Present Animators

TIM BURTON

Tim Burton was drawn to stop motion animation from a young age, watching such films as '20 Million Miles to Earth' made in 1957 and 'Jason and Argonauts' 1963. Tim Burton has added his own techniques to the stop animation world. He uses puppets instead of clay motion. Inside these there are armature. This gives each puppet more maneuverable to move to more precise positions. This technique is well known for being done by Tim Burton, perfectly done in 'The Nightmare Before Christmas'. He also tends to have odd locations and dark atmosphere, this adds his own style to his work. For each letter that  puppet character he has there specific mouth that can easily be changed, this makes dialogue seem more realistic and each to move. Each one of Tim Burton's armature are designed to be really tall and lean with tiny tiny feet. 

 

Bringing it to life

Stop animation is getting still pictures and bringing it to life. Dispite the new technology used now in stop motion a lot of it is hand made, this gives 'energy that you can't explain' says Tim Burton. To do this they have small models in handmade settings. Using stationery cameras these models are photographed one frame at a time. To create a smooth movement Tim uses between 24 - 30 frames per second. The model is moved slightly each time to then create this movement. 

Characters, sets and story lines

Tim Burton's set designs are very creative, he has his unique look to it that is very memorable and well known for his work. Even if he is making a colorful and cheerful setting he always adds his gothic like touch to it. He uses specific things within the settings to add this effect such as dead looking drooping trees, pancake white makeup, black eyes, spirals and stripes which is common in his sets. It has a gothic, mysterious yet attractive look to it. Tim Burton's characters are seen as beautiful but scary at the same time. For each of the characters there is a Marquette made, different fabric and colors are experimented with until the final thing is finalized, all of these are based on Tim's original design on paper, also each face expression and size of the models are finalized. All of his puppet structures have an armature inside for easy movement and to make it stable. As mentioned before, Tim Burton's signature look to his puppets are tall and lean with small feet. Also he has experimented with having characters with no eyeballs, this gives it a dark and bizarre look to it. His story lines are frequently based around misunderstood outcasts. Most of his films are mostly either dark or colorful and sometimes contain elements of both.  Characters have frequently have long unwashed hair. Their personality is often optimistic and friendly opposite to their surroundings. A lot of them are also seen wearing black clothing to add to the gothic feel, also done by the mysterious looking buildings and set design.  Many of his work feature castles, churches and other old buildings. His stories often set in nonspecific places and they are mixed elements of Britain and America. His antagonists in his films are sometimes a cold superior that is brutal and slightly thuggish but they avoid attention from other characters. Whereas his heroes are bizarre and sometimes cowardly characters with a high morals and very intelligent. 

 

As we can see here, in this particular shot from Nightmare Before Christmas a great example of the dark and gothic feel to the locations Tim Burton uses in his films. Hardly any light is on this shot and we instantly get an edgy and mysterious feel.

 

These are some of Tim Burton's puppets from Frankenweenie, as we can see the dark colored clothing and paleness to skin. Long skinny legs and small feet with black hair. This is some of the features in a typical model from Tim Burton. 

 

These are just come of the different face expressions for Jack from Nightmare Before Christmas. In this armature it has been built so that the head can be easily changed and replaced for a different mouth movement.

 

 This is the type of armatures that Tim Burton uses of each of his puppets, these are inside the puppets to allow them specific body movements.

In a generation before Tim Burton there was a similar director called Alejandro Jodorowsky, hes work is also dealing with darker and gothic feel and nightmare stuff, he is best known for his Santa Sangre. Also Henry Selick that has worked very closely with Tim Burton in 'Nightmare Before Christmas' in 1993 also Tim Burton like techniques and look in his own work. He was then inpired to use this in his later films such as Coraline. Hes characters look a lot like Tim Burton's and some people think that Selick has used Burton's style to his own.

 Tim Burton feels that in clay mation design elements get lost. This is why he wanted to improve his early creation on Vincent and make Nightmare Before Christmas better. He needed to do this but keep the simplicity and emotion in each of the characters trying to make sure its a well designed animation. He believes that 3D limits him because the puppets have to be moved around but if it works it is more effective because it gives it a real feel, as in 2D you can draw absolutely anything. 

I think over all Tim Burton's work is incredible. He really achieves the illusion of movement from still pictures and with his own wonderful style to it. He is different to all other stop motion animators. You instantly can recognize something is his work just from the characters, the set design and costumes.

AARDMAN ANIMATIONS

Aardman Animations based is based in Bristol, the studio is known for making stop-motion clay animation. Nick Park and Peter Lord are two of the main people from Aardman. One of there most well known and successful films 'Chicken Run'.

They worked together back in 1999 to make 'Chicken Run'.

Aardman Animations use the common technique of clay animation as a stop-motion. This is done by small models made of clay. This works in a very similar way as Tim Burton's puppets but these are plasticine models. These models are moved slightly and each time a still picture is taken, these pictures are then played back to us as around 24 frames per second. This gives a real illusion that these models are being moved. 

Each character is made separately. There bodies are made from plasticine that can be easily moved to be put in different positions. With in each film there are around 12 animators. These are key people are are in charge of each set and characters to a certain scene. They are in charge of the movement of the characters.

As each movement is made, Nick Park captures this, every little movement of character and of its surroundings are key to get so there is a smooth transition.

Each character is developed slowly. Peter Lord says that they had a group of researchers asking people on the streets to find out what animal they found the funniest, this was pre Chicken Run. They spent two and a half years designing each character in Chicken Run. For each one of these characters, they had a separate mouth that they could easily change according to the sound they were making, very similar to Tim Burton's characters. Nick Park says some one their ideas for characters might have come from unconscious memories as he had lots of pets growing up.

Although Aardman Animations films such as Chicken Run and Wallace And Gromit are very light hearted fun and atmosphere to it, anyone can watch it. It uses comedy, drama and adventure in a very effective way. It doesn't limit who can watch it, the story lines are very appealing and interesting to grab the audience attention, it really involved you in it and makes you feel part of it by sometimes using dramatic irony. The happy ending is always there, this reflects that its a children's film that can be enjoyed by just about anyone.

Aardman is known for the home of cultural icons Wallace and Gromit, Shaun the Sheep, Creature Comforts, and Chicken Run. They are a nations institution in Britain. Aardman Animations give a great opportunities for animators to work in Britain. They are a big impact in the world of animation in Britain, after they announced they might been moving overseas, there was a great worry for what was going to be the future of animation in Britain. 

This type of stop motion takes very long to make. With just up to one minute of film for every three weeks of working. This is due to every precise movement of the models, this has to be perfect for a smooth and life like animation. Filming begun two years before its release, with up to 6 animators working at the same time in different scenes. If they has spent 2 weeks for filming a scene and on the last frame the lighiting, the camera or anything moved out of its place they would have to film that all again. This makes very limited space for errors. 

 

Lots of the same characters where made, each one of them has a metal skeleton inside to keep them solid. The movement was done by moving the plasticine little by little and making sure every detail in place for continuity. 

Overall I think that Aardmans work is spectacular. All the characters, set designs and story lines fit together perfectly. They are all memorable films that anyone can watch and enjoy. I think this type of animation is harder then puppet animation as plasticine is more detailed and is harder to achieve the illusion of movement, fingerprints can easily come off on the models. I believe this type is harder, but if done correctly it is more effective but this way of animation is more common to see in kids programs and films. 

THE BROTHERS QUAY

The American identical twins born in June 1947 are very influential stop motion animators. Most of their animation are based with puppets made of dolls and other original material. They often like Tim Burton portray a very dark and moody atmosphere into their work exceptionally demonstrated in one of their most famous and successful films Street of Crocodiles. This is known as one of the best animated films of all time. Most of their films have no meaningful dialogue from any of the characters, it is seen as very random and bizarre and some of them include no dialogue at all.  Where as the Comb does include some dialogue but it is purposely lots of gibberish that is not meant to be understood. They have also made some music videos that also include this very unique effect to it. Some music videos are mistaken for being made by them but they are not. This is because Fred Stuhr and Adam Jones have taken up their idea and included it in their work. They where highly influenced by the Quay brothers. Their success in Street of Crocodiles gave them freedom to experiment and explore more into shift in subject matter. They have also worked with using larger set designs to use life size puppets. They have worked in stage design for opera that gave them a very good idea of how set designs work. Their set design for The Chair was nominated for a Tony Award. The puppet animation designs they have created are now an internationally touring exhibition called Dormitorium and in 2010 they were on display at Parsons School of Design in New York. 

Streets of Crocodile is short film that plays around with everyday reality but is then faced with pathology and myth. This shows when common objects are turned into something mysterious and or magical. Their puppets are showed as decayed and discarded bits like Frankenstein Moster, glass-eyed dolls, rusted screws, scissors, hair, metal shavings, pins and other everyday objects. 

One of their main influences in early life was the work of Jan Svankmajor which is also well known for his unique style of surrealism. This emphasises how the developers and pioneers of old times that first started stop motion animation in there own style has influenced people until now and has inspired them to create something similar. 

Music in their films are also a key part that contributes to their success as they rely on the sound track a lot. They was once part of BBC's Sound on Film series. They also prefer to work around their own music and add in the soundtrack themselves. 

This is a short montage of some of their work that illustrated their unique story lines, characters and set design. Showing their moody and antique atmosphere that they are famous for. In a similar way to Tim Burton they have both been inspired to use this type of technique in their present work.

All present animators have been influenced a lot by old work and forms of stop animation. They have been inspired to use things that isn't really your typical Aardman Animations. As a whole though, the present animators have all been rooted from previous work. I think this shows clearly that the developers and pioneers of stop motion animation have had a big impact on present animators and their work. It has encouraged them to explore the unknown and to break their stereotypical limitations that has been put in place. They are all such a big success which shows to us all that audiences aren't just looking for the typical stuff but re making old styles and using techniques unseen is a good thing that can be successful. But in the end, all these animators, past or present have all used the same principle of stop motion animation by capturing each movement per frame. But they have all got their own style and way of showing this.