shot to seem over edited. I feel that these objects were a good choice however, the piece could have had much more going on within it. Such as something else that makes its way in to the shot.

Sand/whiteboard/people

What Went Well

Firstly I feel that this use of animation actually looked the best out of all choices we have used. I think that this format would be easy to appeal to every audience, my reason for this is because certain audiences may think that lego or other such object similar to this could be too childish for them. I think that this format could be both entertaining and meaningful to any audience. Also, this format gives you a great spectrum of creating whatever you want, whereas the lego/objects could only move at certain lengths in certain ways. Whereas the sand can move into anything you wish it to be, this is also the same with the whiteboard as you can draw whatever you want within that space, it doesn't have many limits. Our group feel that having people (hands) within the piece was helpful, as we originally thought of blowing the sand away from the whiteboard to give our final shot, however this would have been extremely messy and long winded. So using our hands was a very successful alternative for this.

Even Better If

The main problem with this format of animation was first and for mostly the sand. You have to be extremely careful and professional in terms of continuity if you want your piece of animation to look good. I feel that if sand is to be used, it can only be used at one certain time only and not over a period of days as the continuity of each shot could be incorrect. This was almost an issue even for our short piece below, we had to be extremely careful to not make it look rather unprofessional. Our group feel that possibly a mixture of each format could work well together for our charity piece as we seem to think that there are very good aspects of each format.