![]() ![]() However, Burton was able to achieve commercial success with The Nightmare Before Christmas, and he built upon his success with other films such as James and the Giant Peach (1996), Corpse Bride (2005) and Frankenweenie (2012). This was because stop motion was and still is time consuming, thus involving the audience on an emotional level for 90 to 120 minutes was an arduous task. Previously, stop motion was used for shorts and special effects, and was designed to only hold the audience’s attention for a brief moment 6. The most influential stop-motion artist is Tim Burton, as his film, The Nightmare Before Christmas, was the first film to be made entirely with stop motion techniques. All hail the stop motion king? Tim Burton In particular, there are a few filmmakers that are well-known for their stop motion films, which will be explored in the section below. Stop motion is perhaps chosen because of preference, but fans believe that the appeal of stop motion lies in its magical qualities, as stop motion animators are able to transform the ordinary – similar to how children use imagination to transform their toys 5. There are many artists that popularized the art form in their storytelling. Ray Harryhausen with a model of King Kong. However, stop motion’s animation still appealed to many artists, which led to its revival decades later thanks to the release of The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993). Following the release of the 1981 release of Clash of Titans, special effects evolved to utilize computer graphics and diminished the art. Harryhausen is well-known in stop motion’s history, as he created creatures for films such as Jason and the Argonauts, One Million Years, and Clash of the Titans. O’Brien’s work inspired his protégé, Ray Harryhausen, to carry on the work, as he further blended the stop motion model with live action footage. 2 These techniques made stop motion easy to make, and it took America 31 years later to notice it as an art form thanks to Willis O’Brien. In this particular short, the baker stops his motions to appear to be instantaneously making all of the faces out of dough. Fun in a Bakery Shop used a mix of object animation and stop-action photography, which involves pausing and changing something in the shot before resuming the film. ![]() Edison’s Fun in a Bakery Shop, which was directed in 1902 by Edwin S. The premise was simple – move the objects to make the toy circus come to life. ![]() Stuart Blackton made The Humpty Dumpty Circus using object animation. The first use of stop motion animation was in 1898 when Albert E. Thus, this article will focus on the pioneers of this art form and a few American artists that are well-known in history. 1 With such a rich history, it would be impossible to make this brief history lesson ‘brief’ because of stop motion’s vast timeline. There is also time-lapse animation, in which single frames are taken at periodic intervals (ex: to make the weather change in the course of a day), puppet animation, and pixilation, which has human subjects move from frame to frame. There is claymation (or clay animation), the most common form of stop motion, in which clay models are created around a wired skeleton to be used as subjects. This creates the illusion that the object is moving, and there are many forms of stop motion to give this animation style its own genre. What gives stop motion that ‘handcrafted’ feel is the fact that it is the art of object manipulation, as the object is moved in small increments between individual photographed frames. Although it is always compared to other animation styles, such as CGI, stop motion has its own charm that has led filmmakers to choose this medium for stylistic reasons, as stop motion is able to present a ‘handcrafted’ feel to the audience. This article will explore how stop motion has become popular by looking at its history, and analyze how other studios are currently using it. However, technology has advanced to improve this process, thus stop motion can no longer be considered ‘out-dated’ compared to its competitors. Unfortunately, compared to Computer Graphic Images (CGI), stop motion may no longer seem impressive to viewers, as its choppy movements can be considered too ‘retro’ for the audience. ![]() Its origins trace back to the late 1800s, to a time when ‘movie magic’ helped viewers believe that the objects were moving on their own. There is something magical about physically touching the objects to immerse oneself into one’s work, and stop motion is slowly gaining recognition for its peculiar style. While some filmmakers might find this style of animation tedious, there are those that appreciate and treat it as an art form. Stop motion: the art of bringing inanimate objects to life. Understanding the Art of Stop Motion “Whaaaat? It takes THAT long to make a stop motion film?” ![]()
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