Unit 33 Stop Motion Unit 1 Lesson Notes

What genre is the animation and what generic conventions (things you expect to see) can you pull out?
What do you notice about the movement of the figures body?
What do you notice about the movement of the figures face and facial expression?
What comments can you make about the use of sound?

CLAYCAT'S THE RAID -Claymation in style

• Genre is ACTION. We know this because of the generic conventions: the animation features lots of loud sound effects, diagetic and non-diagetic sounds. The animations contains guns, explosions and violence which are all generic conventions of the action genre. 
• The movements: when the characters walked in the scenes it was unnatural because the characters shuffled rather than walk naturally. They shuffled due to having no legs however we aren't disrupted by this in actual fact it makes the animation funny to watch. This breaks the principals of animation by differing from the principle of arcs (. 
• When the character was shot they flew backwards, the same for when the character fell out of the window which makes the animation more realistic because they were using the principle of gravity. This is also a factor when tears/sweat falls which shows emotion -fear which helps the audience understand danger. 
• The dialogue of the scream. explosive sound effects and the bounce of the string were really good aspects of sound which help to support the narrative, it makes the meaning deeper and gives the stopmotion a rich palette of sound. 

What different styles of Stopmotion have we seen?

• Cartoon
• Claymation
• 2D Drawing 

What two principles of animation have we learnt about?

We have learnt about the principle of gravity (makes animation more realistic) and the principle of arcs (which is movement)

When it was hard to identify a genre, what word did we use?

Surrealism 

What is the FINAL deadline for assignment 1?

19th September.

How long does your section of Stopmotion have to be?

30 Seconds long

Differences between videos on Steph's blog:

What differences can you see in the two animations?

• The King Kong animation was in Black and White (due to the fact that the animation is years old.)
• The character movements in the King Kong animation were very jerky and the principle of arcs wasn't used well, the gaps inbetween shots make the the animation look jumpy.
• The sound was clearer in the Creature Comforts animation. -sound isn't in sync to the movement of the animals. 
• The content in Creature Comforts was funny because of the dialogue and the genre of the animation. 

What similarities are there in the two animations?

• Both animations are in the style of Claymation. 
• Both animations are meant to be set in realistic settings.  
• Main characters (protagonists) are animals in both animations. 
• Both animations have a character/characters who are human. 
• Both animations use the principles of gravity.
• Both animations have the same point of view. -limits it, can't see the whole scene, could impact audience engagement.
• Give animals human tendencies -animals sitting on couch, King Kong defends woman.

Can you tell if over time there has been a development in the skills and techniques of animation?

• yes, you can see this from:
• The colours have increased, in King Kong the animation is in black and white but in Creature Comforts the colours vary a lot due to better more improved technology. 
• The character movement has improved, in the King Kong animation you can see the shaky movements of the characters: see it at 0:46 especially where as in Creature Comforts the character movement is precise.  
• Set designs are more detailed, they're crisper, sharper and clearer than the background of king kong. 
• The narratives have become more creative and it has shown that stopmotion has developed and has broke out of the generic conventions. 

Time codes of Principles of Animation examples:

• At 0:03 we see an example of secondary action of the butterfly fluttering near Flynn's face.
• At 0:16/0:17 you see the anticipation when the lizard jumps up and looks into the off screen space. 
• At 0:19 we see the principle of gravity as Flynn is being dragged across the ground, we also see secondary action again as he scrapes his arms along the grass in 0:21.