This week, in Maribor, there is the
'Stop Trik' festival. It is a Slovenian/Polish festival about stop
motion animation, and it is the only one in Europe now, which is
entirely dedicated to stop motion. The first edition came out in
2011.
We already had a lecture on monday in
the morning, about politics and philosophy into animated movies, by
Michał Bobrowski and Olga Bobrowska, respectively programme director
and festival director of Stop Trik.
And while we're at it, I will speak
about animation movies in general (not only stop motion). Because I
am really passionate about it. For me, it is the best field of art,
the most complete. When you are working in or around the field of
animation, you can do anything in the field of art. You can be of
course a drawer, a painter, an animator, an illustrator. You can be a
scenarist, a film director, a story boarder, film editor, a sound
designer... You also can be a stylist, a photographer, a sculptor, a
plastic art artist, a musician, an actor, a dancer... Because all of
this can be needed in an animation movie. For example, when you are
doing animation, and when you try to animate a character, you have to
act first to understand which movement you need to put in this
character. So, you are some kind of actor, with a smaller public
(your team). Here is an example in this video, at 1:40 (and the whole
video is a making of, also interesting to see, it takes place in Les
Gobelins, one of the best animation school in the world).
Techniques of Animation
Do you
remember those people tight in some dark suit, with little balls all
around their bodies? This is called motion capture (actually it
allows to save time and energy, rather than creating all the
movements, but then it looks natural for sure).
There is of course the traditional way of
drawing, on the paper, in 2D, with an inclined desk with an animation
disc which is also a light table to see the different layers (You can
see it concretely in the first video of this article, at 2:49).
Before and not really today, the coloring part was also traditional
with most of the time gouache for the background, and flash (kind of
painting between acrylic and gouache) for the characters. In that
family of techniques, you have different ways to obtain an animation:
you have the classic animation (like the old disney's), the flip
book, or the rotoscope (using a real movie and drawing upon it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAuRS0TeFhw
)..
Cut out animation, which is near stop motion because you take
pictures for each move, and the difference with traditional animation
is that you don't need to draw all over again your character. You
have puppets, objects and background made out of paper. Example here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBConNL_C_k.
In 2D still you
also have computer assisted animation. It's possible to have one
traditional part made, and another part on the computer, for coloring
and layering (putting elements under or over others). You have Flash
animation (a lot of animated series are made like this today, you can
easily recognize it), made out of that software of Adobe named Flash.
And, you can also draw directly in your computer, for example in
Photoshop.
Of
course, you also know about 3D animation. In this family, we have the
classic 3D movies (Disney or Pixar. Personally I think they are doing
great stuff). We already talked about a technique which is motion
capture. And I will include stop motion again, with 3D objects this
time. Like Wallace and Gromit made out of clay, check it out
immediately if you don't know it, here is an entire movie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLQCgg9HvBU
Actually, stop motion animation is a technique itself. Inside this
family, you have the cut out we just saw, the puppets animation.. You
also have Pixilation, in which you animate live actors instead of
objects, clay or paper.
You
can have also a bit of everything combined, 3D, flash, photoshop
animation, photo for the background, special effects... In this good
animation series: https://vimeo.com/60408764
. About the traditional part, it is not lost, there is still
productions made in traditional technique. There is just more
computer made productions than before.
There is a lot
more techniques (Gif animation, After Effect to do motion design..
Which is used a lot to do commercial small ads on webpage, or to do
more elaborated work).
Animation is not only for children :)
Now I will show
you all what we can share through an animation movie. Nowadays, There
is so much artists doing this art, and so much various styles of
animation that it's crazy. Let me show you some of my favorites. They
are mostly short movies in 2D.
First I have to
bring a little bit what I saw on Monday during the lecture. Animation
can be also useful to bring messages through symbols and metaphors.
Like in the work of Zdzisław Kudła, a polish film director,
scenarist, and who was active during communism. Or Jan Švankmajer, a
Cezch surealist director. They are not my favorites, but this is a
first kind of subjects for animation.
This
is an extract of 25 other movies, which look like real paintings.
According to my researches, it reflects the key moments of the
history of animation: The adventures of Pinocchio by Gianluigi
Toccafondo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8Z-RZYysbk
you can see that he used painting, and also for sure a little bit of
rotoscope with distorted images. At least real images for the faces.
Animation to 'illustrate' one work
of Lakmé, as the opera is not so popular nowadays, this kind of work
can help to introduce young people or everybody in it. I used to
watch it when I was little: The 3D is old now, but it's still great.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFUMiDqTVEo
Animation
about memory, non linear narration.
Strong and engaged
Of course
animation can be funny :)
Silly and have
off-the-wall humor
It can be video
clip, be animated according to the beat and the atmosphere of a music
Speak
about human problem like shyness, or.. (I won't say it for the last
one!)
Be about Speed dating and human behaviors
Be horrific (For all audience though, this is an EVS blog! :D):
Be weird or
disturbing (in a gentle way)
Have
interesting making off and studies:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INQx-Lzs8mU
(by the way, Richard William is one of the best, and his book
'Animator's survival kit' is a reference for every animator
beginner).
And
to close this article, I will finish with a little short movie in
stop motion to go back to Stop Trik festival subject. For this movie,
Pes won an Academy Award nomination in 2013:
I kindly invite you to watch also the related videos, to discover more animation movies. I am sure I've still missed a lot of amazing videos. And I'm waiting impatiently for the new creations!
To be
continued!
Cécile
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