What is stop motion: Stop motion is an animation technique that physically manipulates an object
so that it appears to move on its own. The process involves taking photographs of the object moving
one small step at a time, so that when the frames are moving at a fast pace, it gives the illusion of
movement. Stop motion usually includes characters made out of a certain material, and the most
common material to use for stop motion is Plasticine, which is a type of clay that’s been dyed a
certain colour. Stop motion can also be used using paper, for example a flip book, with an object
moving along the pages as they are flipped. Since the 1940’s and 1950’s, John Whitney started
experimenting with computer graphics and animation. In the 1960’s, computers became widely
established and by late 1980’s, photo-realistic 3D was beginning to appear in cinema movies.
The Beginning: Stop motion has been round since as early as 1898, which is when the first ever stop
motion was created by Albert E. Smith and J. Stuart Blackton, for the Humpty Dumpty Circus, where
a toy circus of acrobats and animals comes to life.
History:
Pioneers:
Joseph Plateau was a Belgian Physicist, who studied at the University of
Liege, where he then graduated as a doctor of 'Physical and Mathematical
Sciences' in 1829.
In 1836 he invented an early stroboscopic device, the "phenakistiscope". It
involved two disks, one small equidistant radial windows, which the viewer
could look through, and another containing a sequence of images. When the
two disks rotated at the correct speed, they would be synchronized and the
images would create an animated effect. This then created the illusion of
motion. The phenakistiscope would have images on the disks, for example a
horse, and as the disks moved at a fast speed, it would look like the horse
was galloping. Plateau used the Persistence of Vision which is where there are multiple images that
blend into a single image in human eyes. The light we see is processed in a way that our mind can
create meaning from it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JeN3uk2ClE
This video clip, shows how a Phenakistiscope is operated. It shows clearly what Plateau created, with
the two disks rotating, synchronised, creating the illusion of motion and showing the animated
effect.
William Horner was a British mathematician and headmaster, as well as
another Animation Pioneer. In 1834, he created the Zoetrope. It is a device
which produces an illusion of action from rapid succession. It was an
improvement of the Phenakistiscope as it led to animation being viewed
simpler because it had small slits on the sides where the person could look
inside and it would give a better effect than a phenakistiscope. The
Zoetrope is still used today. The zoetrope would have images around the
inside of the outer circle, and then the mirrors in the inner circle would
reflect the images and at a fast speed and create the illusion that it is a
moving image. This links with the motion perception in cinema and animated films.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBg6dAE3mI0