The History + Development of Stop Motion Animation

Part 1- Early optical Toys

                                                      Thaumatrope


A thaumatrope is an optical toy that was popular during the 19th century. It is mad up of a round piece of card with a picture on both sides that when is spun by two pieces of string it looks like its making a full image. A classic example of this would a bird in a cage. The inventor of the thaumatrope is either John Ayrton Paris or Peter Mark Roget. In 1824, Paris used one of these to demonstrate the persistence of vision.

Phenakistoscope

This was a more complex toy that still uses the persistence of vision but not in the same way. The way it works is that a piece of round card with lots of frames round the edge is spun and looked at through another piece of slotted paper to create the illusion of a moving image. This optical toy was invented in 1832 by Joseph Plateau who had planned to make it for 3 years.



Zoetrope

The zoetrope is quite similar to a phenakistoscope but it's in a cylinder that has slots to see through and the frames are on a long strip of paper which is then inserted into the cylinder then it's spun to create the illusion of a moving image. This was invented in 1834 by the British mathematician William George Horner.




Praxinoscope

This is quite closely related to the zoetrope as it uses the same spinning cylinder but has mirrors on the interior of the cylinder which you look into instead of looking through slits. So when you look into the mirror you can see the moving image. It was invented by Charles-Emile Raynaud in 1877.

Kinetoscope

This is one of the first modern film players although only one person could look through it at a time it consisted of a long line of film that would run round the interior of this maachine again giving the perception of vision. this machine was first shown at the National Federation of Womens Clubs by Thomas Edison in 1891.











Pioneers

George Pal

George Pal was a Hungarian animator who worked mainly in the scifi genre he worked in films such 

as, War of the Worlds and the Time Machine in which had a scene where the main actor traveled 

through so everything changed and wilted.




Willis O'Brien

O'Brien was a american pioneer in stop motion animation who was responsible for some of the best images in cinema according to ASIFA-Hollywood. He worked on films such as The Lost World, King Kong and Mighty Joe Young. When he left home he worked in a lot of places but developed a love for anything prehistoric which ignited his love for animation.

Ray Harryhausen

Ray Harryhausen was an american visual effects designer and a producer who created the form of animation known as Dynamtion. He is most well known for his work in the films Mighty Joe Young, with his mentor Willis O'Brien who won Academy awards for The 7th Voyage of Sinbad. His first and last colour film Jason and the Argonauts featured a fight with animated skeletons and Jason fighting a Hydra.

Phil Tippet

Phil Tippet is an american movie director and visual effects supervisor. Hsi most famous work was in the Star Wars franchise such as a the AT_AT walkers in Empire Strikes Back. He also did work in Jurassic Park when he started working with computer animation.

Omar Gutman

Gutman is most famous for his work Pingu which is a children's TV show that aired from 1986 to 2000 and was also then later on aired until 2006 when it won a BAFTA.

Tim Burton

Tim Burton is a american film director, he famous world wide for his dark stories that he makes in to films and a few of these where animated such as the classic, Nightmare Before Christmas which was a very different take on animation which used very slender figures instead of the usual chunky plasterscene.

Henry Selick

This was the man who brought all of Tim Burton's creations to life, he was the lead animator on the Nightmare Before Christmas, he also worked on other famous animated movies such as James and the Giant Peach and Coraline.

Nick Park

Nick Park works for Aardman Animation in Bristol, he has been responsible for some of the biggest animated movies/TV shows in the world such as the Wallace and Gromit shorts and more recently the films he also directed and made the chicken run films. He also has Creaure Comforts under his belt and this year was involved in making the Shaun the Sheep movie.


Animation in music videos



This music video isn't fully animated, it focuses on his hair and how to make it do things it can't do in reality. It's quite childish in concept which contrasts with the subject of the song. I would say the target audience would be 18-30 as it's a humour that would make this age range interested





This is a music video that is almost entirely made up of animation with a model village, the way that it's filmed fits well with the music video and fits with the subject of the song. I would imagine this is aimed at and audience between the ages of 20-35.




Pingu is a children's animated series about the antics of Pingu. It's entirely made up of plastercine and is made to be set in their igloo. The age range of this would be quite young as it's made for children so from about the years 4 and up.





The Nightmare Before Christmas is an animated story about a skeleton from the town of Halloween stumbles  across the town of Christmas. Again this involves plastercine but is more made up of plastic and wire frames. I would imagine this is aimed at a younger audience but and older audience would also enjoy this so would say from the age of 8 upwards.







This one a many Change4Life animated adverts about healthy eating and looking after your body. this advert would most likely be aimed towards the parents of young children to help them to be healthier later on in life so the target audience would be 35+.







This is the e-sting, e-volution, in which you see the evolution of man. This is probably aimed at a younger audience as when the man fully evolves he has a phone and is in his pants, implying that everyone walks around that. This would amuse a younger audience as they can relate to this meaning i would say that this is targeted towards a audience between the ages of 16-25.