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![Claychick](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/Claychick.jpg)
Stop motion is an
animated
Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...
filmmaking
Filmmaking (film production) is the process by which a motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, starting with an initial story, idea, or commission. It then continues through screenwriting, casti ...
technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames is played back. Any kind of object can thus be animated, but
puppets
A puppet is an object, often resembling a human, animal or mythical figure, that is animated or manipulated by a person called a puppeteer. The puppeteer uses movements of their hands, arms, or control devices such as rods or strings to mov ...
with movable joints (puppet animation) or
plasticine
Plasticine is a putty-like modelling material made from calcium salts, petroleum jelly and aliphatic acids. Though originally a brand name for the British version of the product, it is now applied generically in English as a product category ...
figures (''
clay animation
Clay animation or claymation, sometimes plasticine animation, is one of many forms of stop-motion animation. Each animated piece, either character or background, is "deformable"—made of a malleable substance, usually plasticine clay.
Tra ...
'' or claymation) are most commonly used. Puppets, models or clay figures built around an
armature are used in
model animation
Model animation is a form of stop motion animation designed to merge with live-action footage to create the illusion of a real-world fantasy sequence.
Techniques
Many types of models have been created and developed, and the choice mainly depend ...
. Stop motion with live actors is often referred to as
pixilation
Pixilation is a stop motion technique in which live actors are used as a frame-by-frame subject in an animated film, by repeatedly posing while one or more frame is taken and changing pose slightly before the next frame or frames. The actor beco ...
. Stop motion of flat materials such as paper, fabrics or photographs is usually called
cutout animation
Cutout animation is a form of stop-motion animation using flat characters, props and backgrounds cut from materials such as paper, card, stiff fabric or photographs. The props would be cut out and used as puppets for stop motion. The world's e ...
.
Terminology
The term "stop motion", relating to the animation technique, is often spelled with a
hyphen
The hyphen is a punctuation mark used to join words and to separate syllables of a single word. The use of hyphens is called hyphenation. ''Son-in-law'' is an example of a hyphenated word. The hyphen is sometimes confused with dashes (figure d ...
as "stop-motion". Both orthographical variants, with and without the hyphen, are correct, but the hyphenated one has a second meaning that is unrelated to animation or cinema: "a device for automatically stopping a machine or engine when something has gone wrong" (''
The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary'', 1993 edition).
History
1849 to 1895: Before film
Before the advent of
chronophotography in 1878, a small number of picture sequences were photographed with subjects in separate poses. These can now be regarded as a form of stop motion or pixilation, but very few results were meant to be animated. Until celluloid
film base
A film base is a transparent substrate which acts as a support medium for the photosensitive emulsion that lies atop it. Despite the numerous layers and coatings associated with the emulsion layer, the base generally accounts for the vast majorit ...
was established in 1888 and set the standard for moving image, animation could only be presented via mechanisms such as the
zoetrope
A zoetrope is one of several pre-film animation devices that produce the illusion of motion by displaying a sequence of drawings or photographs showing progressive phases of that motion. It was basically a cylindrical variation of the phénak ...
.
In 1849,
Joseph Plateau published a note about improvements for his Fantascope (a.k.a.
phénakisticope). A new translucent variation had improved picture quality and could be viewed with both eyes, by several people at the same time. Plateau stated that the illusion could be advanced even further with an idea communicated to him by
Charles Wheatstone
Sir Charles Wheatstone FRS FRSE DCL LLD (6 February 1802 – 19 October 1875), was an English scientist and inventor of many scientific breakthroughs of the Victorian era, including the English concertina, the stereoscope (a device for di ...
: a combination of the fantascope and Wheatstone's
stereoscope
A stereoscope is a device for viewing a stereoscopic pair of separate images, depicting left-eye and right-eye views of the same scene, as a single three-dimensional image.
A typical stereoscope provides each eye with a lens that makes the ima ...
. Plateau thought the construction of a sequential set of stereoscopic image pairs would be the more difficult part of the plan than adapting two copies of his improved fantascope to be fitted with a stereoscope. Wheatstone had suggested using photographs on paper of a solid object, for instance a statuette. Plateau concluded that for this purpose 16 plaster models could be made with 16 regular modifications. He believed such a project would take much time and careful effort, but would be well worth it because of the expected marvelous results. Unfortunately, the plan was never executed, possibly because Plateau was almost completely blind by this time.
In 1852,
Jules Duboscq patented a "Stéréoscope-fantascope ou Bïoscope" (or abbreviated as stéréofantascope)
stroboscopic disc. The only known extant disc contains stereoscopic photograph pairs of different phases of the motion of a machine. Due to the long exposure times necessary to capture an image with the photographic emulsions of the period, the sequence could not be recorded live and must have been assembled from separate photographs of the various positions of the machinery.
In 1855,
Johann Nepomuk Czermak
Johann Nepomuk Czermak (17 June 1828 – 16 September 1873) was an Austrian-German physiologist who was a native of Prague.
He studied in Prague, Vienna, Breslau and Würzburg. At Breslau he was greatly influenced by the work of physiologist Ja ...
's published an article about his Stereophoroskop and other experiments aimed at stereoscopic moving images. He mentioned a method of sticking needles in a
stroboscopic disc so that it looked like one needle was being pushed in and out of the cardboard when animated. He realized that this method provided basically endless possibilities to make different 3D animations. He then introduced two methods to animate stereoscopic pairs of images, one was basically a stereo viewer using two stroboscopic discs and the other was more or less similar to the later
zoetrope
A zoetrope is one of several pre-film animation devices that produce the illusion of motion by displaying a sequence of drawings or photographs showing progressive phases of that motion. It was basically a cylindrical variation of the phénak ...
. Czermak explained how suitable stereoscopic photographs could be made by recording a series of models, for instance to animate a growing pyramid.
On 27 February 1860, Peter Hubert Desvignes received British patent no. 537 for 28 monocular and stereoscopic variations of cylindrical stroboscopic devices (much like the later zoetrope). Desvignes' ''Mimoscope'', received an Honourable Mention "for ingenuity of construction" at the 1862 International Exhibition in London. Desvignes "employed models, insects and other objects, instead of pictures, with perfect success."
In 1874,
Jules Janssen
Pierre Jules César Janssen (22 February 1824 – 23 December 1907), usually known as Jules Janssen, was a French astronomer who, along with English scientist Joseph Norman Lockyer, is credited with discovering the gaseous nature of the solar ...
made several
practice discs for the recording of the passage of Venus with his photographic rifle. He used a model of the planet and a light source standing in for the sun. While actual recordings of the passage of Venus have not been located, some practice discs survived and the images of one were turned into a short animated film decades after the development of
cinematography
Cinematography (from ancient Greek κίνημα, ''kìnema'' "movement" and γράφειν, ''gràphein'' "to write") is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography.
Cinematographers use a lens to foc ...
.
In 1887,
Étienne-Jules Marey
Étienne-Jules Marey (; 5 March 1830, Beaune, Côte-d'Or – 15 May 1904, Paris) was a French scientist, physiologist and chronophotographer.
His work was significant in the development of cardiology, physical instrumentation, aviation, cinema ...
created a large zoetrope with a series of plaster models based on his
chronophotographs of birds in flight.
[Herbert, Stephen. (n.d.]
''From Daedaleum to Zoetrope'', Part 2.
Retrieved 2014-05-31.
1895-1928: The silent film era
It is estimated that 80 to 90 percent of all
silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized Sound recording and reproduction, recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) ...
are lost. Extant contemporary movie catalogs, reviews and other documentation can provide some details on lost films, but this kind of written documentation is also incomplete and often insufficient to properly date all extant films or even identify them if original titles are missing. Possible stop motion in lost films is even harder to trace. The principles of animation and other special effects were mostly kept a secret, not only to prevent use of such techniques by competitors, but also to keep audiences interested in the mystery of the magic tricks.
Stop motion is closely related to the
stop trick
The substitution splice or stop trick is a cinematic special effect in which filmmakers achieve an appearance, disappearance, or transformation by altering one or more selected aspects of the mise-en-scène between two shots
while maintaining th ...
, in which the camera is temporarily stopped during the recording of a scene to create a change before filming is continued (or for which the cause of the change is edited out of the film). In the resulting film the change will be sudden and a logical cause of the change will be mysteriously absent or replaced with a fake cause that is suggested in the scene. The oldest known example is used for the beheading in
Edison Manufacturing Company
The Edison Manufacturing Company, originally registered as the United Edison Manufacturing Company and often known as simply the Edison Company, was organized by inventor and entrepreneur Thomas Edison and incorporated in New York City in May 188 ...
's 1895 film ''
The Execution of Mary Stuart
''The Execution of Mary Stuart'' is a short film produced in 1895. The film depicts the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots. It is the first known film to use special effects, specifically the stop trick.
The 18-second-long film was produced by Th ...
''. The technique of stop motion can be interpreted as repeatedly applying the stop trick. In 1917 clay animation pioneer
Helena Smith-Dayton referred to the principle behind her work as "stop action", a synonym of "stop motion".
French trick film pioneer
Georges Méliès claimed to have invented the stop-trick and popularized it by using it in many of his short films. He reportedly used stop-motion animation in 1899 to produce moving letterforms.
Segundo de Chomón
![Julienne Mathieu having her hair brushed](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/Julienne_Mathieu_having_her_hair_brushed.gif)
Spanish filmmaker
Segundo de Chomón
Segundo Víctor Aurelio Chomón y Ruiz (also Chomont or Chaumont ; 17 October 1871 – 2 May 1929) was a pioneering Spanish film director, cinematographer and screenwriter. He produced many short films in France while working for Pathé Frè ...
(1871–1929) made many trick films in France for
Pathé. He has often been compared to Georges Méliès as he also made many fantasy films with stop tricks and other illusions (helped by his wife,
Julienne Mathieu
Julienne Alexandrine Mathieu ( - ) was one of the earliest French silent film actresses who appeared mostly in French silents between 1905 and 1909. She appeared in the silent film '' Hôtel électrique'' released in 1908, one of the first films ...
). By 1906 Chomón was using stop motion animation. ''Le théâtre de Bob'' (April 1906) features over three minutes of stop motion animation with dolls and objects to represent a fictional automated theatre owned by Bob, played by a live-action child actor. It is the oldest extant film with proper stop motion and a definite release date.
Segundo de Chomón
Segundo Víctor Aurelio Chomón y Ruiz (also Chomont or Chaumont ; 17 October 1871 – 2 May 1929) was a pioneering Spanish film director, cinematographer and screenwriter. He produced many short films in France while working for Pathé Frè ...
's ''Sculpteur moderne'' was released on 31 January 1908 and features heaps of clay molding itself into detailed sculptures that are capable of minor movements. The final sculpture depicts an old woman and walks around before it's picked up, squashed and molded back into a sitting old lady.
Edwin S. Porter and Wallace McCutcheon Sr.
American film pioneer
Edwin S. Porter
Edwin Stanton Porter (April 21, 1870 – April 30, 1941) was an American film pioneer, most famous as a producer, director, studio manager and cinematographer with the Edison Manufacturing Company and the Famous Players Film Company. Of over ...
filmed a single-shot "lightning sculpting" film with a baker molding faces from a patch of dough in ''Fun in a Bakery Shop'' (1902), considered as foreshadowing of clay animation.
In 1905, Porter showed animated letters and very simple cutout animation of two hands in the
intertitle
In films, an intertitle, also known as a title card, is a piece of filmed, printed text edited into the midst of (i.e., ''inter-'') the photographed action at various points. Intertitles used to convey character dialogue are referred to as "dialo ...
s in ''How Jones lost his roll''.
Porter experimented with a small bit of crude stop-motion animation in his trick film ''
Dream of a Rarebit Fiend'' (1906).
''The "Teddy" Bears'' (2 March 1907), made in collaboration with
Wallace McCutcheon Sr., mainly shows people in bear costumes, but the short film also features a short stop-motion segment with small teddy bears.
On 15 February 1908, Porter released the trick film ''A Sculptor's Welsh Rabbit Dream'' that featured clay molding itself into three complete busts. No copy of the film has yet been located. It was soon followed by the similar extant film ''The Sculptor's Nightmare'' (6 May 1908) by Wallace McCutcheon Sr.
J. Stuart Blackton
J. Stuart Blackton
James Stuart Blackton (January 5, 1875 – August 13, 1941) was a British-American film producer and director of the silent era. One of the pioneers of motion pictures, he founded Vitagraph Studios in 1897. He was one of the first filmmakers to ...
's ''
The Haunted Hotel
''The Haunted Hotel '' is a 1907 American silent short comedy film written, produced, and directed by J. Stuart Blackton. One of the oldest surviving animated films, it combines live action and stop motion to animate objects.
Plot
The film star ...
'' (23 February 1907) featured a combination of live-action with practical
special effects
Special effects (often abbreviated as SFX, F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the imagined events in a story or virtual wor ...
and stop motion animation of several objects, a puppet and a model of the haunted hotel. It was the first stop motion film to receive wide scale appreciation. Especially a large close-up view of a table being set by itself baffled viewers; there were no visible wires or other noticeable well-known tricks. This inspired other filmmakers, including French animator
Émile Cohl
Émile Eugène Jean Louis Cohl (; né Courtet; 4 January 1857 – 20 January 1938) was a French caricaturist of the largely forgotten Incoherent Movement, cartoonist, and animator, called "The Father of the Animated Cartoon" and "The Oldest ...
and Segundo de Chomón. De Chomón would release the similar ''
The House of Ghosts'' and ''
El hotel eléctrico
EL, El or el may refer to:
Religion
* El (deity), a Semitic word for "God"
People
* EL (rapper) (born 1983), stage name of Elorm Adablah, a Ghanaian rapper and sound engineer
* El DeBarge, music artist
* El Franco Lee (1949–2016), American p ...
'' in 1908, with the latter also containing some very early pixilation.
''
The Humpty Dumpty Circus
''The Humpty Dumpty Circus'' is a lost short stop-motion film directed by J. Stuart Blackton and Albert E. Smith, the Anglo-American founders of Vitagraph Studios. There are no known surviving copies.
Albert E. Smith claimed in his 1952 book ''T ...
'' (1908, considered lost) by Blackton and his British-American Vitagraph partner
Albert E. Smith showed an animated performance of the figures from a popular wooden toy set. Smith would later claim that this was "the first stop-motion picture in America". The inspiration would have come from seeing how puffs of smoke behaved in the interrupted recordings for a stop trick film they were making. Smith would have suggested to get a patent for the technique, but Blackton thought it wasn't that important. Smith's recollections are not considered to be very reliable.
Émile Cohl
Blackton's ''The Haunted Hotel'' made a big impression in Paris, where it was released as ''L'hôtel hanté: fantasmagorie épouvantable''. When
Gaumont bought a copy to further distribute the film, it was carefully studied by some of their filmmakers to find out how it was made. Reportedly it was newcomer
Émile Cohl
Émile Eugène Jean Louis Cohl (; né Courtet; 4 January 1857 – 20 January 1938) was a French caricaturist of the largely forgotten Incoherent Movement, cartoonist, and animator, called "The Father of the Animated Cartoon" and "The Oldest ...
who unraveled the mystery. Not long after, Cohl released his first film, ''Japon de fantaisie'' (June 1907), featuring his own imaginative use of the stop-motion technique.
It was followed by the revolutionary hand-drawn ''
Fantasmagorie'' (17 August 1908) and many more animated films by Cohl.
Other notable stop-motion films by Cohl include ''Les allumettes animées (Animated Matches)'' (1908), and ''Mobilier fidèle'' (1910, in collaboration with
Romeo Bosetti). ''Mobilier fidèle'' is often confused with Bosetti's object animation tour de force ''Le garde-meubles automatique (The Automatic Moving Company)'' (1912). Both films feature furniture moving by itself.
Arthur Melbourne-Cooper
Of the more than 300 short films produced between 1896 and 1915 by British film pioneer
Arthur Melbourne-Cooper
Arthur Melbourne Cooper (15 April 1874 – 28 November 1961) was a British photographer and early filmmaker best known for his pioneering work in stop-motion animation. He produced over three hundred films between 1896 and 1915, of which an estima ...
, an estimated 36 contained forms of animation. Based on later reports by Melbourne-Cooper and by his daughter Audrey Wadowska, some believe that Cooper's ''Matches: an Appeal'' was produced in 1899 and therefore the very first stop-motion animation. The extant black-and-white film shows a matchstick figure writing an appeal to donate a
Guinea
Guinea ( ),, fuf, 𞤘𞤭𞤲𞤫, italic=no, Gine, wo, Gine, nqo, ߖߌ߬ߣߍ߫, bm, Gine officially the Republic of Guinea (french: République de Guinée), is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the we ...
for which
Bryant and May would supply soldiers with sufficient matches. No archival records are known that could proof that the film was indeed created in 1899 during the beginning of the
Second Boer War
The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sout ...
. Others place it at 1914, during the beginning of
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. Cooper created more ''Animated Matches'' scenes in the same setting. These are believed to also have been produced in 1899,
while a release date of 1908 has also been given. The 1908 ''Animated Matches'' film by Émile Cohl may have caused more confusion about the release dates of Cooper's matchstick animations. It also raises the question whether Cohl may have been inspired by Melbourne-Cooper or vice versa.
Melbourne-Cooper's lost films ''Dolly's Toys'' (1901) and ''The Enchanted Toymaker'' (1904) may have included stop-motion animation.
[ ''Dreams of Toyland'' (1908) features a scene with many animated toys that lasts approximately three and a half minutes.
]
Alexander Shiryaev
As a means to plan his performances, ballet dancer and choreographer Alexander Shiryaev
Alexander Viktorovich Shiryaev ( rus, Александр Викторович Ширяев; — 25 April 1941) was a Russian ballet dancer, ballet master and choreographer, founder of character dance in Russian ballet who served at the Mariinsky ...
started making approximately 20- to 25-centimeter-tall puppets out of papier-mâché
upright=1.3, Mardi Gras papier-mâché masks, Haiti
upright=1.3, Papier-mâché Catrinas, traditional figures for day of the dead celebrations in Mexico
Papier-mâché (, ; , literally "chewed paper") is a composite material consisting of p ...
on poseable wire frames. He then sketched all the sequential movements on paper. When he arranged these vertically on a long strip, it was possible to give a presentation of the complete dance with a home cinema projector. Later on, he bought a movie camera and between 1906 and 1909 he made many short films, including puppet animations. As a dancer and choreographer, Shiryaev had a special talent to create motion in his animated films. According to animator Peter Lord his work was decades ahead of its time. Part of Shiryaev's animation work is featured in Viktor Bocharov's documentary "Alexander Shiryaev: A Belated Premiere" (2003).
Władysław Starewicz (Russian period)
Polish-Russian Władysław Starewicz (1882–1965), started his film career around 1909 in Kaunas filming live insects. He wanted to document rutting stag beetles, but the creatures wouldn't cooperate or would even die under the bright lamps needed for filming. He solved the problem by using wire for the limbs of dried beetles and then animating them in stop motion. The resulting short film, presumably 1 minute long, was probably titled by the Latin name for the species: '' Жук-олень (Lucanus Cervus)'' (1910, considered lost).
After moving to Moscow, Starewicz continued animating dead insects, but now as characters in imaginative stories with much dramatic complexity. He garnered much attention and international acclaim with these short films, including the 10-minute '' Прекрасная Люканида, или Война усачей с рогачами (The Beautiful Leukanida)'' (03-1912), the two-minute ''Веселые сценки из жизни животных (Happy Scenes from Animal Life)'', the 12-minute '' Прекрасная Люканида, или Война усачей с рогачами (The Cameraman's Revenge)'' (10-1912) and the 5-minute '' Стрекоза и муравей (The Grasshopper and the Ant )'' (1913). Reportedly many viewers were impressed with how much could be achieved with trained insects, or at least wondered what tricks could have been used, since few people were familiar with the secrets of stop motion animation. ''Рождество обитателей леса (The Insects' Christmas)'' (1913) featured other animated puppets, including Father Christmas and a frog. Starewicz made several other stop motion films in the next two years, but mainly went on to direct live-action short and feature films before he fled from Russia in 1918.
Willis O'Brien's early films
Willis O' Brien
Willis Harold O'Brien (March 2, 1886 – November 8, 1962) was an American motion picture special effects and stop-motion animation pioneer, who according to ASIFA-Hollywood "was responsible for some of the best-known images in cinema history, ...
's first stop motion film was '' The Dinosaur and the Missing Link: A Prehistoric Tragedy'' (1915). Apart from the titular dinosaur and " missing link" ape, it featured several cavemen and an ostrich-like "desert quail", all relatively lifelike models made with clay. This led to a series of short animated comedies with a prehistoric theme for Edison Company, including ''Prehistoric Poultry'' (1916), ''R.F.D. 10,000 B.C.'' (1917), ''The Birth of a Flivver'' (1917) and ''Curious Pets of Our Ancestors'' (1917). O'Brien was then hired by producer Herbert M. Dawley to direct, create effects, co-write and co-star with him for ''The Ghost of Slumber Mountain
''The Ghost of Slumber Mountain'' is a 1918 film written and directed by special effects pioneer Willis O'Brien, produced by Herbert M. Dawley, and starring both men. It is the first film to show live actors and stop-motion creatures together o ...
'' (1918). The collaborative film combined live-action with animated dinosaur models in a 45-minute film, but after the premiere it was cut down to approximately 12 minutes. Dawley did not give O'Brien credits for the visual effects, and instead claimed the animation process as his own invention and even applied for patents. O'Brien's stop motion work was recognized as a technique to create lifelike creatures for adventure films. O' Brien further pioneered the technique with animated dinosaur sequences for the live-action feature '' The Lost World'' (1925).
Helena Smith Dayton
New York artist Helena Smith Dayton, possibly the first female animator, had much success with her "Caricatypes" clay statuettes before she began experimenting with clay animation. Some of her first resulting short films were screened on 25 March 1917. She released an adaptation of William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
's ''Romeo and Juliet
''Romeo and Juliet'' is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare early in his career about the romance between two Italian youths from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular plays during his lifetim ...
'' approximately half a year later. Although the films and her technique received much attention of the press, it seems she did not continue making films after she returned to New York from managing a YMCA in Paris around 1918. None of her films have yet surfaced, but the extant magazine articles have provided several stills and approximately 20 poorly printed frames from two film strips.
Starewicz in Paris
By 1920 Starewicz had settled in Paris, and started making new stop motion films. ''Dans les Griffes de L'araignée'' (finished 1920, released 1924) featured detailed hand-made insect puppets that could convey facial expressions with moving lips and eyelids.
Other silent stop motion
One of the earliest clay animation films was ''Modelling Extraordinary'', which impressed audiences in 1912.
The early Italian feature film ''Cabiria
''Cabiria'' is a 1914 Italian epic silent film, directed by Giovanni Pastrone and shot in Turin. The film is set in ancient Sicily, Carthage, and Cirta during the period of the Second Punic War (218–202 BC). It follows a melodramatic mai ...
'' (1914) featured some stop motion techniques.
1930s and 1940s
Starewicz finished the first feature stop motion film '' Le Roman de Renard (The Tale of the Fox)'' in 1930, but problems with its soundtrack delayed its release. In 1937 it was released with a German soundtrack and in 1941 with its French soundtrack.
Hungarian-American filmmaker George Pal
George Pal (born György Pál Marczincsak; ; February 1, 1908 – May 2, 1980) was a Hungarian-American animator, film director and producer, principally associated with the fantasy and science-fiction genres. He became an American citizen after ...
developed his own stop motion technique of replacing wooden dolls (or parts of them) with similar figures displaying changed poses and/or expressions. He called it Pal-Doll and used it for his Puppetoons
Puppetoons is a series of animated puppet films made in Europe (1930s) and in the United States (1940s) by George Pal. They were made using replacement animation: using a series of different hand-carved wooden puppets (or puppet heads or limbs) for ...
films since 1932. The particular replacement animation method itself also became better known as puppetoon
Puppetoons is a series of animated puppet films made in Europe (1930s) and in the United States (1940s) by George Pal. They were made using replacement animation: using a series of different hand-carved wooden puppets (or puppet heads or limbs) f ...
. In Europe he mainly worked on promotional films for companies such as Philips
Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...
. Later Pal gained much success in Hollywood with a string of Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film
The Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film is an award given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) as part of the annual Academy Awards, or Oscars, since the 5th Academy Awards (with different names), covering the year 1 ...
s, including ''Rhythm in the Ranks'' (1941), ''Tulips Shall Grow
''Tulips Shall Grow'' is a 1942 American animated short film in the ''Puppetoons'' series, directed by George Pal and starring Rex Ingram and Victor Jory. It was released by Paramount Pictures and originally photographed in 3-strip Technicolor. ...
'' (1942), ''Jasper and the Haunted House
''Jasper and the Haunted House'' is a 1942 American animated short film in the '' Madcap Model'' series by George Pal. It is an early entry that features the popular yet controversial Paramount Puppetoons characters Jasper and his friend/nemesis Pr ...
'' (1942), the Dr. Seuss
Theodor Seuss Geisel (;["Seuss"](_blank)
'' The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins
''The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins'' is a children's book, written and illustrated by Theodor Geisel under the pen name Dr. Seuss and published by Vanguard Press in 1938. Unlike the majority of Geisel's books, it is written in prose rather ...
'' (1943) and ''And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street
''And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street'' is Theodor Seuss Geisel's first Children's literature, children's book published under the pen name Dr. Seuss. First published by Vanguard Press in 1937, the story follows a boy named Marco, who ...
'' (1944), ''Jasper and the Beanstalk'' (1945), ''John Henry and the Inky-Poo
''John Henry and the Inky-Poo'' is a 1946 stop-motion animation film written and directed by George Pal using Pal's '' Puppetoons'' stop-motion style. The film is based on African American folk hero John Henry.
''John Henry and the Inky-Poo'' wa ...
'' (1946), ''Jasper in a Jam
''Jasper in a Jam'' is a 1946 short film in the ''Puppetoons'' series produced and originated by George Pal. It starred the voice of singer Peggy Lee, and was directed by Duke Goldstone and released by Paramount Pictures. It is included in ''The ...
'' (1946), and '' Tubby the Tuba'' (1947). Many of his puppetoon films were selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry
The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation, each selected for its historical, cultural and aesthetic contributions since the NFPB’s inception i ...
.
Willis O' Brien's expressive and emotionally convincing animation of the big ape in ''King Kong
King Kong is a fictional giant monster resembling a gorilla, who has appeared in various media since 1933. He has been dubbed The Eighth Wonder of the World, a phrase commonly used within the franchise. His first appearance was in the novelizat ...
'' (1933) is widely regarded as a milestone in stop-motion animation and a highlight of Hollywood cinema in general.
A 1940 promotional film for Autolite
Autolite or Auto-Lite is an American brand of spark plugs and ignition wire sets. Autolite products are sold in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Australia. Until 2011, the Autolite brand was a part of Honeywell's automotive Consumer Pro ...
, an automotive parts supplier, featured stop-motion animation of its products marching past Autolite factories to the tune of Franz Schubert
Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wor ...
's '' Military March''. An abbreviated version of this sequence was later used in television ads for Autolite, especially those on the 1950s CBS program '' Suspense'', which Autolite sponsored.
The first British animated feature was the stop motion instruction film '' Handling Ships'' (1945) by Halas and Batchelor
Halas and Batchelor was a British animation company founded by husband and wife John Halas and Joy Batchelor. Halas was a Hungarian émigré to the United Kingdom. The company had studios in London and Cainscross, in the Stroud District of Glouce ...
for the British Admiralty
The Admiralty was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for the command of the Royal Navy until 1964, historically under its titular head, the Lord High Admiral – one of the Great Officers of State. For much of it ...
. It was not meant for general cinemas, but did become part of the official selection of the 1946 Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...
.
The first Belgian animated feature was an adaptation of the Tintin comic ''The Crab with the Golden Claws'' (1947) with animated puppets.
The first Czech animated feature was the package film ''The Czech Year
''The Czech Year'' (Czech title: ''Špalíček''), also called ''A Treasury of Fairy-Tales'', is a 1947 stop-motion-animated puppet feature film from Czechoslovakia. It was the first feature film directed by Jiří Trnka, and it proceeded to w ...
'' (1947) with animated puppets by Jiří Trnka
Jiří Trnka (; 24 February 1912 – 30 December 1969) was a Czech puppet-maker, illustrator, motion-picture animator and film director.
In addition to his extensive career as an illustrator, especially of children's books, he is best kn ...
. The film won several awards at the Venice Film Festival
The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival he ...
and other international festivals. Trnka would make several more award-winning stop motion features including '' The Emperor's Nightingale'' (1949), ''Prince Bayaya
''Prince Bayaya'' (Czech: ''Bajaja'') is a 1950 Czechoslovak animated film directed by Jiří Trnka.
Awards
1954 Locarno International Film Festival
*Won: Golden Leopard
The Golden Leopard () is the top prize at the Locarno International Film ...
'' (1950), ''Old Czech Legends
''Old Czech Legends'' ( cz, Staré pověsti české) is a 1953 Czechoslovak stop motion puppet animation film directed by Jiří Trnka. It is based on the 1894 book ''Ancient Bohemian Legends'' by Alois Jirásek.
Production
After the completion ...
'' (1953) or '' A Midsummer Night's Dream'' (1959). He also directed many short films and experimented with other forms of animation.
1950s
Ray Harryhausen
Raymond Frederick Harryhausen (June 29, 1920 – May 7, 2013) was an American-British animator and special effects creator who created a form of stop motion model animation known as "Dynamation". His works include the animation for '' Mi ...
learned under O'Brien on the film '' Mighty Joe Young'' (1949). Harryhausen would go on to create many memorable stop motion effects for a string of successful fantasy films over the next three decades. These included ''The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms
''The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms'' is a 1953 American science fiction monster film directed by Eugène Lourié, with special effects by Ray Harryhausen. The film stars Paul Christian, Paula Raymond, Cecil Kellaway, and Kenneth Tobey. The screen ...
'' (1953), ''It Came from Beneath the Sea
''It Came from Beneath the Sea'' is a 1955 American science fiction monster film from Columbia Pictures, produced by Sam Katzman and Charles Schneer, directed by Robert Gordon, that stars Kenneth Tobey, Faith Domergue, and Donald Curtis. The ...
'' (1955), '' Jason and the Argonauts'' (1963), ''The Golden Voyage of Sinbad
''The Golden Voyage of Sinbad'' is a 1973 fantasy film, fantasy adventure film directed by Gordon Hessler and featuring stop motion effects by Ray Harryhausen. Based on the ''Arabian Nights'' tales of Sinbad the Sailor, it is the second of thre ...
'' (1973) and '' Clash of the Titans'' (1981).
It wasn't until 1954 before a feature animated film with a technique other than cel animation was produced in the US. The first was the stop motion adaptation of 19th century composer Engelbert Humperdinck's opera '' Hänsel und Gretel'' as '' Hansel and Gretel: An Opera Fantasy''.
In 1955 Karel Zeman
Karel Zeman (3 November 1910 – 5 April 1989) was a Czech film director, artist, production designer and animator, best known for directing fantasy films combining live-action footage with animation. Because of his creative use of special effec ...
made his first feature film ''Journey to the Beginning of Time
''Journey to the Beginning of Time'' ( cs, Cesta do pravěku, literally "Journey into prehistory") is a color 1955 Czechoslovak science fiction adventure film directed by Karel Zeman. Produced using a combination of 2-D and 3-D models, it was the ...
'' inspired by Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne (;''Longman Pronunciation Dictionary''. ; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright. His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the ''Voyages extraor ...
, featuring stop motion animation of dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures.
Art Clokey
Arthur "Art" Clokey (born Arthur Charles Farrington; October 12, 1921 – January 8, 2010) was an American pioneer in the popularization of stop-motion clay animation, best known as the creator of the character Gumby and the original voice o ...
started his adventures in clay with a freeform clay short film called ''Gumbasia'' (1955), which shortly thereafter propelled him into the production of his more structured TV series ''Gumby
''Gumby'' is an American clay animation franchise, centered on the titular green clay humanoid character created and modeled by Art Clokey. Gumby stars in two television series, the feature-length '' Gumby: The Movie'', and other media. He im ...
'' (1955–1989), with the iconic titular character. In partnership with the United Lutheran Church in America
The United Lutheran Church in America (ULCA) was established in 1918 in commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation after negotiations among several American Lutheran national synods resulted in the merger of three German-l ...
, he also produced ''Davey and Goliath
''Davey and Goliath'' is a Christian clay-animated children's television series, whose central characters were created by Art Clokey, Ruth Clokey, and Dick Sutcliffe, and which was produced first by the United Lutheran Church in America and la ...
'' (1960–2004). The theatrical feature '' Gumby: The Movie'' (1992, released in 1995) was a box office bomb
A box-office bomb, or box-office disaster, is a film that is unprofitable or considered highly unsuccessful during its theatrical run. Although any film for which the production, marketing, and distribution costs combined exceed the revenue after ...
.
On 22 November 1959, the first episode of '' Unser Sandmänchen (Our Little Sandman)'' was broadcast on DFF (East German television). The 10-minute daily bedtime show for young children features the title character as an animated puppet, and other puppets in different segments. A very similar ''Sandmänchen'' series, possibly conceived earlier, ran on West German television from 1 December 1959 until the German reunification
German reunification (german: link=no, Deutsche Wiedervereinigung) was the process of re-establishing Germany as a united and fully sovereign state, which took place between 2 May 1989 and 15 March 1991. The day of 3 October 1990 when the Ge ...
in 1989. The East German show was continued on other German networks when DFF ended in 1991, and is one of the longest running animated series in the world. The theatrical feature ''Das Sandmännchen – Abenteuer im Traumland'' (2010) was fully animated with stop motion puppets.
1960s and 1970s
Japanese puppet animator Tadahito Mochinaga
was a pioneer Japanese stop-motion animator. Having done many stop motion films/shorts in Japan, he is best known as the animator for Rankin/Bass' "Animagic" productions at his MOM Studio in Tokyo throughout the 1960s. He did this work in asso ...
started out as assistant animator in short anime (propaganda) films ''Arichan'' (1941) and ''Momotarō no Umiwashi
is an animated Japanese propaganda film produced in 1942 by Geijutsu Eigasha and released March 25, 1943. Running at 37 minutes, it was close to being feature-length, but it was not the first animated feature film in Asia; that honor goes to Chi ...
'' (1943). He fled to Manchukuo during the war and stayed in China afterwards. Due to the scarcity of paint and film stock shortly after the war, Mochinaga decided to work with puppets and stop motion. His work helped popularize puppet animation in China, before he returned to Japan around 1953 where he continued working as animation director. In the 1960s, Mochinaga supervised the "Animagic" puppet animation for productions by Arthur Rankin Jr.
Arthur Gardner Rankin Jr. (July 19, 1924 – January 30, 2014) was an American director, producer and writer, who mostly worked in animation. Co-creator of Rankin/Bass Productions with his friend Jules Bass, he created stop-motion animatio ...
and Jules Bass' Videocraft International, Ltd. (later called Rankin/Bass Productions, Inc.) and Dentsu
Dentsu Inc. ( ja, 株式会社電通 ''Kabushiki-gaisha Dentsū'' or 電通 ''Dentsū'' for short) is a Japanese international advertising and public relations joint stock company headquartered in Tokyo. Dentsu is currently the largest advertis ...
, starting with the syndicated television series '' The New Adventures of Pinocchio'' (1960-1961). The Christmas TV special ''Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is a fictional reindeer created by Robert L. May. Rudolph is usually depicted as the ninth and youngest of Santa Claus's reindeer, using his luminous red nose to lead the reindeer team and guide Santa's sleigh on ...
'' has been telecasted annually since 1964 and has become one of the most beloved holiday specials in the United States. They made three theatrical feature films ''Willy McBean and His Magic Machine
Willy or Willie is a masculine, male given name, often a diminutive form of William or Wilhelm, and occasionally a nickname. It may refer to:
People Given name or nickname
* Willie Aames (born 1960), American actor, television director, and scree ...
'' (1965), '' The Daydreamer'' (1966, stop motion / live-action) and ''Mad Monster Party?
''Mad Monster Party?'' is a 1967 American stop-motion animated musical comedy film produced by Rankin/Bass Productions for Embassy Pictures. The film stars the voices of Boris Karloff, Allen Swift, Gale Garnett, and Phyllis Diller. It tells the ...
'' (1966, released in 1967), and the television special ''Ballad of Smokey the Bear'' (1966) before the collaboration ended. Rankin/Bass worked with other animators for more TV specials, with titles such as '' The Little Drummer Boy'' (1968), ''Santa Claus is Comin' to Town
"Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town" is a Christmas song featuring Santa Claus written by J. Fred Coots and Haven Gillespie. The earliest known recorded version of the song was by banjoist Harry Reser and his band on October 24, 1934. It was the ...
'' (1970) and ''Here Comes Peter Cottontail
''Here Comes Peter Cottontail'' is a 1971 Easter stop motion animated television special produced by Rankin/Bass Productions, currently distributed by Universal Television and based on the 1957 novel ''The Easter Bunny That Overslept'' by Priscil ...
'' (1971).
British television has shown many stop motion series for young children since the 1960s. An early example is '' Snip and Snap'' (1960-1961) by John Halas
John Halas (born János Halász;Brian McFarlane ''The Encyclopedia of British Film'', London: Methuen/BFI, 2003, p.48 16 April 1912 – 21 January 1995) was a pioneering British animator. Together with Gyula Macskássy (an acquaintance from Sá ...
in collaboration with Danish paper sculptor Thok Søndergaard (Thoki Yenn), featuring dog Snap, cut from a sheet of paper by pair of scissors Snip.
Apart from their cutout animation series, British studio Smallfilms
Smallfilms is a British television production company that made animated TV programmes for children from 1959 until the 1980s. In 2014 the company began operating again, producing a new series of its most famous show, ''The Clangers'', however it ...
(Peter Firmin
Peter may refer to:
People
* List of people named Peter, a list of people and fictional characters with the given name
* Peter (given name)
** Saint Peter (died 60s), apostle of Jesus, leader of the early Christian Church
* Peter (surname), a su ...
and Oliver Postgate
Richard Oliver Postgate (12 April 1925 – 8 December 2008), generally known as Oliver Postgate, was an English animator, puppeteer, and writer. He was the creator and writer of some of Britain's most popular children's television progra ...
) produced several stop motion series with puppets, beginning with ''Pingwings
''Pingwings'' was an animated black-and-white children's television series, comprising 18 ten-minute episodes, broadcast in the United Kingdom on ITV in three series of six programmes each, between 1961 and 1965. It first aired on Southern Telev ...
'' (1961-1965) featuring penguin-like birds knitted by Peter's wife Joan and filmed on their farm (where most of their productions were filmed in an unused barn). It was followed by ''Pogles' Wood
''Pogles' Wood'' (in its first series it was entitled ''The Pogles'') is an animated British children's television show produced by Smallfilms between 1965 and 1967, first broadcast by the BBC between 1965 and 1968 (but repeated regularly until t ...
'' (1965-1967), ''Clangers
''Clangers'' (usually referred to as ''The Clangers'') is a British stop motion, stop-motion children's television series, consisting of short films about a family of mouse, mouse-like creatures who live on, and inside, a small moon-like planet ...
'' (1969-1972, 1974, revived in 2015), ''Bagpuss
''Bagpuss'' is a British animated children's television series which was made by Peter Firmin and Oliver Postgate through their company Smallfilms. The series of thirteen episodes was first broadcast from 12 February to 7 May 1974. The title ch ...
'' (1974) and '' Tottie: The Story of a Doll's House'' (1984).
Czech surrealist filmmaker Jan Švankmajer
Jan Švankmajer (; born 4 September 1934) is a Czech filmmaker and artist whose work spans several media. He is a self-labeled surrealist known for his stop-motion animations and features, which have greatly influenced other artists such as Ter ...
's released his short artistic films since 1964, which usually contain much experimental stop motion. He started to gain much international recognition in the 1980s. Since 1988 he has mostly been directing feature films which feature much more live action than stop motion. These include '' Alice'', an adaptation of Lewis Carroll
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (; 27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet and mathematician. His most notable works are '' Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequ ...
's ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creature ...
'', and ''Faust
Faust is the protagonist of a classic German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust ( 1480–1540).
The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a pact with the Devil at a crossroa ...
'', a rendition of the legend of the German scholar. Švankmajer's work has been highly influential on other artists, such as Terry Gilliam
Terrence Vance Gilliam (; born 22 November 1940) is an American-born British filmmaker, comedian, animator, actor and former member of the Monty Python comedy troupe.
Gilliam has directed 13 feature films, including '' Time Bandits'' (1981), '' ...
and the Quay brothers (although the latter claim to have only discovered Švankmajer's films after having developed their own similar style).
French animator Serge Danot
Serge Danot (7 February 1931 – 23 December 1990) was a French animator and former advertising executive. He is best known for creating the animated series, ''Le Manège enchanté'' in 1964, which became known in its 1965 English-language ver ...
created ''The Magic Roundabout
''The Magic Roundabout'' is an English-language children's television programme that ran from 1965 to 1977. It used the footage of the French stop motion animation show ''Le Manège enchanté'' but with completely different scripts and characte ...
'' (1965) which played for many years on the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
.
Polish studio
Se-ma-for
Se-ma-for was a Polish List of animation studios, animation studio. Founded in Łódź, Poland in 1947, the company has created many animated cartoons and stop motion animations for young and older audiences. The name, meaning literally ''Se-ma-ph ...
produced popular TV series with animated puppets in adaptations of ''
Colargol
Colargol is a fictional bear created by French writer Olga Pouchine in the 1950s. Colargol first became famous through a series of children's recordings by Philips Records in the 1960s. It is the story of a little bear who wants to sing and tra ...
'' (''Barnaby the Bear'' in the UK, ''Jeremy'' in Canada) (1967-1974) and ''
The Moomins
The Moomins ( sv, Mumintroll) are the central characters in a series of novels, short stories, and a comic strip by Finns, Finnish writer and illustrator Tove Jansson, originally published in Swedish language, Swedish by Schildts in Finland. The ...
'' (1977-1982).
In the 1960s and 1970s, independent clay animator
Eliot Noyes Jr. refined the technique of "free-form" clay animation with his Oscar-nominated 1965 film ''Clay (or the Origin of Species)''. Noyes also used stop motion to animate sand lying on glass for his musical animated film ''Sandman'' (1975).
Italian director Francesco Misseri created the clay animation TV series ''
Mio Mao
Mio or MIO may refer to: shortened form of Mioritic Shepherd dog or Mioritic sheepdog; a Romanian mountain dog.
Places
* Mio, Michigan, a town in the US
Music
* ''Mío'', 2011 album by David Bustamante
* "Mío", 1992 song by Paulina Rubio
Br ...
'' (1970-1976, 2002–2007), ''
Il Rosso e il Blu (The Red and the Blue)'' (1976), and a TV series with an animated
origami
) is the Japanese art of paper folding. In modern usage, the word "origami" is often used as an inclusive term for all folding practices, regardless of their culture of origin. The goal is to transform a flat square sheet of paper into a f ...
duck ''
Quaq Quao
Quaq Quao is an Italian animated television series for children based on the adventures of a duck.
The series consisted of 26 episodes of five to six minutes duration. It was filmed using stop-motion with origami figures and was written and di ...
'' (1978-1979).
The British artists Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall (
Cosgrove Hall Films
Cosgrove Hall Films (also known as Cosgrove Hall Productions) was an English animation studio founded by Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall; its headquarters was in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester. Cosgrove Hall was once a major producer of childr ...
) produced two stop-motion animated adaptions of
Enid Blyton
Enid Mary Blyton (11 August 1897 – 28 November 1968) was an English children's writer, whose books have been worldwide bestsellers since the 1930s, selling more than 600 million copies. Her books are still enormously popular and have b ...
's ''Noddy'' book series, including the original series of the same name (1975–1982) and ''
Noddy's Toyland Adventures
''Noddy's Toyland Adventures'' is a British children's television programme that was broadcast from September 1992 until April 1994 and December 1994, and again in 2000 on the BBC. It was produced by Cosgrove Hall Films in stop-motion animation.
...
'' (1992–2001), a full-length film ''
The Wind in the Willows
''The Wind in the Willows'' is a children's novel by the British novelist Kenneth Grahame, first published in 1908. It details the story of Mole, Ratty, and Badger as they try to help Mr. Toad, after he becomes obsessed with motorcars and get ...
'' (1983) and later a
multi-season TV series, both based on
Kenneth Grahame
Kenneth Grahame ( ; 8 March 1859 – 6 July 1932) was a British writer born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He is most famous for ''The Wind in the Willows'' (1908), a classic of children's literature, as well as ''The Reluctant Dragon (short story), T ...
's
classic children's book of the same title. They also produced a documentary of their production techniques, ''Making Frog and Toad''.
In 1975, filmmaker and clay animation experimenter
Will Vinton
William Gale Vinton (November 17, 1947 – October 4, 2018) was an American animator and filmmaker. Vinton was best known for his Claymation work, alongside creating iconic characters such as The California Raisins. He won an Oscar for his wor ...
joined with sculptor
Bob Gardiner to create an experimental film called ''
Closed Mondays
''Closed Mondays'' is an eight-minute clay animation film, created by Bob Gardiner and filmed by Will Vinton in 1974. It was produced by Lighthouse Productions, released by Pyramid Films in the United States, and won the Academy Award for Best ...
'' which became the first stop-motion film to win an Oscar. Will Vinton followed with several other successful short film experiments including ''
The Great Cognito'', ''The Creation'', and ''Rip Van Winkle'' which were each nominated for Academy Awards. In 1977, Vinton made a documentary about this process and his style of animation which he dubbed "claymation"; he titled the documentary ''Claymation''. Soon after this documentary, the term was trademarked by Vinton to differentiate his team's work from others who had been, or were beginning to do, "clay animation". While the word has stuck and is often used to describe clay animation and stop motion, it remains a trademark owned currently by Laika Entertainment, Inc. Twenty clay-animation episodes featuring the clown
Mr. Bill
Mr. Bill is a clay figurine star of a parody of children's clay animation shows created by Walter Williams in 1974. "The Mr. Bill Show" got its start on ''Saturday Night Live'' as a series of Super 8 films sent in in response to the show's request ...
were a feature of ''
Saturday Night Live
''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serves a ...
'', starting from a first appearance in February 1976.
At very much the same time in the UK,
Peter Lord
Peter Lord CBE (born 1953) is an English animator, director, producer and co-founder of the Academy Award-winning Aardman Animations studio, an animation firm best known for its clay-animated films and shorts, particularly those featuring p ...
and
David Sproxton
David Sproxton, (born 6 January 1954) is a British entrepreneur, best known as one of the co-founders, with Peter Lord, of the Aardman Animations studio. Sproxton was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) on 17 June 20 ...
formed
Aardman Animations
Aardman Animations Limited (also known as Aardman Studios, simply Aardman or Aardman Animation and stylised as AARDMAN as of 2022) is a British animation studio based in Bristol, England. It is known for films made using stop-motion and clay ani ...
that would produce many commercials, TV series, short films and eventually also feature films. In 1976 they created the character
Morph
Morph may refer to:
Biology
* Morph (zoology), a visual or behavioral difference between organisms of distinct populations in a species
* Muller's morphs, a classification scheme for genetic mutations
* "-morph", a suffix commonly used in tax ...
who appeared as an animated side-kick to the TV presenter
Tony Hart
Norman Antony Hart (15 October 1925 – 18 January 2009),Debrett's People of Today 2008, Debrett's Peerage Ltd, 2007. known professionally as Tony Hart, was an English artist best known for his work in educating children in art through his role ...
on his
BBC TV
BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1927. It produced television programmes from its own studios from 19 ...
programme
Take Hart
''Take Hart'' is a British children's television programme about art, presented by Tony Hart. It took over from ''Vision On'', and ran from 1977 until 1983. The programme featured Hart and the animated Plasticine character Morph, and other cha ...
. The five-inch-high presenter was made from a traditional British modelling clay called
Plasticine
Plasticine is a putty-like modelling material made from calcium salts, petroleum jelly and aliphatic acids. Though originally a brand name for the British version of the product, it is now applied generically in English as a product category ...
. In 1977 they started on a series of animated films, again using modelling clay, but this time made for a more adult audience. The soundtrack for
Down and Out was recorded in a Salvation Army Hostel and Plasticine puppets were animated to dramatise the dialogue. A second film, also for the BBC followed in 1978. A TV series
The Amazing Adventures of Morph
''The Amazing Adventures of Morph'' is a British stop-motion clay animation television show created by Aardman Animations which ran from 1980 to 1981. It featured the character Morph and his cream-coloured best friend Chas.
Production
The ch ...
was aired in 1980. They also produced a notable
music video
A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...
for "
Sledgehammer", a song by
Peter Gabriel.
Sand-coated puppet animation was used in the Oscar-winning 1977 film ''
The Sand Castle'', produced by Dutch-Canadian animator
Co Hoedeman
Jacobus Willem (Co) Hoedeman (born August 1, 1940 in Amsterdam) is a Dutch-Canadian filmmaker known for his mastery of stop motion animation and technical innovation in films that reveal his close observation of human and social interaction.
Bio ...
. Hoedeman was one of dozens of animators sheltered by the
National Film Board of Canada
The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary f ...
, a Canadian government film arts agency that had supported animators for decades. A pioneer of refined multiple stop-motion films under the NFB banner was
Norman McLaren, who brought in many other animators to create their own creatively controlled films. Notable among these are the
pinscreen animation
Pinscreen animation makes use of a screen filled with movable pins, which can be moved in or out by pressing an object onto the screen. The screen is lit from the side so that the pins cast shadows. The technique has been used to create animated ...
films of Jacques Drouin, made with the original pinscreen donated by
Alexandre Alexeieff and Claire Parker
Alexandre Alexandrovitch Alexeieff (Russian: Александр Александрович Алексеев;Alternative transcriptions include Alexander Alexeieff or Alexander Alexeïeff or Alexandre Alexieff 18 April 1901 – 9 August 1982) was ...
.
Czech filmmakers
Lubomír Beneš Lubomír Beneš (7 November 1935, Prague – 12 September 1995, Roztoky) was a Czech animator, director, and author, best known as the co-creator of ''Pat & Mat'', an animated series about two highly inventive, yet incredibly clumsy handymen neigh ...
and
Vladimír Jiránek debuted their animated puppet characters ''
Pat & Mat
''Pat & Mat'' (Czech and Slovak: ''Pat a Mat'') is a Czechoslovak slapstick stop-motion animated series created by Lubomír Beneš and Vladimír Jiránek. The characters first appeared in the theatrically released short ''Kuťáci'' (''Tinker ...
'', two inventive but clumsy neighbors, in the 7-minute short ''Kuťáci'' in 1976. Since 1979, over 100 episodes have been broadcast irregularly. Since 2014, new episodes were presented in theatrically released package films. The series became very popular in several countries, especially in The Netherlands, the only country where the characters are voiced.
One of the main British animation teams, John Hardwick and Bob Bura, were the main animators in many early British TV shows, and are famous for their work on the ''
Trumptonshire
Trumptonshire is a fictional county created by Gordon Murray, in which the ''Trumptonshire Trilogy'' of ''Camberwick Green (1966), Trumpton'' (1967), and ''Chigley'' (1969) are located. Trumptonshire is populated by characters portrayed by 8-inch ...
'' trilogy.
Disney experimented with several stop-motion techniques by hiring independent animator-director
Mike Jittlov
Mike Jittlov (born June 8, 1948) is an American animator and the creator of short films and one feature-length film using forms of special effects animation, including stop-motion animation, rotoscoping, and pixilation. He is best known for the 1 ...
to make the first stop-motion animation of
Mickey Mouse toys ever produced, in a short sequence called ''Mouse Mania'', part of a TV special, ''Mickey's 50'', which commemorated Mickey's 50th anniversary in 1978. Jittlov again produced some impressive multi-technique stop-motion animation a year later for a 1979 Disney special promoting their release of the feature film ''
The Black Hole
''The Black Hole'' is a 1979 American science fiction film directed by Gary Nelson and produced by Walt Disney Productions. The film stars Maximilian Schell, Robert Forster, Joseph Bottoms, Yvette Mimieux, Anthony Perkins and Ernest Borgnin ...
''. Titled ''Major Effects'', Jittlov's work stood out as the best part of the special. Jittlov released his footage the following year to 16mm film collectors as a short film titled ''
The Wizard of Speed and Time
''The Wizard of Speed and Time'' is a 1988 low-budget feature film written, directed, and starring animator Mike Jittlov, as well as a 1979 16 mm short film, also by Jittlov.
1979 short film
In the original short film, a young man in a green wi ...
'', along with four of his other short multi-technique animated films, most of which eventually evolved into his own feature-length film of the same title. Effectively demonstrating almost all animation techniques, as well as how he produced them, the film was released to theaters in 1987 and to video in 1989.
1980s
In the 1970s and 1980s,
Industrial Light & Magic often used stop-motion model animation in such films as the
original ''Star Wars'' trilogy: the holochess sequence in ''
Star Wars
''Star Wars'' is an American epic film, epic space opera multimedia franchise created by George Lucas, which began with the Star Wars (film), eponymous 1977 film and quickly became a worldwide popular culture, pop-culture Cultural impact of S ...
'', the Tauntauns and AT-AT walkers in ''
The Empire Strikes Back
''The Empire Strikes Back'' (also known as ''Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back'') is a 1980 American epic space opera film directed by Irvin Kershner from a screenplay by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan, based on a stor ...
'', and the AT-ST walkers in ''
Return of the Jedi
''Return of the Jedi'' (also known as ''Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi'' is a 1983 American epic space opera film directed by Richard Marquand. The screenplay is by Lawrence Kasdan and George Lucas from a story by Lucas, who ...
'' were all filmed using stop-motion animation, with the latter two films utilising
go motion
Go motion is a variation of stop motion animation which incorporates motion blur into each frame involving motion. It was co-developed by Industrial Light & Magic and Phil Tippett. Stop motion animation can create a disorienting, and distinctive ...
: an invention from renowned visual effects veteran
Phil Tippett
Phil Tippett (born September 27, 1951) is an American movie director and Oscar and Emmy Award-winning visual effects supervisor and producer, who specializes in creature design, stop-motion and computerized character animation. Over his career, ...
. The many shots including the ghosts in ''
Raiders of the Lost Ark'' and the first two feature films in the ''
RoboCop'' series use Tippett's go motion.
In the UK, Aardman Animations continued to grow.
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...
funded a new series of clay animated films, ''
Conversation Pieces
Conversation Pieces is a reworking of the Animated Conversations concept. It consists of a series of five shorts which aired on Channel Four between 1982 and 1983. Each of the 5 shorts were five minutes long.
As AllAboutAardman explains, "in the ...
'', using recorded soundtracks of real people talking. A further series in 1986, called ''Lip Sync'', premiered the work of
Richard Goleszowski
Richard Starzak, previously known as Richard "Golly" Goleszowski, is an English animator, screenwriter, and film director.
Life and career
Starzak was born in Suffolk in 1959 and grew up in Ipswich, attending Northgate Grammar School. After co ...
(''Ident''),
Barry Purves
Barry J.C. Purves (born 28 August 1960) is an English animator, director and screenwriter of puppet animation television and cinema and theatre designer and director, primarily for the Altrincham Garrick Playhouse in Manchester.
Purves is a Bri ...
(''Next''), and
Nick Park
Nicholas Wulstan Park (born 6 December 1958) is a British animator who created ''Wallace and Gromit'', ''Creature Comforts'', ''Chicken Run'', ''Shaun the Sheep'', and '' Early Man''. Park has been nominated for an Academy Award a total of ...
(''
Creature Comforts
''Creature Comforts'' is a British adult stop-motion comedy mockumentary franchise originating in a 1989 British humorous animated short film of the same name. The film matched animated zoo animals with a soundtrack of people talking about th ...
''), as well as further films by Sproxton and Lord. ''Creature Comforts'' won the Oscar for Best Animated Short in 1990.
In 1980,
Marc Paul Chinoy Marc or MARC may refer to:
People
* Marc (given name), people with the first name
* Marc (surname), people with the family name
Acronyms
* MARC standards, a data format used for library cataloging,
* MARC Train, a regional commuter rail system o ...
directed the 1st feature-length clay animated film, based on the famous ''
Pogo'' comic strip. Titled ''I go Pogo''. It was aired a few times on American cable channels but has yet to be commercially released. Primarily clay, some characters required armatures, and walk cycles used pre-sculpted hard bases legs.
Stop motion was also used for some shots of the final sequence of the first ''
Terminator
Terminator may refer to:
Science and technology
Genetics
* Terminator (genetics), the end of a gene for transcription
* Terminator technology, proposed methods for restricting the use of genetically modified plants by causing second generation s ...
'' movie, also for the scenes of the small alien ships in
Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg (; born December 18, 1946) is an American director, writer, and producer. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, he is the most commercially successful director of all time. Spie ...
's ''
Batteries Not Included
''Batteries Not Included'' (stylized as ''*batteries not included'') is a 1987 American science fiction comedy film directed by Matthew Robbins about small extraterrestrial living spaceships that save an apartment block under threat from prope ...
'' in 1987, animated by
David W. Allen. Allen's stop-motion work can also be seen in such feature films as ''
The Crater Lake Monster
''The Crater Lake Monster'' is a 1977 B-movie horror film directed by William R. Stromberg for Crown International Pictures, and starring Richard Cardella.
The storyline revolves around a giant plesiosaur, akin to the Loch Ness Monster, which ...
'' (1977), ''
Q - The Winged Serpent'' (1982), ''
The Gate'' (1987) and ''Freaked'' (1993). Allen's King Kong
Volkswagen
Volkswagen (),English: , . abbreviated as VW (), is a German Automotive industry, motor vehicle manufacturer headquartered in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. Founded in 1937 by the German Labour Front under the Nazi Party and revived into a ...
commercial from the 1970s is now legendary among model animation enthusiasts.
In 1985,
Will Vinton
William Gale Vinton (November 17, 1947 – October 4, 2018) was an American animator and filmmaker. Vinton was best known for his Claymation work, alongside creating iconic characters such as The California Raisins. He won an Oscar for his wor ...
and his team released an ambitious feature film in stop motion called "
The Adventures Of Mark Twain" based on the life and works of the famous American author. While the film may have been a little sophisticated for young audiences at the time, it got rave reviews from critics and adults in general. Vinton's team also created the Nomes and the Nome King for Disney's "
Return to Oz
''Return to Oz'' is a 1985 dark fantasy film released by Walt Disney Pictures, co-written and directed by Walter Murch. It stars Nicol Williamson, Jean Marsh, Piper Laurie, and Fairuza Balk as Dorothy Gale in her first screen role. The film is ...
" feature, for which they received an Academy Award Nomination for
Special Visual Effects. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Will Vinton became very well known for his commercial work as well with stop-motion campaigns including
The California Raisins
The California Raisins were a fictional rhythm and blues animated musical group as well as advertising and merchandising characters composed of anthropomorphized raisins. Lead vocals were sung by musician Buddy Miles. The California Raisins w ...
and
The Noid.
Jiří Barta
Jiří Barta (born 26 November 1948) is a Czech stop-motion animation director. Many of his films use wood as a medium for animation. Among his notable films are the 1986 film ''The Pied Piper''.
In 2007 he released his first computer-animated ...
released his award-winning fantasy film
The Pied Piper
The Pied Piper of Hamelin (german: der Rattenfänger von Hameln, also known as the Pan Piper or the Rat-Catcher of Hamelin) is the title character of a legend from the town of Hamelin (Hameln), Lower Saxony, Germany.
The legend dates back t ...
(1986).
From 1986 to 1991,
Churchill Films
Churchill Films aka Churchill Media was a producer and distributor of direct-to-video/educational films founded by Robert Churchill (1902-) and Sy Wexler (1916–2005) in 1948 as Churchill Wexler Film Productions. They have produced ''The Mouse and ...
produced ''
The Mouse and the Motorcycle
''The Mouse and the Motorcycle'' is a children's novel written by Beverly Cleary, illustrated by Louis Darling and published in 1965. It is the first in a trilogy featuring Ralph S. Mouse, a house mouse who can speak to humans (though typically ...
'', ''
Runaway Ralph'', and ''
Ralph S. Mouse'' for ABC television. The shows featured stop-motion characters combined with live action, based on the books of Beverly Cleary. John Clark Matthews was the animation director, with Justin Kohn, Joel Fletcher, and Gail Van Der Merwe providing character animation. The company also produced other films based on children's books.
From 1986 to 2000,
over 150 five-minute episodes of ''
Pingu
''Pingu'' is a stop-motion children's television series co-created by Otmar Gutmann and Erika Brueggemann. It was originally produced from 1990 to 2000 by Swiss company The Pygos Group (originally called Trickfilmstudio) for SF DRS in Switzerl ...
'', a Swiss
children's
A child ( : children) is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person young ...
comedy
Comedy is a genre of fiction that consists of discourses or works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. The term o ...
, were produced by Trickfilmstudio.
Aardman Animations'
Nick Park
Nicholas Wulstan Park (born 6 December 1958) is a British animator who created ''Wallace and Gromit'', ''Creature Comforts'', ''Chicken Run'', ''Shaun the Sheep'', and '' Early Man''. Park has been nominated for an Academy Award a total of ...
became very successful with his short claymation ''
Creature Comforts
''Creature Comforts'' is a British adult stop-motion comedy mockumentary franchise originating in a 1989 British humorous animated short film of the same name. The film matched animated zoo animals with a soundtrack of people talking about th ...
'' in 1989, which had
talking animals
Talking may refer to:
* Speech, the product of the action of ''to talk''
* Communication by spoken words; conversation or discussion
Other uses
* "Talking" (The Rifles song), 2007
* "Talking" (A Flock of Seagulls song), 1983
* "Talking", a son ...
voicing
interviews. Park then used the same format to produce a series of commercials between 1990 and 1992. The commercials have been credited as having introduced a more "caring" way of advertising in the UK.
Richard Goleszowski
Richard Starzak, previously known as Richard "Golly" Goleszowski, is an English animator, screenwriter, and film director.
Life and career
Starzak was born in Suffolk in 1959 and grew up in Ipswich, attending Northgate Grammar School. After co ...
later directed two 13-episode ''Creature Comforts'' TV series (2003, 2005–2006) and a Christmas special (2005).
Also in 1989, Park introduced his very popular clay characters
Wallace and Gromit
''Wallace & Gromit'' is a British stop-motion comedy franchise created by Nick Park of Aardman Animations. The series consists of four short films and one feature-length film, and has spawned numerous spin-offs and TV adaptations. The series ce ...
in ''
A Grand Day Out''. Three more short films and one feature film and many TV adaptions and spin-offs would follow. Among many other awards, Park won the
Academy Award for Best Animated Feature for the feature-length outing ''
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit''. Park also worked on the ''
Chicken Run
''Chicken Run'' is a 2000 stop-motion animated comedy film produced by Pathé and Aardman Animations in partnership with DreamWorks Animation. Aardman’s first feature-length film and DreamWorks Animation's fourth film, it was directed by ...
'' movie, which was another film from Aardman Animations.
1990s
In 1992,
Trey Parker
Randolph Severn "Trey" Parker III (born October 19, 1969) is an American actor, animator, filmmaker, and composer. He is known for co-creating ''South Park'' (since 1997) and '' The Book of Mormon'' (2011) with his creative partner Matt Stone. ...
and
Matt Stone
Matthew Richard Stone (born May 26, 1971) is an American actor, animator, filmmaker, and composer. He is known for co-creating ''South Park'' (since 1997) and ''The Book of Mormon'' (2011) with his creative partner Trey Parker. Stone was interes ...
made ''
The Spirit of Christmas (short film)
''The Spirit of Christmas'' is the title given to two adult stop motion animated short films created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone. The two films were released at different periods—the first in 1992, and the second in 1995—and form the basis f ...
'', a short cutout animated student film made with
construction paper
Construction paper, also known as sugar paper, is coloured cardstock paper. The texture is slightly rough, and the surface is unfinished. Due to the source material, mainly wood pulp, small particles are visible on the paper's surface. It is used f ...
. In 1995 they made a second short with the same titled, commissioned as a Christmas greeting by
Fox Broadcasting Company
The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by Fox Corporation and headquartered in New York City, with master control operations an ...
executive
Brian Graden. The concepts and characters were further developed into the TV hit series ''
South Park
''South Park'' is an American animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone and developed by Brian Graden for Comedy Central. The series revolves around four boys Stan Marsh, Kyle Broflovski, Eric Cartman, and Kenny McCormickand th ...
'' (since 1997). Except for the pilot, all animation has been created on computers in the same style.
''
The Nightmare Before Christmas
''The Nightmare Before Christmas'' (also known as ''Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas'') is a 1993 American stop-motion
Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increme ...
'' (1993), directed by
Henry Selick
Charles Henry Selick Jr. (; born November 30, 1952) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, production designer, and animator who is best known for directing the stop-motion animation films ''The Nightmare Before Christmas'' (1993), ...
and produced by
Tim Burton
Timothy Walter Burton (born August 25, 1958) is an American filmmaker and animator. He is known for his gothic fantasy and horror films such as '' Beetlejuice'' (1988), '' Edward Scissorhands'' (1990), '' The Nightmare Before Christmas'' (1993 ...
, was one of the more widely released stop-motion features and become the highest grossing stop-motion animated movie of its time, grossing over $50 million domestic. Henry Selick also went on to direct ''
James and the Giant Peach
''James and the Giant Peach'' is a popular children's novel written in 1961 by British author Roald Dahl. The first edition, published by Alfred Knopf, featured illustrations by Nancy Ekholm Burkert. There have been re-illustrated versions of ...
'' and ''
Coraline
''Coraline'' () is a dark fantasy horror children's novella by British author Neil Gaiman. Gaiman started writing ''Coraline'' in 1990, and it was published in 2002 by Bloomsbury and HarperCollins. It was awarded the 2003 Hugo Award for Best ...
'', and Tim Burton went on to direct ''
Corpse Bride
''Corpse Bride'' (also known as ''Tim Burton's Corpse Bride'') is a 2005 stop-motion animated musical dark fantasy film directed by Mike Johnson and Tim Burton with a screenplay by John August, Caroline Thompson and Pamela Pettler based o ...
'' and ''
Frankenweenie''.
The stop-motion feature ''
The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb
''The Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb'' is a 1993 British independent stop-motion/pixilation adult animated science-fantasy dystopian adventure horror film directed, written, shot and edited by Dave Borthwick, produced by bolexbrothers studio a ...
'' was released in 1993.
In November 1998, the first episode of
Bob the Builder
''Bob the Builder'' is a British animated children's television series created by Keith Chapman for HIT Entertainment and Hot Animation. The series follows the adventures of Bob, a building contractor, specialising in masonry, along with ...
released on BBC. Bob the Builder was a popular British stop-motion television series created by Keith Chapman & produced and owned by
HIT Entertainment
HIT Entertainment Limited (commonly written as HiT) was a British-American entertainment company founded in 1982 as Henson International Television, the international distribution arm of The Jim Henson Company, by Jim Henson, Peter Orton, and Sop ...
.
In 1999, Will Vinton launched the first US prime-time stop-motion television series called ''
The PJs
''The PJs'' is an American adult animated stop-motion black sitcom created by Eddie Murphy, Larry Wilmore, and Steve Tompkins. It portrayed life in an urban public housing project, modeled after the Cabrini–Green housing projects in Chicago. ...
'', co-created by actor-comedian
Eddie Murphy
Edward Regan Murphy (born April 3, 1961) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and singer. He rose to fame on the sketch comedy show ''Saturday Night Live'', for which he was a regular cast member from 1980 to 1984. Murphy has als ...
. The Emmy-winning sitcom aired on Fox for two seasons, then moved to the WB for an additional season. Vinton launched another series, ''
Gary & Mike
''Gary & Mike'' is an American adult animated buddy comedy sitcom that aired on UPN in 2001 and Comedy Central in 2003. It was Big Ticket Television’s first animated show. The show was produced in stop motion clay animation and lasted only on ...
'', for UPN in 2001.
In 1999,
Tsuneo Gōda
is an animator.
He directs Domo (Domo-kun) shorts by using stop motion animation; Domo is the mascot of NHK.
He has also directed the stop motion animation film '' Komaneko - The Curious Cat'' and the three-minute stop motion music video short ...
directed 30-second sketches of the character
Domo. The shorts, animated by stop-motion studio Dwarf, are currently still produced in
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
and have received universal critical acclaim from fans and critics. Gōda also directed the stop-motion movie series ''Komaneko'' in 2004.
21st century
The BBC commissioned thirteen episodes of stop frame animated ''
Summerton Mill'' in 2004 as inserts into their flagship pre-school program, ''
Tikkabilla
''Tikkabilla'' is a UK children's television programme, shown on CBeebies. The programme aims to educate pre-school children in an entertaining manner. The title "Tikkabilla" comes from the Hindi word meaning " Hopscotch", a popular children's g ...
''. Created and produced by Pete Bryden and Ed Cookson, the series was then given its own slot on BBC1 and BBC2 and has been broadcast extensively around the world.
Other notable stop-motion feature films released since 2000 include ''
Fantastic Mr. Fox
''Fantastic Mr Fox'' is a children's literature, children's novel written by British author Roald Dahl. It was published in 1970, by Allen & Unwin, George Allen & Unwin in the UK and Alfred A. Knopf in the U.S., with illustrations by Donald Ch ...
'' (2009) ''
$9.99'' (2009), ''
Anomalisa
''Anomalisa'' is a 2015 American adult stop motion animated psychological comedy-drama film written and directed by Charlie Kaufman, who co-directed with Duke Johnson. It was based on Kaufman's 2005 audio play of the same name under his alias F ...
'' (2015), and ''
Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio
''Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio'' (or simply ''Pinocchio'') is a 2022 stop-motion animated musical fantasy film directed by Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson (in his feature directorial debut) with a screenplay by del Toro and Patri ...
'' (2022).
In 2003, the pilot film for the series ''
Curucuru and Friends
''Curucuru and Friends'' (; also known as ''Tales of Greenery'' or ''The Family of Greenwood'' ()) is a 2006 stop motion series animated by Ffango Entertoyment (Now Comma Studios), primarily aimed for preschoolers. It is officially Ffango's first ...
'', produced by Korean studio Ffango Entertoyment is greenlighted into a
children's
A child ( : children) is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person young ...
animated series in 2004 after an approval with the Gyeonggi Digital Contents Agency. It was aired in
KBS1
The Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) () is the national broadcaster of South Korea. Founded in February 1927, it is one of the leading South Korean television and radio broadcasters.
KBS operates seven radio networks, ten television channels, ...
on November 24, 2006, and won the 13th Korean Animation Awards in 2007 for Best Animation. Ffango Entertoyment also worked with
Frontier Works
is a Japanese company specializing in the creation and distribution of media related to anime, such as producing OVAs, radio dramas, drama CDs, anime soundtracks, or other related products. The company was established in August 1990.
Projects ...
in
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
to produce the 2010 film remake of ''
Cheburashka
''Cheburashka'' (russian: links=no, Чебурашка, a=ru-Cheburashka.ogg, p=tɕɪbʊˈraʂkə), also known as ''Topple'' in earlier English translations, is a fictional character created by Soviet writer Eduard Uspensky in his 1965 child ...
''.
Since 2005, ''
Robot Chicken'' has mostly utilized stop-motion animation, using custom made
action figure
An action figure is a poseable character model figure made most commonly of plastic, and often based upon characters from a film, comic book, military, video game or television program; fictional or historical. These figures are usually mark ...
s and other toys as principal characters.
Since 2009,
Laika
Laika (russian: link=no, Лайка; – 3 November 1957) was a Soviet space dog who was one of the first animals in space and the first to orbit the Earth. A stray mongrel from the streets of Moscow, she flew aboard the Sputnik 2 space ...
, the stop-motion successor to
Will Vinton Studios
William Gale Vinton (November 17, 1947 – October 4, 2018) was an American animator and filmmaker. Vinton was best known for his Claymation work, alongside creating iconic characters such as The California Raisins. He won an Oscar for his work ...
, has released five
feature film
A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...
s, which have collectively grossed over $400 million.
As of 2019, stop motion is thriving even in a filmmaking world dominated by
CGI despite the efforts needed by the animators.
List of stop motion artists
List of stop motion films
Variations of stop motion
Stereoscopic stop motion
Stop motion has very rarely been shot in
stereoscopic 3D throughout film history. The first 3D stop-motion short was ''In Tune With Tomorrow'' (also known as ''Motor Rhythm''), made in 1939 by John Norling. The second stereoscopic stop-motion release was ''The Adventures of Sam Space'' in 1955 by Paul Sprunck. The third and latest stop motion short in stereo 3D was ''The Incredible Invasion of the 20,000 Giant Robots from Outer Space'' in 2000 by Elmer Kaan and Alexander Lentjes. This is also the first ever 3D stereoscopic stop motion and CGI short in the history of film. The first all stop-motion 3D feature is ''
Coraline
''Coraline'' () is a dark fantasy horror children's novella by British author Neil Gaiman. Gaiman started writing ''Coraline'' in 1990, and it was published in 2002 by Bloomsbury and HarperCollins. It was awarded the 2003 Hugo Award for Best ...
'' (2009), based on
Neil Gaiman's
best-selling novel and directed by Henry Selick.
Another recent example is the
Nintendo 3DS video software which comes with the option for Stop Motion videos. This has been released December 8, 2011 as a 3DS system update. Also, the film ''
ParaNorman
''ParaNorman'' is a 2012 American stop-motion animated comedy horror film directed by Sam Fell and Chris Butler (the latter's feature directorial debut), and written by Butler. Produced by Laika, the film stars the voices of Kodi Smit-McPhee, ...
'' is in 3D stop motion.
Go motion
Another more complicated variation on stop motion is
go motion
Go motion is a variation of stop motion animation which incorporates motion blur into each frame involving motion. It was co-developed by Industrial Light & Magic and Phil Tippett. Stop motion animation can create a disorienting, and distinctive ...
, co-developed by
Phil Tippett
Phil Tippett (born September 27, 1951) is an American movie director and Oscar and Emmy Award-winning visual effects supervisor and producer, who specializes in creature design, stop-motion and computerized character animation. Over his career, ...
and first used on the films ''
The Empire Strikes Back
''The Empire Strikes Back'' (also known as ''Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back'') is a 1980 American epic space opera film directed by Irvin Kershner from a screenplay by Leigh Brackett and Lawrence Kasdan, based on a stor ...
'' (1980), ''
Dragonslayer
A dragonslayer is a person or being that slays dragons. Dragonslayers and the creatures they hunt have been popular in traditional stories from around the world: they are a type of story classified as type 300 in the Aarne–Thompson classific ...
'' (1981), and the ''
RoboCop'' films. Go motion involved programming a computer to move parts of a model slightly during each exposure of each frame of film, combined with traditional hand manipulation of the model in between frames, to produce a more realistic
motion blur
Motion blur is the apparent streaking of moving objects in a photograph or a sequence of frames, such as a film or animation. It results when the image being recorded changes during the recording of a single exposure, due to rapid movement or lo ...
ring effect. Tippett also used the process extensively in his 1984 short film ''
Prehistoric Beast
''Prehistoric Beast'' is a ten-minute-long experimental animated film conceived, supervised and directed by Phil Tippett in 1984. This sequence is the first film produced by the Tippett Studio, founded by Tippett. Made with the go motion animati ...
'', a 10 minutes long sequence depicting a herbivorous dinosaur (''
Monoclonius
''Monoclonius'' (meaning "single sprout") is a dubious genus of herbivorous ceratopsian dinosaur found in the Late Cretaceous layers of the Judith River Formation in Montana, United States, and the uppermost rock layers of the Dinosaur Park Form ...
''), being chased by a carnivorous one (''
Tyrannosaurus
''Tyrannosaurus'' is a genus of large theropoda, theropod dinosaur. The species ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' (''rex'' meaning "king" in Latin), often called ''T. rex'' or colloquially ''T-Rex'', is one of the best represented theropods. ''Tyrannosa ...
''). With new footage ''Prehistoric Beast'' became ''
Dinosaur!'' in 1985, a full-length dinosaurs documentary hosted by
Christopher Reeve
Christopher D'Olier Reeve (September 25, 1952 – October 10, 2004) was an American actor, best known for playing the title character in the film '' Superman'' (1978) and three sequels.
Born in New York City and raised in Princeton, New Jersey ...
. Those Phil Tippett's go motion tests acted as motion models for his first photo-realistic use of computers to depict dinosaurs in ''
Jurassic Park'' in 1993. A low-tech, manual version of this blurring technique was originally pioneered by
Władysław Starewicz in the silent era, and was used in his feature film ''
The Tale of the Fox
''The Tale of the Fox'' (french: Le Roman de Renard, nl, Van den vos Reynaerde, german: Reinecke Fuchs) was stop-motion animation pioneer Ladislas Starevich's first fully animated feature film. The film is based on the tales of Renard the Fox. ...
'' (1931).
Comparison to computer-generated imagery
Reasons for using stop motion instead of the more advanced
computer-generated imagery (CGI) include the low entry price and the appeal of its distinct look. It is now mostly used in children's programming, in commercials and some comic shows such as ''
Robot Chicken''. Another merit of stop motion is that it accurately displays real-life textures, while CGI texturing is more artificial and not quite as close to realism. This is appreciated by a number of animation directors, such as
Tim Burton
Timothy Walter Burton (born August 25, 1958) is an American filmmaker and animator. He is known for his gothic fantasy and horror films such as '' Beetlejuice'' (1988), '' Edward Scissorhands'' (1990), '' The Nightmare Before Christmas'' (1993 ...
,
Henry Selick
Charles Henry Selick Jr. (; born November 30, 1952) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, production designer, and animator who is best known for directing the stop-motion animation films ''The Nightmare Before Christmas'' (1993), ...
,
Wes Anderson
Wesley Wales Anderson (born May 1, 1969) is an American filmmaker. His films are known for their eccentricity and unique visual and narrative styles. They often contain themes of grief, loss of innocence, and dysfunctional families. Cited by ...
, and
Travis Knight
Travis Andrew Knight (born September 13, 1973) is an American animator, producer, director, and former rapper who has worked as the lead animator and current CEO for the stop-motion animation studio Laika, and directed the films '' Kubo and the T ...
.
Stop motion in other media
Many young people begin their experiments in movie making with stop motion, thanks to the ease of modern stop-motion software and online video publishing. Many new stop-motion shorts use clay animation into a new form.
Singer-songwriter
Oren Lavie
Oren Lavie (born June 13, 1976) is an Israeli songwriter, author, theatre and video director. His music video for "Her Morning Elegance" earned a 2009 Grammy Award nomination for "Best Short Form Music Video" and has become a YouTube hit with o ...
's music video for the song
Her Morning Elegance
Oren Lavie (born June 13, 1976) is an Israeli songwriter, author, theatre and video director. His music video for "Her Morning Elegance" earned a 2009 Grammy Award nomination for "Best Short Form Music Video" and has become a YouTube hit with o ...
was posted on YouTube on January 19, 2009. The video, directed by Lavie and Yuval and Merav Nathan, uses stop motion and has achieved great success with over 25.4 million views, also earning a 2010 Grammy Award nomination for "Best Short Form Music Video".
Stop motion has occasionally been used to create the characters for computer games, as an alternative to CGI. The
Virgin Interactive Entertainment
Virgin Interactive Entertainment (later renamed Avalon Interactive) was the video game publishing division of British conglomerate the Virgin Group. It developed and published games for major platforms and employed developers, including Westwo ...
Mythos
Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrati ...
game
Magic and Mayhem (1998) featured creatures built by stop-motion specialist Alan Friswell, who made the miniature figures from modelling clay and latex rubber, over armatures of wire and ball-and-socket joints. The models were then animated one frame at a time, and incorporated into the CGI elements of the game through digital photography. "
ClayFighter
''ClayFighter'' is a fighting/beat 'em up series of video games. The series is noted for having character sprites rendered from clay-animated figures, and for having humorous parodies of other fighting games such as ''Street Fighter'' and ''M ...
" for the
Super NES
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), commonly shortened to Super NES or Super Nintendo, is a 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan and South Korea, 1991 in North America, 1992 in ...
and
The Neverhood
''The Neverhood'' (released in Japan as ''Klaymen Klaymen: The Mystery of Neverhood'' and referred to in the English version's intro as ''The Neverhood Chronicles'') is a 1996 point-and-click adventure video game developed by The Neverhood, Inc. a ...
for the
PC are other examples.
Scientists at IBM used a
scanning tunneling microscope
A scanning tunneling microscope (STM) is a type of microscope used for imaging surfaces at the atomic level. Its development in 1981 earned its inventors, Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer, then at IBM Zürich, the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1986 ...
to single out and move individual atoms which were used to make characters in ''
A Boy and His Atom
''A Boy and His Atom'' is a 2013 stop-motion animated short film released on YouTube by IBM Research. One minute in length, it was made by moving carbon monoxide molecules with a scanning tunneling microscope, a device that magnifies them 100 mi ...
''. This was the tiniest scale stop-motion video made at that time.
See also
*
Still motion
*
Brickfilm
A brickfilm is a film made using Lego bricks, or other similar plastic construction toys. They are usually created using stop motion animation, computer-generated imagery (CGI) or traditional animation and sometimes include live action films ...
*
Time-lapse photography
Time-lapse photography is a technique in which the frequency at which film frames are captured (the frame rate) is much lower than the frequency used to view the sequence. When played at normal speed, time appears to be moving faster and thus ...
References
; Sources
;Bibliography
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External links
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* an example for an early stop-motion film (1908)
"Hänschens Soldaten" europeanfilmgateway.eu
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stop Motion
Animation techniques
Articles containing video clips
Audiovisual introductions in 1897
Special effects