The principals of animation have clearly developed over time. For example, The lucky strike advert that was made in 1948 was in black and white, the cigarette characters were just cigarettes they didn't move very smoothly or use the principal or arcs at all. Whereas Bob the Builder which was made exactly 50 years later, was in full colour, it was life like because of how fluent the movement of the characters were and it used the principal of arcs in every way. As time has progressed, people have learnt more and more about stop motion such as, more frames create a smoother animation. They have also discovered that using different camera angles is effective because we can see things from different points of views which is more realistic.
I think that Wallace and Gromit used the most principals of animation. The characters use the principals of arcs in all they ways that they can which makes them seem life like. Also wallace and gromit have the best examples of the principal of gravity for example, when wallace falls down from his bed into the dining room he doesn't stop before he continues to fall like in some animations where they break this rule.
The children's TV show Bob the Builder, is the best at targeting its audience. I think this because it has bright colours and the talking tractors would seem real to young children because of how smooth the claymation is. It also uses simple camera angles which children would be able to see everything from to understand what's happening better.
GENRE, AUDIENCE AND STYLE
I think that Claymation is the best type of stop motion for an audience that are teenagers or older. This is because with claymation you can do anything with it; create different shapes and sizes that you might not able to make in other types of stop motion such as live action and 2D paper stop motion. For example, T is for Toilet : ABCs of death by Lee Hardcastle. This claymation contains blood made from clay which might not be as effective when done in live action and paper stop motion.
I also think claymation is the best type of stop motion for horror and gore genre because of the creative freedom of using blood, shootings and murders etc. because it might not be as possible to create in live action and other types of stop motion.
Our stop motion is going to be a live action music video. It's going to be based in a doll house. We're going to use props. The music video we're going to do is 'Pretty hurts by Beyoncé'
First half -
Lyrics: Mama said, "You're a pretty girl.What's in your head, it doesn't matter
Brush your hair, fix your teeth.
What you wear is all that matters."
Action: The doors open to the doll house as a symbol of introduction. We see Beyoncé waking up in her bed as the songs lyrics start. She gets up and looks in the mirror. There is flashes of her brushing her hair and then brushing her teeth. And then looking in a wardrobe.
Second Half:
Lyrics: Just another stage, pageant the pain away
This time I'm gonna take the crown
Without falling down, down, down
Action: The scene cuts to her walking down a hand made stage, stopping at the end then cutting to an extreme closeup of her face with a crown being put on her head.
Lyrics: Pretty hurts, we shine the light on whatever's worst
Perfection is a disease of a nation, pretty hurts, pretty hurts
Third half -
Lyrics: Pretty hurts, we shine the light on whatever's worst
We try to fix something but you can't fix what you can't see
It's the soul that needs the surgery
Action: Live action of someones hands with the lyrics appearing letter by letter
Lyrics: Blonder hair, flat chest
TV says, "Bigger is better."
South beach, sugar free
Vogue says, "Thinner is better."
Action: Shutting the wardrobe. It then cuts to the barbie doll sat on the sofa watching parts of the real beyonce video picks up magazine, opens it and reads the words 'thinner is better' then closes the magazine and on the back it says the end.
Edit in the starting background vocal 'uh uh uh'
Target audience:
Young teens to young adults, mainly female because the song features a female vocalist singing about the issue on girls' appearance and the main character in the video is a girl. Real life fans of Beyonce are around this age and the majority are girls so the topic will suit the target audience. Teenagers will be able to feel like they can relate more to the issue if the lyrics are on the screen it makes the message clearer.
The genre of this stop motion is reality this is because it's tackling the real issue of girls and how they can be portrayed/affected by the media.
Design: Because of the target audience we're focusing on more female related colours - pinks and pastels, the set will be in a girls' doll house which is pink and white on the outside. Using colours like this is more likely to catch attention
and attract a female audience which is who we're targeting.
Young teens and older are inspired by Beyonce and because she is such a public figure and in the public eye she's someone they can confide in and it helps when she is one of the celebrities that make girls feel better about themselves. This article proves that she's the right person to use for this target audience because she's labelled as a role model for young girls .
Similar product:
We took inspiration from the actual Pretty Hurts music video by Beyoncé, we're following the same storyline but also putting our own twist on it. Both ours and the real video focus on the topic of self image and the action on screen is going to follow the lyrics.
We also took inspiration from a Train - Drive by fan made stop motion music video. We used the idea of writing the lyrics on paper and making the words appear one by one as if they were writing themselves. We thought we would use this only for the chorus of the song because they have the most important lyrics in the song.
Advice on writing storyboard -
it has to have arrows in the picture to show the directions of the movements
writing underneath has to explain what happens, and tell me when sound comes in and out.
Arcs and Gravity are the main principals in Animation. Arcs are the shapes that your arms and legs make every time they move. Arcs are used within animation to make figurines and objects to make them seem more human like and alive. The principal of gravity is if an object is going to fall in an animation, it falls as if you were to drop something on the floor and follows the principal of gravity. But sometimes these principals can be broken, arcs may only be used in arms and not legs and visa versa, and the principal of gravity can be broken because an object could pause for a reaction, before gravity takes over.
Time is a key principal of animation because the more frames you use the smoother and better quality the animation will be, and the less frames you use can make it jerky and amateur looking and can make the objects/figurines look less life like. Persistence of vision is an illusion principal where the human eye is tricked into thinking it can see an animation such as a flip book.
Overlapping is another principal which is when a characters arms and legs are moving at the same time they can move at different rate. The principal of anticipation is a principal where if a character goes to jump, it has to bend its knees in anticipation of the jump because for a human, it's physically impossible to jump without bending your knees. Finally secondary actions are important in animation as well as the main action because it gives a scene more life and character, it helps the audience to understand a story better and brings more detail to the story but at the same time they don't take away the focus from the main action.
Object: Lucky Strike Cigarette Advert : Created by the Cigarette Company in 1948.
Target Audience: Adults and cigarette smokers, cigarettes are only available to 18+.
Puppet: Hansel and Gretel : Opera Story - Created by RKO Radio Pictures in 1954. Target Audience of Adults because of the opera elements and children because Hansel and Gretel is a fairytale story often told to children.
Claymation:Tim Burton's Vincent : Created by Tim Burton in 1982. Target Audience: Older children / young teens because its about a young boy and it has props of children's toys but it's for older children because it has elements of horror.
Claymation: Wallace and Grommet - Created by Nick Park of Aardman Animations in 1989.
Target Audience: children, teenagers and possibly young adults because it has elements of comedy and because it is animated children and young teenagers will like it.
Live Action: Food - Created by Jans Svankmajer in 1992. Target Audience: Adults, mainly male because the characters are both men and adults because children may find it scary because of the elements of surrealism.
Claymation: Bob the Builder - Created by Keith Chapman in 1998.
Target Audience: Children under 10, mainly boys because there's a lot of male characters and there are stereo typical boy elements such as tractors, diggers and the main character is a male builder.
Objects: Western Spagetti - Created by PES in 2008 Target audience : Older teenagers and adults because its about cooking, its surrealism might not be understood by children.
Live action: Real Life Mario Kart - Created by Olivier Bolduc et Simon Lachapelle in 2012.
Target Audience: gaming fans and teenagers because mario kart is a very popular game and is a racing game which would appeal to that age range.
Live action: Train : Drive by music video - Created by Alona Korakin in 2013.
Target Audience: Train fans and people under the age of 30 because the song is modern.
Analysis of Three Stop Motion Animations
Lucky Strike Cigarette Advert - 1948
It does not use the principal of arcs at all as they used the cigarettes being advertised but didn't give them limbs or faces, (0:42)
but you still know that the cigarettes are meant to be people because of the voice over man who is describing the 'people' square dancing and the setting of the barn also suggest that the cigarettes are meant to be people. People could find this funny because of the surrealism.
But what the advert does have is persistence of vision. The advert flows really well which shows that more frames were used to add to the realism of the cigarettes dancing. They move so smoothly that it looks like thy have a life of their own.
Wallace and Gromit - 1989
The principal of gravity was definitely used in this claymation because there's a scene where Wallace goes down a shoot and there is no hesitation before gravity takes it toll. (2:01)
This makes the animation more realistic but also fantasy for the viewers because it will make viewers want to shoot out of their own beds and at their kitchen table.
The dog Gromit shows the use of overlaps as he can walk, turn his head and move his ears at the same time but at different rates.(3:32)
This is effective because Gromit being able to move his ears at the same time as his face gives us more of an idea of how he is feeling which we can tell is confused and then he becomes alert when his ears move.
Train: Drive By Music Video - 2013
There are a lot of secondary actions in this live action animation as the girl is sitting in busy streets and other public places where you can see passers by (0:04)
dogs and cars which is relative to the lyrics in the song which talks about different places in america and about driving.
The principal of time in this live action animation appears to be jerky and not smooth but this is effective because the girl holding the lyrics has to be in time with the song and therefore it actually looks good when you're watching it.
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