Their Story FRAME BY FRAME Final passion project proposal by Julian Groves Image Source: http://www.trinityfilmreview.com/the-evolution-of-stopmotion-animation RESEARCH QUESTION How can I preserve a verbal story told to me by using stop-motion animation? EXPLANATION MOTIVATION & ASPIRATION I have a love of listening to, reading, and writing stories, When I I love film and movies, especially animation and stop-motion. I think was younger I wanted to be a Journalist and even wrote some stories stop-motion is a fascinating art form that incorporates many artistic for a small local newspaper. I like photography and animation and skills beyond using a computer and software. I love the work of Anna stop-motion seems to be a good way to combine the two. I love 3D Mantzaris, Adam Pesapane (PES), Antony Elworthy , Tim Burton, Wes animation but would like to broaden my skills so that I have more Anderson, Travis Night and studios like Fish, Watermark, Flux, Yukfoo, diversity when it comes to my abilities as a motion designer. I like Cirkus, The Rig, Mukpuddy, Passion, Laika and Aardman. As a motion how stop-motion requires other physical craft skills. I know for a fact designer any technique that deals with movement interests me. I have the art of face to face verbal storytelling is disappearing and would done some stop-motion experiments in the past and found it a fun and like to explore how these valuable personal and cultural stories can be creative technique to use and would like to explore the subject further. retained and transformed into modern media. ANOTATED BILIOGRAPHY Media Type – Academic Paper. Intended Audience - Animators or general public, non-jargon text For my passion project I will need to explore techniques and presented in a clear, easy to understand format. concepts associated with stop-motion animation and animation in general. I will need to identify the equipment I will need to use, This academic papers deals with a lot of animation principles and the including lighting, prop and set design, Puppet making, software, authors interpretation of them. It investigates the difference between camera, and lens selection. I will need to decide if I’m going to use seeing and perceiving in animation. A lot of what is introduced is made or found objects or a combination of both. I will also need to common knowledge but through her analysis of this knowledge she find a interesting verbal story by interviewing people and recording introduces a different perspective and gives a broader insight into how their stories. This story should be meaningful, delivering some something can be perceived. She explains how images are perceived important message or cultural history. In order to do this I have and compares 2d images against 3d images. She examines how realistic created the following annotated bibliography to aid in my research. character animation can get to the point that it makes the audience uncomfortable. She talks about how when we see incomplete patterns MacGillivray, C. (2007). How Psychophysical Perception that it is inbuilt into us to use our perception and complete those of Motion and Image relates to Animation Practice. patterns and says this may have come from earlier times when we Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/7179945/ wanted to identify predators hiding in the bushes. She says that babies How_Psychophysical_Perception_of_Motion_and_ can identify their mothers faces from the very first day they are born. Image_relates_to_Animation_Practice. She quotes Norman McClaren for famously saying “Animation is not about image alone, it is also significantly about movement.” and she continues by saying ‘It is not important what goes on each frame of Author background - Following 20 years as an animator and film film, it’s the spaces between frames that are important. Her intriguing editor working across documentary, drama, music videos, and analysis helps to provide understanding and links into how we perceive commercials, Carol won an AHRC award to study MA Digital animation. It will be worth reading this paper thoroughly so as to be Moving Image at London Guildhall. She then went on to publish able to extract potential insights into how animation is perceived by the her first book ‘3D for the Web’ (Elsevier) in 2005. Gaining her general public. PhD in 2014, Carol’s research is practice-based, producing and interrogating a trans-disciplinary model of kinetic aesthetics that takes place without a screen. As artist Trope, she is co-inventor of the D-Scope® (a system of screen less animation) and now works predominantly as a sculptor under the name Coral Woods. Currently teaching PT as Associate Lecturer at UAL on the MA Academic Practice in Arts, Design and Communication, Research Methods for Arts Higher Education and MA Dissertations. He talks about out biases and attraction to specific forms, shapes and patterns. He talks about how comparison affects perception. He talks Cycleback, D. (2014). Art Perception. Retrieved from https:// about imagination and aesthetic reactions. It is a well written book www.academia.edu/22678285/ Art_Perception_David_ which covers a lot of ground but it’s concepts are clearly explained. A Cycleback_Art_Perception very intriguing book in which I found the more I read, the more I want- ed to read. I think it will be a valuable resource for my research. Author background - David Cycleback is an internationally known scholar working in cognitive science, philosophy and artifacts history, Kenny, C. (2016, December 6). A Lack of Cultural Impact is and is author of the standard university textbooks Understanding Hu- What Holds Animated Films Back. man Minds and Their Limits, Philosophy of Artificial Intelligence, and Retrieved from http://www.animationscoop.com/ Cogntive Science of Religion and Belief Systems. a-lack-of-cultural-impact-is-what-holds-animated-films-back/ Media Type – Book. Author background – Charles Kenny is a civil engineer. He posts daily Intended Audience - General Public. Clear, easy to understand format. on his blog site (The Animation Anomaly) on a wide variety of anima- Anyone interested in how we perceive art and our strange human idio- tion topics that often include a visionary theme reflecting on the future syncrasies. A very thought provoking book. of the industry and its place in the developing digital media world. Blogging has enabled Charles to be connected to the animation com- The book is written in a frank and humorous style while conveying in- munity and helped him become an authority on many matters con- teresting facts and insights into the way we perceive art. He looks at cerning art and commerce within it. how humans think and perceive in the physical and mental world. He talks about conceits which are ingenious or fanciful comparisons or Media Type – Blog Post. metaphors. A new terminology I have not come across before and very interesting. He talks about biases, learning from experience, and de- Intended Audience - General Public, Animators and Studios. veloping habits. He show pictures of optical illusions which illustrate how our perception can be tricked and our eyes deceived. He explores This blog post delivers a very insightful message as how animated emotions. He then continues to talk more about conceits, elaborat- movies and media can be made so that it attracts and is more interest- ing and describing them in great detail and explaining how they have ing to adults. The post is short, concise and to the point. It is thought a profound effect on how we live our lives. He then starts to analyze provoking in that it questions the trivial storytelling that the majority artistic conceits which is very interesting indeed. He gives example of of animation delivers. The author asks you to think of filmed movies how artists use conceits to their advantage. He talks about symbols. He that have provoked a measurable shift in popular culture and made an describes how humans like to speculate. He explains how dreams can audience take notice. Take movies like ‘Saving private Ryan’ or ‘Schin- affect our lives. dler’s List’ as examples of films which have jolted the audience and created more awareness of the real world. Now try to think of an animated movie that has done this. Quite hard isn’t it. Animation is often based on fairy tales and colorful warm im- Elworthy, A. (2018, March 25). The stop-motion world of Antony aginary worlds in which there is little violence or sexual content and Elworthy. Retrieved from https://www.rnz.co.nz/national/ characters are kind to each other. After reading this post it is apparent programmes/standing-room-only/audio/2018637708/ more hard hitting animation with reality based storytelling needs to the-stop-motion-world-of-antony-elworthy be made that adults can relate to. Note, the comments on this post are very insightful too and worth reading. These comments balance out the argument and make reference to some more adult orient animation Author background - Antony Elworthy is a stop-motion animator, an- that has had an impact on society. imation director and illustrator. He lives in Christchurch with his wife and four boys, but his career has taken the family to Europe and America for extended periods, where he has worked among the very best in the field. His feature film credits include ‘Kubo And The Two Strings’, ‘Cor- Mantzaris, A. (2019, March 12). Nicer Tuesdays: Anna Malin Man- aline’, ‘Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride’, and ‘Frankenweenie’. His most recent tzaris. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pT78L- role was Lead Animator on Wes Anderson’s ‘Isle Of Dogs’. Antony is hIOOgA currently directing the animation on ‘Kiri and Lou’ in a studio located in Ferrymead, Christchurch.