Stop motion:
Stop motion is a form of animation which is created through photography. Puppets can be created through many different ways, however the most popular way to create puppets is with plasticine. This is because plasticine is very pliable, meaning you can create the illusion of theses puppets movement, by moving the puppet slightly, and then taking a picture, this process is repeated until a sequence of movement following a narrative has been created.
Then these pictures are edited to play at a high frame rate, meaning that the images play through smoothly showing the puppet moving. Stop motion can be enhanced with armature's, which can be altered in terms of height and shape. These armatures ensure that the puppets don't move during the animation process, since when animation certain movements (like walking) the Plasticine (without an armature) can fall or bend out of place, ruining the realistic continuity of the animation.
Because stop motion involves capturing real life images, a very important factor that needs to be retained during the project is the lighting. This is because without lighting, the natural light being used may change depending on the weather (for example a cloud covers the sun) this means that when the animation is played at a high frame rate, the lighting will change at a very quick on inconsistent state, making the animation less convincing. With steady lighting, the lighting chosen for that scene will stay constant throughout the scene, making the illusion more successful.
For similar reasons, it is very important to use a tripod to keep the camera steady and still whilst animating. This is because it is important for the camera to stay still whilst animating, so it appears still and views the subject at the same angle for the entire shot. There are ways to include camera movement into you're shots, however you will have to move the camera's position/angle in the same way as you would move the puppet in order for the speed of the camera movement to feel natural at a high frame rate.
Set is also a very important factor, in order for the narrative to feel more in context. This is a very exciting property of stop motion for people who like creating sets on a miniature level. The great thing about stop motion, is that there are a huge range of physical materials which can be incorporated into a video.
Stop motion is very appealing to a wide audience, however it targets kids especially since they believe that the characters they are watching are real, because technically they are actual physical models. Kids are also used to playing with action figures which are made in similar style to actual animated puppets, for example the show the adventures of Abney and Teal use models which look exactly like the toys their target audience would play with.
2D Digital Animation:
2D Digital Animation is a type of 2D animation which is made specifically on a computer. This is because these animations are produced using a range of software to create any type of animation which is digital and 2D. Different styles of 2D Digital Animation include 2D Digital Frame-by-Frame, which is the style which is used on the show Adventure Time, where each individual frame is drawn to create a traditional styled animation through use of digital drawings.
Another style of 2D Digital Animation is the type which is used in Rick and Morty, where a 2D model is drawn, which is then programed to create fluent movements of characters walking patterns, and hand gestures. This type of animation is usually mixed with parts of 2D Digital Frame by Frame for more unique gestures like facial expressions and dialogue. This style of animation is useful because it speeds up the animation process, meaning that the animations are cheaper and quicker to make, this is a important factor to considered when working on a large scale in which many episodes of a certain show are demanded. The sequences created are also made of vector files, meaning that the resolution of animation will always be able to be rendered in a completely lossless format, since vectors graphics can scale virtually for eternity.
Another style of 2D Digital Animation, is photo manipulation, where mixes of different types of photographs (including real life images, and computer generated images) are manipulated through programming to create the illusion of movement. A good example of this is David Firths short film "Cream" where he uses photographs of humans and collages them together to create unique looking characters which have a very surreal sense of realism to them.
The great thing about 2D Digital Animation is that unlike Stop-Motion, you don't need to rely on a physical set to create a convincing animation, nor do you need to rely on physical puppets for models. This means that you can create virtual any world/character imaginable as long as you have the ability to draw/use a software to create an image.
Another use of 2D Digital Animation is Anime, which is almost an art form as much as it is a form of entertainment, since the Japanese drawing style is very unique and noticeable. Common traits of Anime are unusual proportions, such as large eyes, and small nose and mouth. The shot types that are used are also very unusual, including shots which contrast antagonists with protagonists in separate shots. The interesting thing about Anime is the unusual choice of frame rate, which is slower than the standard, but gives Anime a very interesting style.
2D Digital animation appeals to a wide audience, since the majority of children liked to draw at one part of their lives. Therefore they enjoy watching narratives which feature drawn characters, this applies even more to young children, who are drawn to characters which are cute, colourful and crazy, since children usually find it hard to concentrate on characters which are dull and not very active. 2D Digital animation also appeals to older audiences, since 2D Digital animation can be a very successful platform for adult humour, for example shows like Bojack Horseman and Rick and Morty.
3D CGI Animation:
3D CGI Animation, is any type of animation which manipulates virtual shapes and textures which have been generated by a computer. This type of animation is completed by very powerful computers using software such as Cinema 4D and Maya. Companies that use this type of animation include Pixar (creators of Toy Story and Monsters Inc) and Blue Sky Studios (creators of Ice Age and Robots). In theory this type of animation is very similar to 2D digital animation, since all the set and characters are created digitally, yet in a 3D way.
3D CGI Animation is good because like Stop Motion, you are able to consider "filming" the animation with uses of camera angles and camera movements, since you have an actual virtual space to do this in, unlike 2D Digital animation. Through 3D CGI Animation, you are also able to come very close to realistic visuals, depending and the quality of the animation's textures, shaders and graphics.
Scenes which are used in between video games, sometimes use a type of animation, which is acted out by real actors, who have sensors all around their bodies, which are then tracked by a computer, and matched onto a computer generated model. This type of animation was used in The Hobbit: The desolation of smaug, where Benedict Cumberbatch wore a similar suit, and acted out all the dragon's manerisms.
The bad thing about 3D CGI Animation, is that it is the most difficult form to learn, and therefore is the most expensive, and takes very long time to produce. It also requires very powerful computers to produce successfully, so it is a very expensive form of animation to pick up as an individual. This is because 3D CGI Animation requires dedicated graphics cards, which have recently increased in price due to the rise of crypto currency.
The good thing about 3D CGI Animation, is that it allows users to create very appealing and beautiful animations, which appeal strongly to children, since it is a step between live action footage and computer generated images. Toy Story is probably the most notorious example of 3D CGI Animation, since it allowed the creators to create very realistic toy like models, to fit the narrative.
The uses for all these different animation styles, is usually to entertain audiences, since audiences find animation particularly magical due to the characters being created in a way much more different than live action films. Animation can also be used as a way to educate audiences, since many audiences find that animated tutorials are very easy to follow (usually because these audiences are visual learners).
Different animation styles across the globe:
The three distinct styles which differ massively across the globe are Anime, which is the Japanese style of animation, Stop-Motion, which originated from England, and 3D CGI, which is originated from America.
One of the first Japanese manga and anime creators was Osamu Tezuka, who is considered the godfather of anime. He was most renowned for the creation of Astro Boy. He was born in the 1920s, and always loved to draw cartoons, however during World War 2 he was forced to work in a factory to support military means. He was a huge fan of Disney animations, and was reported to watch Bambi more than 80 times. It was suggested it was because of the over sized eyes which were used in Disney Movies which encouraged him to increase their size in anime, which is one of the main visual traits in Japanese Anime.
Osamu Tezuka, however different use the traditional happy story lines which America liked to follow. Disney's cartoons were happy, melodic and aimed to entertain a proud American audience, whilst Osamu Tezuka had just witnessed the loss of a war, country and sense of identity. This was evident in his narratives. Astro Boy starts with the death of a child, who's father tries to replace with an android. This narrative already contains themes of loss, sadness, however they were designed to give hope to the devastated nation of Japan. The difference between American narratives and Japanese narratives is that Osamu Tezuka wasn't afraid to show the world as it really was. Astro Boy at first was
A step forward from Astro Boy are the highly acclaimed Ghibli films. This is where relationship between studios in America like Pixar and Ghibli began to grow for better. These studios both created stories which inspired wonder, mystery and surreal ideas in children minds, however all done with a brilliant sense of humour. The main difference in narrative again was the spiritual side of things, which the Japanese writers were never afraid to shy away from. Watching many of their films, you can tell that their is always an underlying sense of Easter Philosophies. This is very evident in the film Spirited Away, where the Chihiro Ogino is transferred to a world of spirits and strange beings.
You can see that the style evolves massively between Astro Boy and Spirited away.
In Astro Boy, you can see that although the Anime style is clear, the basic shape of the character, angle and aspect ration is very similar to some of the original Looney Tunes (Silly Symphonies) and Original Mickey Mouse cartoons.
Whilst in the frame taken from Spirited Away, uses character proportions more closer to reality, and seems to take inspiration from fantasy imagery. The colours especially have been given keen attention, creating a spectacle out of every shot. If you were to pause a studio Ghibli film at any point, the still image would be beautiful.
Stop Motion was created by J. Stuart Blackton, however personally the person who revolutionised Stop Motion and brought it to the big screen was Nick Park. He created the charming and very English characters of Wallace and Gromit, and captured all the quirks, flaws and humour of English people (especially Northerners). For a start the visual style is based more on live action films, in a style which uses practical lighting and set in a very similar way. The characters however, are made in more expressive ways, with larger proportions because in order to animate plasticine, it is more practical for the characters to have larger features to animate (since animating small objects is very difficult).
The uses for all these different animation styles, is usually to entertain audiences, since audiences find animation particularly magical due to the characters being created in a way much more different than live action films. Animation can also be used as a way to educate audiences, since many audiences find that animated tutorials are very easy to follow (usually because these audiences are visual learners).
Different animation styles across the globe:
The three distinct styles which differ massively across the globe are Anime, which is the Japanese style of animation, Stop-Motion, which originated from England, and 3D CGI, which is originated from America.
One of the first Japanese manga and anime creators was Osamu Tezuka, who is considered the godfather of anime. He was most renowned for the creation of Astro Boy. He was born in the 1920s, and always loved to draw cartoons, however during World War 2 he was forced to work in a factory to support military means. He was a huge fan of Disney animations, and was reported to watch Bambi more than 80 times. It was suggested it was because of the over sized eyes which were used in Disney Movies which encouraged him to increase their size in anime, which is one of the main visual traits in Japanese Anime.
Osamu Tezuka, however different use the traditional happy story lines which America liked to follow. Disney's cartoons were happy, melodic and aimed to entertain a proud American audience, whilst Osamu Tezuka had just witnessed the loss of a war, country and sense of identity. This was evident in his narratives. Astro Boy starts with the death of a child, who's father tries to replace with an android. This narrative already contains themes of loss, sadness, however they were designed to give hope to the devastated nation of Japan. The difference between American narratives and Japanese narratives is that Osamu Tezuka wasn't afraid to show the world as it really was. Astro Boy at first was
A step forward from Astro Boy are the highly acclaimed Ghibli films. This is where relationship between studios in America like Pixar and Ghibli began to grow for better. These studios both created stories which inspired wonder, mystery and surreal ideas in children minds, however all done with a brilliant sense of humour. The main difference in narrative again was the spiritual side of things, which the Japanese writers were never afraid to shy away from. Watching many of their films, you can tell that their is always an underlying sense of Easter Philosophies. This is very evident in the film Spirited Away, where the Chihiro Ogino is transferred to a world of spirits and strange beings.
You can see that the style evolves massively between Astro Boy and Spirited away.
In Astro Boy, you can see that although the Anime style is clear, the basic shape of the character, angle and aspect ration is very similar to some of the original Looney Tunes (Silly Symphonies) and Original Mickey Mouse cartoons.
Whilst in the frame taken from Spirited Away, uses character proportions more closer to reality, and seems to take inspiration from fantasy imagery. The colours especially have been given keen attention, creating a spectacle out of every shot. If you were to pause a studio Ghibli film at any point, the still image would be beautiful.
Stop Motion was created by J. Stuart Blackton, however personally the person who revolutionised Stop Motion and brought it to the big screen was Nick Park. He created the charming and very English characters of Wallace and Gromit, and captured all the quirks, flaws and humour of English people (especially Northerners). For a start the visual style is based more on live action films, in a style which uses practical lighting and set in a very similar way. The characters however, are made in more expressive ways, with larger proportions because in order to animate plasticine, it is more practical for the characters to have larger features to animate (since animating small objects is very difficult).
The style of Aardman's animation has had a large influence on the stop-motion scene in general. Since many stop motion creator's are mimicking the mouth movements, including large chunky teeth, and big smiles.
Laika, on the other hadn't, have recently successfully blended the Japanese style with stop motion, which I found fascinating because of the huge difference between the two styles. This was achieved through the character designs, which had the usual conventions of an Anime character, including the large eyes and huge heads. The shot types used were also very Anime inspired, and the narrative itself was also more like a Japanese Anime narrative, and had interesting links to Eastern Beliefs which gave the film more substance.
Meanwhile, American animation can be fairly represented with 3D CGI animation, since the style was revolutionised and made popular by the studio Pixar, the creators of Toy Story, Monsters Inc and The Incredibles. All three of these films were a huge part of my generations child hood, all telling stories which played with the hearts of grown ups as well as childeren, and inspired many imaginations. The style of pixar's characters evolved over time, starting with characters which were clearly made out of previously rendered 3D shapes, for example The Adventures of Andre and Wally B (which was originally presented by the name "LUCASFILM COMPUTER GRAPHICS PROJECT") follows two characters made out of various 3D shapes such as spheres, cones, and prisms.
To a modern audience, the short film's graphics would be considered terrible, however at it's time this film would have blown people's minds. The graphics of Pixar's recent projects such as Inside Out however, have maintained the modern standard of high definition graphics. Compared to their older projects, their films now show detailed attention to shading, textures and lighting, creating very realistic and pleasing visuals. In comparison to other global styles, I'd say CGI links closely to stop-motion due to the principles of creating a physical set, since you are technically creating 3D models and sets for CGI animation, the difference is CGI manipulates virtual space, however the concept is still the same. This allows CGI animation to create more cinimeatic visual, which are more simliar to live action films, since you are able to use filming techniques which are used in live action movies, such as changing angles, and using camera movements, whilst in Japanese Anime, you need to draw the characters from a certain angle if you want to create that impression.
