Summary

As we continue with different formats for animation, this week we’re learning all about stop-motion animation. To support that, I read chapters in Animated Storytelling that focused on color and experimenting with art. After that, I researched different types of stop motion animations. Then, I completed a test stop motion animation with pre-production summaries for two possible animation ideas.

Reading & Writing

For your animations, color is more than just making your project look fun. In Animated Storytelling, Liz Blazer describes how color can have a drastic effect on how the audience perceives the animation. Not just in terms of the story, but also the emotions they take away from the overall experience.

When we talk about color, it comes down to three main components.

Hue: The term used to refer to common colors on the color spectrum
Saturation: The intensity of the color
Value: The lightness or darkness of a color

Each of these factors heavily into the mood of the color. If there is something off about the hue or saturation of the colors, it can throw off the entire animation. To ensure your colors are supporting the animations, it’s important to layout a color script to outline how colors will be used. Your animation should have a dominant color, with the other colors used as support.

While it might be fun to use every color in the rainbow on multiple levels, too much can lead to a worse animation. Being mindful of the palette, saturation, and backgrounds will help to reduce confusion in the audience. However, making your own rules can lead to outcomes you would have never thought of.

Continuing with experimentation, you should do your best to create some “ bad art.” Instead of focusing on making colors match or caring about how others will feel, take the time to follow your instincts and create. It’s also important to understand the gaps in your skillset and improve on them. While it means you won’t be the best at something, taking the time to learn the fundamentals will improve your art.

From there, you should try your best to create what you want to make. Not only will this bring your more personal satisfaction, but others will also feel that passion versus something your heart is not into. Other ways to experiment, like with transitions or movement, can bring a fresh perspective to your animation.

Research

For this research section, I wanted to explore different ways stop motion can be used in animation. The selection I found ranges from advertisements, music videos to video games.

This first animation, which promotes a new type of dessert snack bar, is a classic example of stop motion animation. The way the boxes move into frame and the treat gets multiple bites taken out of it is fun and simple. There’s still a lot of charm, with the other bar sauntering away from its partially consumed friend. Given the packing of the product is a bright blue and brown, the background colors are more neutral so the product can stand out.

Another advertisement, from the wallet and accessories brand Bellroy, is a small stop-motion animation of how one of their wallets is constructed. The overall animation is well done, and the way it loops makes it feel like an organic animation once it resets. Again, the background has remained neutral so the richness of the color from the wallet can be on full display.

This is a great example of diverting the audience’s expectations. With each segment of the video, there is some gag that utilizes the stop-motion animation. Whether that is the coffee ring on a piece of paper turning into a paper ornament or erasing the edges off a piece of paper with an eraser, it is full of charm that benefits from the stop motion. The slight sound effects add to the goofiness, but in the end, it all comes together to create something beautiful.

While stop motion can be used to great effect in advertisements, it also is a unique tool to use in storytelling. This animation, which is a music video for the song “Do It For You”, was created by two San Diego filmmakers and artists. With no dialogue, the stop motion animation tells the story of a lone biker who goes on an adventure to save his bird friend. The animation is dynamic which fits the song well, as well as being paired with a VHS style that adds an intensional grunginess to the animation.

I love finding new video games that break the foundation of what can be done in space. Vokabulantis is a game that does this, as it is being made with stop motion game animations. The teaser trailer is amazing in that it shows the production process of concept art, designing the puppets, capturing the stop motion, and digitizing it to be playable. The game takes place in some type of post-apocalyptic world, so the color palette has been limited to greens, blues, and browns.

Create

To prep for creating a stop motion animation, this week I completed a summary of the pre-production notes. To start, I made a short test stop motion animation.

This does not feature a story, but as a way to practice the techniques used for the animation. For this, I made an animation of a mouse toy moving in a spiral, looking up, and moving down off the table. It features two types of movement, of the mouse moving around and his tail moving.

Below are the two summaries of the stop-motion animation ideas. One is a traditional linear idea, while the other is a non-linear idea.