Ident CWC

Animated Ident

Evaluation of claymation

Evaluation of Claymation


Gumbasia is a 3minute 10 second short film which was produced by Art clokey which he created in 1953 and then released early september 1955. The technique in which clay is used to make shapes can be created into a short film using stop-motion editing to make it look real.


For our stop-motion animation we had 3 characters which were all different from each other so we found it easier to create a story, our story was based on one of the characters punching one of the other guys and superman flys in picks him up and takes him away, although this is a basic storyline its a simple short film which people would be able to understand easily and can find it interesting with the characters we have used as they were unique. Although i feel there are things that can be improved such as the length of the video as it was only 6 seconds, so it could of been longer and the story could of been better by adding more humour or more of a interesting storyline. The video may also not of run as smoothly as it should of, there were some shots where it looks like its been cut and have unnecessary things in the shot by mistake. 

Morph is an animated Plasticine stop-motion character that appeared on UK Tv beginning in 1977,  it was produced for the BBC by Aardman Animations, later famous for Wallace and Gromit. It went on to be a successful programme to be featured on 11 shows some of them to have their own such as Morth (Tv Series) over the 30 years it has been running it celebrated its 30th birthday in 2007 at the Encounters Film Festival in Bristol.

The strengths for claymation is that its very effective for those who want to create a short film but also something so basic which doesn't need as much effects and editing done as other shows, it also is targeted at a target audience(kids) who would enjoy watching it and find it easy to understand what the story is about. The limitations of claymation is there is only a certain amount of clay u can use or space before it runs out, as other programs such as final cut pro u can edit as much as u want with as many effects, it can also be filmed anywhere therefore they have more of a chance making it look real.


Claymation amongst the other techniques have been very successful, although i think Eadweard Muybridge's stop-motion technique is the easiest it may not be as effective to make a whole story or programme where as the claymation would be as it can tell a story from something that makes the characters look real. I think the zoetrope is also effective but its not for everyone, as the length of it is only quite short and you have to look through the slits some people wouldn't like the idea of it but would rather watch tv and watch something themselves such as the Morph series. Cut out animation is another easy way of making a clip but can take more time to do to make it seem professional and get the right pictures, sounds for everything to fit together, same as the claymation everything has to be planned beforehand for it to make sense and for people to understand the content or the message its trying to get across. All techniques are targeted at a different target audience but also different use, some can be to see simply on a advert but some can be made into a tv show all depending how you edit and the length apart from the zoetrope which you would have to see in real life.

Cut Out Stop Motion

The technique used for this video was cut out stop motion, this was by finding images out of newspapers and magazines and making a story out of them simply by using the pictures and moving them while using the stop motion program to take a picture for every move so when you play it back the pictures play a story.

This was a easy technique to shoot a sequence or a short film, as its easy to find the right pictures you want in your story it can be done quickly but also is an effective way to explain what it is. Using shows such as the phonejacker although it doesnt include filming a person or the purpose of the show, the audience can still understand it and find the humour in it, as its also different it works well together and can attract the audience to watch it.The negative points about making such animation is after a while the audience would like to see something they can relate too so more of real life people and shows they can watch throughout the day that won't bore them or make them feel they're watching something thats unrealistic and only for humour or other entertainment purposes.

I think my cut out animation was simple but still creative, i added humour and sound effects to make it sound more realistic and let the audience know what was going on, such as the ball bouncing the audience got more of an insight to what was actually happening in the video. Although it was quite short i could of extended it and added more to it, as it may be hard to understand and wont be rememberable. Also by adding more sound effects or music to balance it out and add more of a entertainment feature.

One of the First people to use stop motion to create animations was Terry Gilliam and Lotte Reiniger. Terry Gilliam created the animation Monty Python and lotte Reiniger created a stop motion animation of Jack the Bean stalk , Both animators used similar techniques but had different purposes or the way the images would be, such as Terry would cut out images from different articles while Lotte would draw them herself as she would know specifically what kind of image she wants in mind and how she wants the characters to look.

Eadwaerd Muybridge

Eadwaerd Muybridge was an English photographer who was born in kingston upon thames on april 9th 1830. He is known for his pioneering work on animal locomotion which used multiple cameras to capture motion, and his zoopraxiscope, a device for projecting motion pictures that pre-dated the flexible perforated film strip. He invented a fast shutter mechanism, exposing the film for a fraction of a second. To make the horse move in multiple frames he placed several cameras in a row and triggered them in sequence as the horse ran past. He attached strings to the shuttles and placed them across a track so that when the van across it triggered all the cameras in sequence.


He invented a fast shutter mechanism, exposing the film for a fraction of a second. To make the horse move in multiple frames he placed several cameras in a row and triggered them in sequence as the horse ran past. He attached strings to the shuttles and placed them across a track so that when the van across it triggered all the cameras in sequence.

Motion Walk

Zoetrope

The zoetrope is a device which puts still images into motion and creates moving images. The advantages of using a zoetrope is its a simple device which shows a short number of frames which are animated to create the illusion of a moving image. Another advantage is that its easy to people to use and more than one person can watch it at the same time, this will catch the audiences eye as its easy to see.
Persistence of vision is the split in the cylinder to make a persons mind mesmorize every frame as it turns around as the first and last frame are the same it repeats itself again to make an infant loop of illusion.
Its disadvantage is that its too short and people can lose focus easily, as you also have to make sure you look inbetween the slits than upwards it may be confusing.