Stopmotion Character Concepts
Out of the animators we were shown in early stop motion, the few that stood out to me were ones that incorporated stop motion with live action. We are currently planning to have project in both cutout and 3D clay animation, so learning the techniques the pioneers founded will be really helpful and might give us some ideas on how to go about the process.
Personally, I found Willis O Brien's work on King Kong (1933) to be really impressive. It was a good look into early cinema and showed interaction between clay figures and real life people. It was also a really early but advanced humanoid figure moving in a believable way. The use of sets is also something We will be needing to use, especially for the 3D claymation aspect.
Lou Bunin's work on Alice in wonderland (1949) also made use of stop motion and live action within the same shot. This could be achieved in modern times through cropping or superimposing with green screen.
Ray Harryhausen was seen to use a mixture of claymation played in front of a choreographed live action fight scene, where soldiers are shown fighting skeletons. The process was something interesting to consider, as he filmed live action actors before hand, then animated in front of a screen playing that projection.
3D artist models and Inspirations
For the character designs, I really liked the style of characters with a simple round face and dotted eyes. A few of the previous works I tried to incorporate their styles into my work are Coraline, The Rifles Spiral and The Little prince. I also really liked the use of fabric for the characters clothes, which I want to do some experimenting with. I have a small amount of experience with sewing so I might have a bt of trouble, but with online tutorials I think I should be able to manage.
In the end I came up with 3 designs, as I wanted to have some variety of what the group might want. The designs I went with feature a more girly child, a tomboyish character and a girl more in the middle ground. I'm not quite sure what I want to use for the hair yet, but I'm thinking that maybe yarn or synthetic hair could be used. I created a breakdown of what the characters would be wearing and what I would have to make for each of them
Cutout artist models and Inspirations
The most obvious inspiration for this method and art style is Lotte Reiniger, who was a great pioneered in cutout and silhouette animations. Because we have watched a video on her creative process as well as snippets of her work within class our group has a good understanding of the process, however we will probably learn firsthand the limitations and challenges that it possess when we get to the production stage.
While Reiniger is a great inspiration in the stop motion animation sub genre, many other forms of animation make use of a solely Black and white silhouette type animation to tell a story. Because I wanted to explore differently styles of character designs in silhouette, I broadened my search to encompass any type of animation that made use of silhouettes effectively.
Some inspirations that I found include
The Wolf - SIAMES
The wolf makes use of simplistic but effective silhouette designs, as it works in a black/white colour combination as well as hits of red throughout. the characters are very blocky and shape based, which I think could be an effective art direction to take in out project.
Bad Apple demonstrates a lot of really interesting panel compositions and transitions throughout the animation. A lot of the characters look very distinctive and are easy to tell apart despite them just being silhouettes. Part of the design process that I need to keep in mind is making sure the characters I design look distinct enough from each other so the viewer doesn't get confused.
Revolutionary Girl Utena
Revolutionary Girl Utena makes use of a segment in its episodes where shadow puppets put on small plays to demonstrate a theme or foreshadow an event within the story. even though they are limited to shadows against a wall and basic cutout props, and the fact that it has been animated traditionally, a lot is able to be portrayed to the audience through movement, sound effects and acting. The silhouettes are also very distinctive in shape, making it easier for the viewer to comprehend what is being shown.
In the end, some of the basic Ideas I sketched out took the various artist models I studied to create distinctive characters. Originally I thought that a beast like monster might work, but I found a tall, angular spiky looking monster caricature might work better.
I also really liked incorporating the hits of colours like red as seen in the wolf, which I think would work well within the nightmare scenes of the animation.
Personally, I found Willis O Brien's work on King Kong (1933) to be really impressive. It was a good look into early cinema and showed interaction between clay figures and real life people. It was also a really early but advanced humanoid figure moving in a believable way. The use of sets is also something We will be needing to use, especially for the 3D claymation aspect.
Lou Bunin's work on Alice in wonderland (1949) also made use of stop motion and live action within the same shot. This could be achieved in modern times through cropping or superimposing with green screen.
Ray Harryhausen was seen to use a mixture of claymation played in front of a choreographed live action fight scene, where soldiers are shown fighting skeletons. The process was something interesting to consider, as he filmed live action actors before hand, then animated in front of a screen playing that projection.
3D artist models and Inspirations
For the character designs, I really liked the style of characters with a simple round face and dotted eyes. A few of the previous works I tried to incorporate their styles into my work are Coraline, The Rifles Spiral and The Little prince. I also really liked the use of fabric for the characters clothes, which I want to do some experimenting with. I have a small amount of experience with sewing so I might have a bt of trouble, but with online tutorials I think I should be able to manage.
Cutout artist models and Inspirations
The most obvious inspiration for this method and art style is Lotte Reiniger, who was a great pioneered in cutout and silhouette animations. Because we have watched a video on her creative process as well as snippets of her work within class our group has a good understanding of the process, however we will probably learn firsthand the limitations and challenges that it possess when we get to the production stage.
While Reiniger is a great inspiration in the stop motion animation sub genre, many other forms of animation make use of a solely Black and white silhouette type animation to tell a story. Because I wanted to explore differently styles of character designs in silhouette, I broadened my search to encompass any type of animation that made use of silhouettes effectively.
Some inspirations that I found include
The Wolf - SIAMES
The wolf makes use of simplistic but effective silhouette designs, as it works in a black/white colour combination as well as hits of red throughout. the characters are very blocky and shape based, which I think could be an effective art direction to take in out project.
Bad Apple
Bad Apple demonstrates a lot of really interesting panel compositions and transitions throughout the animation. A lot of the characters look very distinctive and are easy to tell apart despite them just being silhouettes. Part of the design process that I need to keep in mind is making sure the characters I design look distinct enough from each other so the viewer doesn't get confused.
Revolutionary Girl Utena makes use of a segment in its episodes where shadow puppets put on small plays to demonstrate a theme or foreshadow an event within the story. even though they are limited to shadows against a wall and basic cutout props, and the fact that it has been animated traditionally, a lot is able to be portrayed to the audience through movement, sound effects and acting. The silhouettes are also very distinctive in shape, making it easier for the viewer to comprehend what is being shown.
In the end, some of the basic Ideas I sketched out took the various artist models I studied to create distinctive characters. Originally I thought that a beast like monster might work, but I found a tall, angular spiky looking monster caricature might work better.
I also really liked incorporating the hits of colours like red as seen in the wolf, which I think would work well within the nightmare scenes of the animation.
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