Goals

My Blog:
-I will continue filming the brickfilm I am creating and post it on my blog by the end of winter break
-Also, I will start researching what I have decided will be my new topic (specific to animations) which is the impact and influence of sound effects on animations (which means I will probably watch a lot of Tom and Jerry...)

School Improvement:
-I will research more information regarding how solar panels work
-I will check Shannon's blog periodically to see which company she has decided will provide the best deal and maybe cauculate the tentative cost of all the panels

Group Project:
-By the end of winter break and when school begins, I will have new brainstorms of possible group projects that will be INNOVATIVE and out of the box (or "pushing the envelope") that I will bring to school when I get back to critique it and strip it to its' bare bones

A Collection of Data Gathered- Stop Motion Part 3

Now, for a bit of background knowledge on stop-motion animation that probably would have been useful about two paragraphs earlier...from what I've discovered about stop-motion animation, it's actually really similar to the way that I make my digital animations because I do mine frame by frame. How stop-motion works is that the animator will first have to create his "actors" and "actresses" and props and sets. Typically they are made of clay and then painted to add details. Also, puppets and dolls can be taken to make stop-motion animations. Another style of stop-motion animations that has become somewhat popular lately are "Brickfilms". Brickfilms are basically stop-motion animations done with LEGO pieces. Stop-motions are also done with the idea of frame-by-frame. The animator will lay out all the pieces that are in the first scene and take a photograph of it. Then he will move the pieces into their actions; very slowly, and steadily, not to skip any or move other pieces that do not need to be moved. And every time a piece is adjusted or moved even the slightest bit, take another picture. When you put all the pictures onto a program like, maybe...Windows Movie Maker, they will give the viewer the illusion that these shapes and pieces are actually moving! Stop-motion animation is also not just used by the directors/producers of animated films, but also action films like Jurassic Park, King Kong, Clash of the Titans (the older one), and even Star Wars! Before there were those green dots that you could put on actors and actresses so that you could digitally make them into beasts and monsters, the directors and producers incorporated the art of stop-motion animation into their movies by creating the creatures out of clay and putting them right into the film!

The link to "The Dandelion," an amazing brickfilm abut a man taking ridiculously DESPERATE measures to destroy the single dandelion that ruins his immaculate lawn (and not to mention, annoys the crap out of him with it's shenanigans): www.youtube.com/watch?v=XwhmrJkDJiY

-A scene from one of the episodes of Wallace and Gromit when Wallace's arm is being arranged for the next frame 

-A scene from the Dandelion (a brickfilm)

-Two clay models of Gromit that appear to be exact duplicates (but if you look closely, you'll note that they are actually looking in different directions)

A Collection of Data Gathered- Stop Motion Part 2

Back on topic then. While many directors/producers/animators choose to create their animated films using digital animation and programs and such, there are still directors/producers/ animators out there who still like creating movies with stop-motion. One of which (one of my personal favorites) is Tim Burton (pictured below holding a skeleton). He is responsible for many famous and popular films like "The Nightmare Before Christmas," which is watched often, as it is nearing Christmas. He feels that, "There is an energy with stop-motion animation that you can't describe. It's got to do with giving things life, and I guess that's why I wanted to get into animation originally. To give life to something that doesn't have it is cool, and even more so in three dimensions, because, at least for me, if feels more real. With the large Marge thing or dinosaur–any time we could throw in some stop-motion, the better."

-One of my heroes, Tim Burton, who directed Alice in Wonderland (featuring Johnny Depp), is married to Helena Bonham Carter (who plays Bellatrix Lestrange in the Harry Potter series). I am a fan of many of his movies, including the classic, Nightmare Before Christmas, that is shown below. The Nightmare Before Christmas is also a stop motion animation film (no, Jack the skeleton king doesn't really exist...). 

Individual Blog-Check ins!

How has your knowledge evolved this semester?

Yes: I have learned the fundamentals about stop-motion animations and have begun to create my own. I have learned that stop-motions are basically made of clay models or puppets or Legos or other forms of 3 dimensional materials that are then painted or decorated to make more detailed. They have been used in many types of movies, but mainly forms of cartoons. Back when green screens and green dots had not been discovered to alter people's appearances into grotesque creatures and monsters, directors and producers used stop-motion animation. I mean, look at King Kong...the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park...the AT-AT Walkers on Hoth in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. All were many, many times smaller in real life than they were in the actual films. They were made out of clay and other materials, then painted and decorated to looks extremely realistic, then incorporated into their movies. (Or, the sets were done as stop-motions and the actors and actresses were incorporated in.)

What research has informed your now deeper understanding of your topic?

I have read the good majority of my book, A Century of Stop Motion Animation, by Ray Harryhausen from which I learned the majority of what I learned. Also, I have watched a few Brickfilms on YouTube so that I can see what the end product should be because right now my current project is 'filming'...or putting together a Brickfilm myself.

Where do you plan to go with your research in the coming days? Weeks? Months? Years?
*You should be able to articulate what you don't know and how you plan to fill that knowledge
void.

I plan to continue on and finish filming and putting together my own brickfilm and then posting it on this blog and/ or even posting it on YouTube to see if I can receive any feedback.

Below: A few pictures from my brickfilm in progress

A Collection of Data Gathered- Stop Motion Part 1

So right now I have been focusing on one specific type of animating: stop-motion animations. Currently, right now, I feel that stop-motion animation is not being used as often as it was when it first came out because of the discovery of digital animation. I bet that most producers/ directors/ animators are leaning more towards digital animation because it requires less time and less effort and looks very professional. Now I'm not saying that stop-motion is bad...or that it is a waste of time and effort. Personally, I have a hard time deciding which I prefer of the two because digital animation is really very smooth and looks very professional, but it doesn't show the rough edges and mistakes as much as stop-motion does. Yes...I know what you're probably thinking right now...why would someone want to show their mistakes? Doesn't make sense to me...and you would be correct. I honestly do not like showing my mistakes in my work, but to quote the words of Peter Lord of Aardman Animations, "Stop-frame is like live music, played on traditional instruments, compared to studio recording using the finest instruments in the world, all the latest technology and some electronic instruments. The latter is more polished, more perfect, bigger, better, showier–but maybe lacks humanity. Stop-frame is much less perfect, mush less polished, unrepeatable, inaccurate–in a word, human. It all depends on whether the audience care or not about humanity." I agree with Mr. Lord. I feel that stop-animation reflects more of the animator's efforts, his time spent on perfecting and creating each piece of the set to the best of his ability. In saying this, I am not saying that digital animation reflects the animators laziness, his unwillingness to want to create his pieces by hand, because it doesn't. It takes extreme amounts of effort, hours and hours of one's time...I've experienced it firsthand. But comparing stop-motion to digital animation would be like comparing a human to a robot/ a cyborg. Humans flaws show that they are human. If a robot had a flaw, then a scientist could just fix it. (okay, now I'm really off topic here...)

-A picture of Peter Lord of Aardman Animations