Stop Motion...

Stop motion is an animation technique used in film where physical objects are hand-moved and images are taken to create frames, which then, after thousands and thousands of images are edited together, makes an animation. This technique is perhaps most famously used in the short film and TV series, 'Wallace and Gromit' where plasticine models are created and moved every 10th of a second (or something like that.)

Stop motion is a popular technique because it is somewhat easier to create than animation and the creators can be very creative in what they do. However, it could take several hours just to produce enough photos for a 10 second clip, which is why this type of animation is mostly used in short films innstead of feature-length animations. Stop motion can also be used to create fun but meaningless short films. An example of one of these is the 'T-Shirt War', which involves the two creators of the film changing T-Shirts every frame to give the effect that the T-shirts are moving. This works very effectively and is fun to watch.

I have considered using stop-motion techniques in my short film, as when they are done properly they can be very effective and entertaining to watch. However based on the time limit we have, it may not be possible to create a 5-minute long short film made entirely of stop motion, due to the sheer length of time usually required.

 

 

-KW