Posts Tagged ‘stop motion’
Claymation – Bottled Water in Animation !
A Press Release from The WaterTechOnline.com website in support of bottled water have opted to use a claymation character to get their point (or should I say pint ) across.
- Claymation – Supporting Bottled Water
ALEXANDRIA, VA – The International Bottled Water Association (IBWA) today posted its newest video, The Real Story of Bottled Water<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwV2JpFnxWM>, on its consumer-oriented YouTube channel, Bottled Water Matters, as a humorous retort/rebuttal to misleading claims made by anti-bottled water activists. Consumers are encouraged to view the entertaining rejoinder The Real Story of Bottled Water shown below.
“In the past few months, activists have made claims that the bottled water industry ‘manufactures demand’ for bottled water,” said Tom Lauria, IBWA Vice President of Communications. “But the truth is that demand for bottled water is ‘consumer driven,’ and our video illustrates this important difference by giving viewers insightful background information about the industry and the true reasons of bottled water’s widespread popularity.”
“I expect that this video will be an eye-opener for some people who may have only heard the false and inaccurate information being disseminated by activists,” he said.
Produced in-house, IBWA’s video uses claymation, a live stop-action technique, to tell The Real Story of Bottled Water. A talking 5-gallon water cooler bottle made from blue modeling clay — addresses the YouTube audience, giving them her side of the real story of bottled water.Facts are supported by using source credits throughout the video.
The video is among more than a dozen videos on the Bottled Water Matters YouTube channel aimed at addressing misinformation about the bottled water industry.
“Lucky for us, most people use common sense and can tell when they are being misled—or they check the facts out for themselves. A lot of information-spin on the theory of the so-called ‘manufactured demand’ can be easily researched and debunked,” Mr. Lauria said.“To save consumers time, we’re happy to do it for them.”
Some comments from viewers of the video…
I love Perrier, Mountain Valley and San Pellegrino in glass! But glass is heavy and that means a potentially larger carbon footprint when shipping. You mention “filter stations” as if something needs to be done to tap water to make it drinkable. With so much packaged in plastic, it’s odd you pick on the healthiest beverage around. BTW, PET doesn’t leech.
The argument Tap vs Bottled is ridiculous: Municipal water suppliers are allowed to distribute contaminated water, as long as they “inform” the public about the contamination. I get a letter twice a year letting me know that my tap water exceeds the EPA Maximum Contaminant Levels for Arsenic and Fluoride. If this water was in a bottle it would NOT be allowed to be distributed. Also some of the first responders in a crisis for disaster relief are the bottlers with small thanks from JQ Public!
Animation in your hands
Scribble - Prototype for Flipbook Animation
Students Penn Greene, Ryan Thurmer, Chris Parker and Alexis Stepanek received a $2,500 top prize for their Scribble handheld animation prototype.
at the University of Michigan, US.
A small group of innovative University of Michigan students with an interest in animation has brought the old-school flip book into the 21st century with the “Scribble”, a handheld touchscreen toy that turns digital drawings into flipbook stop motion animations.
With a plastic-tip pen, users hand-draw and save a series of consecutive images, which the Scribble then plays back in sequence to create the illusion of movement (once saved, drawings can be edited). A functional prototype of the device recently netted first place in a toy design competition co-sponsored by the University of Michigan College of Engineering’s Center for Entrepreneurship, and Giddy Up Toys.
Vintage Stop Motion of Star Trek Original Series
I came across this stop motion animation on YouTube of an episode of Star Trek ( The original series ) :
| Episode 10 | “The Corbomite Maneuver“ | 1512.2 | Joseph Sargent | Jerry Sohl | November 10, 1966 |
It was created by man called “John”. I will let the description speak for itself as follows:
“My brother created this project in 1978 when he was 18 years old . He built the model of the Starship Enterprise bridge. He made all the clothes ect. for the dolls and spent tedious hours animating the characters. He dubbed in the audio after he copied the super 8 footage on to a beta tape The animation was done from his memory of the episode because VCRs were not invented when he did this project. My hope is that this gets the recognition it deserves. RIP John.”
The puppets were made from 1970’s GI Joe action figures. John made all the costumes and the set himself. Some of the comments on the video are justifiably complimentary.
stoneman127 What’s so fantastic about this is that the dolls/figures of the characters move so smoothly, lively, not stiff. You can tell a lot of work went into this. This is really top class stuff. And this was done before all the high tech camera equipment and special effects were available. It’s truly an amazing piece of work. This is really great!
grandehillusion Very impressive !!!
your brother had a lot of talent, worthy of Ray Harryhausen.
It is a very beautiful tribute has its work that to diffused it on YouTube.
Thanks for sharing.
I have started watching the original series again recently having received a gift of the Complete Blue Ray DVD box set. They have enhanced some of the original special effects and cleaned up the images. It has been done with sensitivity and does not spoil the overall feel. Recommened as is John’s fine work above.
Disney Recommendation for iKITMovie
We had a very pleasant surprise last week to find Disneys’ FamilyFun magazine recommend iKITMovie animation software!
Disneys' Familyfun - iKITMovie
It was Recommended by FamilyFun digital manager Samuel Mead and kids, Ruby, age 8, and Finn, 5 (plus cousins Cedar, 15, Silas, 11, Matia, 12, and Noah, 9) – Their tips were ..
Our Tips
Stop-motion animation programs are compatible with most digital video cameras and some digital still cameras (check before you download). I had to adjust my camera’s settings from HD to DV before beginning. For a more professional look, we set our camera on a tripod and shot against a flat, brightly lit sheet of white paper. To inspire my young animators, I showed them some of the many finished works posted online. The kids were particularly jazzed by a short called “Western Spaghetti” (eatpes.com).
Also we got an really nice article by Karin Piper author of “Charter Schools – The Ultimate Guide for Parents” about us on Examiner.com.
Karin is a speaker, school choice advocate and author of award winning Charter Schools: The Ultimate Handbook for Parents. Karin provides communications and tools necessary for parents to become informed decision makers in the expanding world of education options. She also works with various organizations in engaging with surrounding communities and creating dynamic relationships with families. Karin can be contacted through Karin@theeducationchoiceexpert.com or visit her website at charterschoolmom.com.
Aardman and Tate Gallery – Children to Animate
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NEWS : The UK’s famous art gallery, the Tate and Aardman studios have teamed up for an ambitious project to create a feature movie made entirely by children. Aardman will spearhead this 3Million pounds sterling project by organising contributions from children in the UK to create a movie which will be launched as part of the 2012 Olympics celebrations. Aardman will hold workshops around the UK hoping to directly involve thousands of children’s hand drawn animation cutout backdrops and characters as well as recording sound effects , voices and ideas.
“In this age of the creative economy where ideas are the driving force, discovering and nurturing creative ideas in children is of vital importance,” said Aardman Chairman Dave Sproxton.
“We want children to be involved at every level and believe that the spontaneity and creativity of the children will create a film that is as inspiring as it is entertaining.”
Sir Nicholas Serota, the director of Tate, said: “We’re giving children the opportunity to work at the coalface and really use their own creativity. This is about stimulating creativity among young people. It is a natural way of extending the education work that we do and capturing the interest of young people in the visual.”
Cartoon Animation Software
Cartoon Animation software is a generic term which can be used to include stop motion software. We think of cartoons as “Tom and Jerry” in the broadcast media or as comic strips in the printed media. But the term “Cartoon” can extend to all visual media that depicts caricatures of life. Cartoons have their roots in printed media going back over 150 years. A magazine called Punch appeared in England in 1841 and is reputed to have given us the beginnings of cartoons in modern life. It was a humorous satire on society and politics at the time. It ran until 2002. It had an international reputation for a witty and irreverent take on the world.
Even in early cinema stop motion and cel animation were used to create cartoons. They proved very popular with audiences. The original black and white drawings of Mickey Mouse are treated as works of art by historians of cinematography. A cel from the 1928 “Mickey Mouse – Steamboat Willie” with sound! is shown below. The Disney empire grew from these humble beginnings.
Mickey Mouse - Early Cel Animation
Stop motion ran in parallel to the printed media from the early 19th century. With the advent of home personal computers, everyone could now use animation software to create cartoon strips or cartoon animations in any form. Cartoon animation software can be used to create cel animations or stop motion animation with sound, music and voice overs all from the humble PC or Mac at home. Video sharing sites are full of excellent examples of homemade animations with cartoon animation software. All ages can get involved with the very easy to use cartoon software from WapitaMedia to advanced 3D animation software from Daz studio to our own stop motion “cartoon animation software” called iKITMovie.
We have a gift for you – Free Webcam
I have been asked many many times by those new to stop motion for advice on what web camera to buy when starting out with animation. We have reviewed a number of web cameras on our site in the last year and in general we have been happy to recommend Logitech® and Microsoft®. So as a gift to new customers we are giving away Logitech C200 webcams with our flagship software iKITMovie 1.6. The Logitech C200 is very new to the market and signals a real coming of age for affordable webcams. For stop motion it is most comfortable at 640×480 at 30FPS (image refresh that is ,not the capture frame rate). It can capture images up to 1.3 MP with software enhancement. What is best about Logitech cameras however are the drivers. They give excellent control of brightness, contrast, White balance etc, all essential to getting the best quality possible with the lens supplied. There is manual zoom on this model which works very well for close up work.
So if you are looking for a complete kit for stop motion it is a very good package indeed.
Bringing the F#*? Word to Stop Motion
Stop Motion Gordon Ramsay
Cuppa Coffee studios the company behind the stop motion series, Glenn Martin DDS, Life’s a Zoo, Rick And Steve, Celebrity Deathmatch and a number of other very amusing series has struck a deal with foul mouthed celebrity Gordon Ramsay to create a series called “At Your Service”. Adam Shaheen ,executive producer and president of Cuppa Coffee believes Gordon Ramsay’s larger than life personality will be a recipe for success when combined with stop motion animation and it’s classical characterization. They are in the process of finding writers for the proposed show at the moment. The show will be touted to distributors and channels at Mipcoms International TV Sales expo in October. While exact details are not available yet, the show is likely to be 30 minutes per episode and will focus on the wilder side of Ramsay’s outrageous outburst on his shows such as “Hells Kitchen”. It will be interesting to see what characters they bring in to the series to put up against Ramsays outrageous tongue.
Toronto based Cuppa Coffee animation studios houses 42 shooting stages and employs over 200 artists. In house facilities include prop and sets wardrobe, animation and post-production. They produce roughly 145,000 seconds of animation per year.
Cuppa Coffee Studios
They have won over 150 international animation awards.
So whether you are a fan of Gordon Ramsay or not Cuppa will no doubt come up with another very funny stop motion series. We hope they don’t take too long to get it up and running on our TV screens.
A Rare Sunny Day Stop Motion
We’ve had a very damp and cloudy summer in Ireland this year. But we’re having a rare sunny spell this week, so my son had some fun with a neighbours car. We used his car by way of explanation. He had never heard of stop motion before. So we told him that my son could push his car using stop motion. He laughed but agreed to play along. He wasn’t sure what the hell we were doing as we asked him to repeatedly move and re-park his car. I think he thought we were lining it up for a good shot. When we replayed the stop motion, he laughed heartily. He now knows what stop motion is and finally understands what iKITMovie can do. Take a look at the result below. But remember to ask permission if you want to try something like this yourself if you are not driving yet that is..!
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Stop Motion – Replacement Method
We really need to give more examples of replacement stop motion on our site. The recent examples we gave to some of our customers got a very positive response. Replacement Stop motion is a technique where each frame (or sequence of frames) uses a different object in place of the previous object. It was originally used in professional work by the very famous animator “George Pal”. One of his most famous stop motion sequences was in the 1962 “The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm” He used a a new hand-carved wooden puppet for each frame of film. It is said that they had over 1,000 puppets for one 4 minute sequence. 
The example we give on our site is a little more modest that 1,000 hand carved puppets, nonetheless the result for those new to stop motion is very satisfying. With just 5 small pieces of clay moulded in to specific shapes a very impressive stop motion sequence can be achieved.
For new animators abstract shapes work best. It is a far more skilled job to have to create dozens of characters with small differences between each one. The human eye (your audience) is far more likely to amused by abstract shape shifting objects rather than picking holes in characters that are not quite the same between sequences. The other real advantage of using replacement techniques when starting out is that you get to know and become expert at “onionskinning”. This is the most powerful yet easy to use feature for any animator to use.
So refer to our site homepage for the first example we give.
