14. Developing Technologies

8. Stop Motion Animation Formats

- Claymation (Wallace and Gromit)

Clay animation has been around for as long as the early 1900’s. Clay animation is a type of stop motion animation, an extremely time consuming process where lots of patience is required. The clay is moved, then shot, and the process is repeated, one frame at a time. At a professional standard, like the filming of Wallace and Gromit, they have 24 frames per second. A single frame is a picture, so 24 pictures per second which means it takes an absurd amount of time to film the process. They can get roughly 5 actions done every day. Target audience for claymation is mainly for younger children, ages 4 - 11 would be the more predominant age range. This is because it is a cartoon themed animation, so naturally it appeals to the younger audience.

- Paper Cut Outs (South Park)

Paper Cutout animation is where cutout shapes arranged on a flat surface, and manually moved and repositioned to create animation. Cutouts can be colored paper, white paper with drawings on it, even photographs, and can be completely flat or can sometimes be 3D objects. Many often use cutout animation to make photographs of people and animals to make it seem as if they're talking or moving, an example of this is South Park, they use paper cut outs, along with some computer animation to create their show. When it comes to frames per second, it depends on the level of creation, but at professional standard the fps would be roughly 24. This offers the best visual quality without taking excessive amounts of time to do. The target audience of this method would be mainly children again. This is because of the simplicity of the technique and the way the end product looks.

- Sand (Twinings Advert)

 Sand animation can be in two different forms, one being where the animation is drawn into the sand, and the other where the sand is used to make things and then become animated. So for the first one, you would start with a plain of sand, and start drawing bit by bit, each time taking another picture every time there is a change. In the second form you would create the object, take pictures, then move the object slightly, the same as the other animation techniques. This is one of the most challenging forms of animation and is the rarest out of them all. An example of this is a music video for the song, Eatliz - Lose This Child. This is the second form and took very very long to create. The target audience for this type of animation is adults. This is because it is not a cartoon, therefor not as childish. Also it is much more detailed than the other forms.

- Lego (Death Star Canteen)

Lego animation is making an animated clip using lego pieces. The lego pieces are moved in the same way clay would be in stop motion animation and a shot is taken after each movement. This form of animation is one of the easiest types, however still incredibly challenging to do at a professional level. An example of this is the Death Star Canteen, this is a Star Wars themed animation, made up entirely of lego and sound effects. It is particularly effective because you can see each movement, so it looks extremely smooth and well done. The target audience for this is of a more wide range than other forms of animation, this is because of the memories lots of people can relate with their childhood, so naturally it appeals to those who are older.

- People and Objects (Kindle Adverts)
This form of animation is one of the easiest out of these. A person, and or objects are put in positions and then taken pictures, the same as the other forms, but instead of moving the person, they would move the objects around it to give the illusion of the person moving. To make the person look like he is walking or running, he would lye on his side, and move his legs very slowly, and shot by shot the maker would move the background behind him. Generally, the background is the sun, or trees. By moving these, it makes it look like the person is walking, and has a very nice effect. With this form of animation  there is very little limitation in what you can do, for instance, you could make it look as though someone is flying, or swimming in the ocean. An example is the Amazon Kindle advert, they have several different scenarios, not really linked to the the Kindle itself, but it does reflect a good form of animation. The target audience of this stop animation would probably be those of an older generation because it isn't as childish, as its not cartoon. More themes can be applied that appeal to older people, and the fact that it uses real people is more likely to appeal to older people.



In my animation I am going to be using the form Whiteboard animation. This is suitable for the charity Save the Children because I feel that it suits the target audience more. As whiteboard animation is targeted at adults more because of its lack of cartoon nature and its flexibility. We also think that because it is a much more simple way of animating it will look clean and professional.

13. Evaluation of Formats

White board technique:

WWW:

•   Easy to draw and create animation 

•   Smooth transitions makes it flow and look good

•   Very flexible - you can foo almost anything.

EBI:

•   Can be very time consuming

•   Can be frustrating if you accidentally rub out something and have to start over

•   Can be hard to create lighting that looks good, the white board reflects lighting 

This technique could be used for our animation, however it would be hard to create due it being easy to accidentally rub out, also its hard to keep the whiteboard straight and in the frame.

 











The picture above shows our simple scene, and how the tree grew out the ground and the sun started to appear. From this research i think it is a bad idea to make our animation through whiteboard drawings. This is mainly due to the time factor and how it takes way too long to actually do anything. Also one of the major setbacks would be the lighting issue, where because it is a shiny surface it will reflect the light back into the camera lense and as a result obscure the vision of the camwera. Finaly it is very easy to mess up if you lean on the wrong bit of it, or if you accidentally rub off some of the drawing.

People + Objects:

WWW:

•   Easy to create animation due you being the moving object

•   Very flexible - you can do anything

•   You can use a variety of materials

EBI:

•   Depending on the animation your doing it can be very time consuming

•   Lighting can be hard to control

One of the better techniques to use due to it being easy to find a place to film, however can be very time consuming and hard to find props.







The pictures above show how we done a very simple animation of someones hand moving up and down while open and closing. From this I have decided to refrain from using People and Objects as our method of animation, this is due to the fact that it requires a single person to have a huge amount of patience and control over himself. So it would be both very difficult to ensure that the person stays still and that he/she remains focused enough for a long enough time. However it is still quite an easy method providing you are doing it very quickly and the animation itself is short.




Clay:

WWW:

•   Can create whatever shape you want

•   Flexible, easy to create a simple animation and still look good

•   Cheap to use 

EBI:

•   Can be time consuming when trying to make people or objects

•   Changing movements of the objects or people can be hard

•   Getting the clay people to stand up can be hard.

I like using technique, its fun to use, and easy to make objects houses and buildings ect. The only problem about it is it can get quite messy, it tends to stick to tables and leave a greasy layer where it has been stuck.







The pictures above show our simple animation using clay, we formed a ball of clay moved it to the centre of the frame and crushed it. Although clay is one of the most popular forms of animation, i feel that it is not the right type for our idea, and a 3D representation of it will be both incredibly difficult and somewhat unnecessary. This is also one of the most time consuming forms of animation and would take a tremendous amount of focus and patience to achieve this properly. Also from a technical point of view it is actually very difficuly to ensure the lighting is good enough for the clay, because of the fact that it is fully 3D, rather than 2D like card cut outs, it can often be difficult to get light in all of the right places, and some things can be much darker than others.




Lego:


WWW:

•   Easy to construct houses

•   people are already built so there is no hassle making people

•   easy to construct objects ect.

EBI:

•   Can be very time consuming

•   Cant make everything, you may have to use other materials

•   Transitions can sometimes but un-smooth, you may have to take more time to ensure smooth transitions

One of the easiest techniques, can be very easy to create a simple animation as its easy to move the lego people and change the scene.

The picture above shows us moving the horse from one side of the frame to the other, it was easy due to the objects already been made and easily stuck to the scenery. This form of animation is one of the easiest and is one of our two selections. From our research it is clear that this would be easy to keep things consistant due to the way lego works, with the little holes on the peoples feet so they dont fall over, we could easily move characters around without the risk of making them have too big of a jump. The main reason I wouldnt want to use this technique will be the lack of materials, not having a wide enough variety can be detramentle because you will be limited in what you can do.

Paper Cut-outs:


WWW:

•   Smooth animation

•   Can make anything you want

•   You can show any animation using separate cut outs

EBI:

•   Can be very time consuming

•   You have to colour in the cut outs

•   When using duplicate cut outs they have to be identical

This is my least favourite technique, it can be very time consuming and hard to produce identical cut outs. Also it can be very hard to make a long animation, you would have to change the facial expressions every frame.

 

The picture above shows our simple paper cut outs, it only took seconds to create these ones because we didn't add any detail or additional objects. it an easy technique for simple things like this but very hard for complex ideas. I have decided that this is the best option for our idea due to the very smooth nature of paper cut outs. Using these is both easy and much less time consuming than clay or people/objects. Also because they are paper cut outs we can do almost anything with them, only our imagination being the limit. Although there are lots of pros with this form of animation it will still be difficult in the fact that it is just as tempremental and really does take an aweful amount of focus.

9. Ideas Development

1) The shot will open with a cowering child, alone in the cold and darkness of his abandoned mud hut. From the left side of the hut the word "Disease" floats in and starts attacking the child. To show that he is attacking the child he will have arms and he will be wielding a small dagger. As he swings for the child a stick figure will swoop in, with a pound coin as a shield and a rolled up bank note as a sword. He will slice the disease in half and it will fall on the floor. Then more words like "poverty" and "conflict" where they will attack the stick figure and he will strike them down with his sword. After they are all defeated he picks up the child and flies off and gets bigger and bigger until he fills the entire screen, then turns into the "Save the Children" logo.

2) For this idea we will be using a whiteboard. The shot will start with a plain whiteboard, a finger will enter from the bottom and draw a stick man and a hut that he is living in. The stick man will have nothing with him and he will be sad. All of a sudden, coins start falling from the roof of the hut, then bank notes and later food. The whole screen gets filled up with money and food and it gets swiped away and the stick man is in a new house with a family and a homely pet. After that the text "One Pound a Month can... Save the Children" then the logo will slide on from the left side.

3) The setting is a desert, with a single cactus. Tumbleweed rolls by and bounces across the screen. Suddenly money falls from part of the sky, building a part of the land. First making a water tower, followed by numerous houses being built. Again, money falls from the sky on a different side of the screen and a school is built by the money. Finally, a Save the Children tent gets built right in the centre and people come in from either side looking happy with their new community. Slowly fades to black and the title and tag line appears.

7. Case Study - The Act of Killing

The Act of Killing is mainly an observational documentary, however it shows several aspects of reflexive and performative. It is observational because there is minimal communication between the filmmaker and the audience, also the way it is filmed fits in with the conventions of an observational documentary. The shots used are simple, close ups, extended length of a single shot and pans. All shot types bring the emotions of Anwar Congo to their most impactful potential. The use of a close up when he is crying makes the audience feel emotionally linked to the documentary. Extended shots are used to highlight the more important moments of the documentary, for instance, the filmmaker uses extended shots in the torture scenes to make them have a bigger impact on the audience. The documentary has sub-genres, one being reflexive. This is because the audience are made aware that there are representations of real events within the film. The filmmaker asked the subjects to re-create the actions they took in the years of 1965-66, and by doing this they made the documentary have a performative sub genre.




Anwar Congo (Right) dressing up ready to re enact the burning of a village. Notice his face coming across very happy, this is not something you would have expected after seeing what he has done in the past.





Joshua Oppenheimer was in Indonesia for 8 years and over that period of time he built up a relationship with the subject, Anwar Congo. You can tell this because at the beginning of the documentary Congo seemed very proud of all the horrific things he had done, showing extremely little remorse for the actions he took. Contrasting this, towards the end of the documentary he broke down in tears after visiting the place where he carried out the torture and killings. This clearly conveyed the difference in relationship between Joshua and Anwar, as he became more comfortable with his company he felt he could show how he truly felt. Another way in which their relationship evolved was with the way Anwar Congo and his accomplices referred to Joshua Oppenheimer. At first they called him by his full name "Joshua" and throughout the documentary they began calling him "Josh" which shows how the relationship was at first more of a work client, and then progressing into more of a friendship. This helped the documentary because the audience could see the progression of how Anwar Congo felt about the scenario before meeting Joshua Oppenheimer and after he had known him for 8 years.

The documentary was created to portray the events of the 1965-66 in Indonesia, to do this he asked the subjects to re-create the actions to make into a big "Hollywood" film. When they re-create the events they try to make it as near to real as possible, for example, when they wanted to film a scene of which they are burning down a small village that belongs to Chinese people, they actually used a real village and forced the residents to leave just for the purpose of the film. This makes the documentary look as though not much has actually changed since that time period, the "Gangsters" are still in power and still use force to get what they want.

The documentary was originally put together to sway the minds of those who worked for the government in that time, to make them realise that what they had done was horrific and wrong. One of the quotes from Joshua Oppenheimer was "You celebrate mass killing so you don't have to look yourself in the mirror." so he wanted the subjects to stop hiding the fact that what they did was wrong.

7. 5x Ideas Mindmap

1st Idea:


The shot will open with a cowering child, alone in the cold and darkness of his abandoned mud hut. From the left side of the hut the word "Disease" floats in and starts attacking the child. To show that he is attacking the child he will have arms and he will be wielding a small dagger. As he swings for the child a stick figure will swoop in, with a pound coin as a shield and a rolled up bank note as a sword. He will slice the disease in half and it will fall on the floor. Then more words like "poverty" and "conflict" where they will attack the stick figure and he will strike them down with his sword. After they are all defeated he picks up the child and flies off and gets bigger and bigger until he fills the entire screen, then turns into the "Save the Children" logo. Due to the fact that we need the emotion to really hit the audience we will focus on using close ups of the child's face, and occassional long shots to get some of the setting in the animation.

2nd Idea:

For this idea we will be using a whiteboard. The shot will start with a plain whiteboard, a finger will enter from the bottom and draw a stick man and a hut that he is living in. The stick man will have nothing with him and he will be sad. All of a sudden, coins start falling from the roof of the hut, then bank notes and later food. The whole screen gets filled up with money and food and it gets swiped away and the stick man is in a new house with a family and a homely pet. After that the text "One Pound a Month can... Save the Children" then the logo will slide on from the left side. For this the camera angles will generally be straight on, and the shot types will vary from mid shot and wide shots, there are not really any main characters in this so the emotion will not need to be conveyed as thouroughly.

3rd Idea:


Our third idea starts with a boy cowering in fear with the words conflict, disease and poverty surrounding him. A five pound note suddenly swoops in and knocks the words to the floor. the boy jumps on to the magic carpet/five pound note and it flies him to the save the children headquarters. The shot follows them but ends up freezing and fading to black when the 'save the children' logo is in view. Within this we will be using lots of close ups, again to emphasise the emotion of the child and have maximum impact on the audience. Also there will be some longshots, to show the action of the combat between the heros and the villains.

4th Idea:

The setting is a desert, with a single cactus. Tumbleweed rolls by and bounces across the screen. Suddenly money falls from part of the sky, building a part of the land. First making a water tower, followed by numerous houses being built. Again, money falls from the sky on a different side of the screen and a school is built by the money. Finally, a Save the Children tent gets built right in the centre and people come in from either side looking happy with their new community. Slowly fades to black and the title and tag line appears. Due to the fact that there are no characters in this I will mainly use long and wide shots, this is because this is the only way we will be able to fit the town in the screen borders without cutting anything out. Occasionally we will have a closer shot of a single building falling, just to add a bit of variation, rather than having the same thing happening for 30 seconds.

5th Idea:

There will be a character who takes a journey to the well on a daily basis. The video will emphasise the fact that he travels an extremely long time to get to the well, so we will show several different locations, displaying the extremely long travel time. Some of these include, a mountain, desert, forest. Although you wouldn't find these locations in Africa, it really emphasises the length of the journey. Hopefully this will be successful in helping the audience understand the struggle children have to face in the troublesome world. We will try to keep the camera shots to a structure wide/long shot, as to enable the audience to see all of the terrain that the character has to tackle. We will also use close ups to emphasise the characters struggles of the harsh terrain, this will make the audience more emotionally attatched to the advert, hopefully persuading them to donate.