Entry 2- More Examples
This lesson we watched award winning animations.
If we search up Great stop motions, it'll come up with opinionated search results, but by searching award winning animations, it'll show stop motions that actually won and was nominated by the professional judges, making it easier for the searchers to determine what stop motions are actually - the best.
<https://www.nyfa.edu/student-resources/stop-motion-animation-5-award-winning-stop-motion-films/>
The New York Film Academy was founded on the philosophy that "learning by doing" combined with the best industry practices is more valuable than years of theoretical study for filmmakers and actors. This educational model allows students to achieve more in less time than at all other film or acting schools in the world.
We first watched the video, Fresh Guacamole by PES. I knew about PES from before, as he is a well-known stop motion artist. He makes animations with everyday objects, to create a completely surrealistic animation. For the Fresh Guacamole animation, he used materials such as green play doh, dice, monopoly houses and poker chips to "create" a Guacamole. It was really interesting how objects that are one thing can be another thing. I really liked the part where he diced the baseball into small dices, that was then diced into even smaller dices. The smooth transaction from one frame to another surprised me, as it seemed as if he really did cut the baseball into dices.
Similarly, we watched a video of making spaghetti by PES. This video was similar to the previous one, where he used inanimate objects to create food. I really liked the part where he smashed the tomato, as I didn't get the logic behind it. How did he make it go so smooth, that the needle holder actually appears to be smashed? Don't you usually use a soft object to make it seem as if it's squashed? How do you do that with something hard? I would have to ask Mr. Powell about this, but I really want to figure it out myself.
Next, we watched a video called, 'Out of Forest' by Tobia Gundroff. This film was about a pack of rabbits being targeted by a hungry wolf. The animator wisely used big eyes on the main rabbit to capture the viewer's heart, so that they feel more sympathy towards it during tough situations. At the start of the animation, a man can be seen standing in front of complete darkness, buttoning up his sleeves. This is apparently done by shooting it in front of a green screen, and then replacing the green with dark void (Black). I might use this technique for my animation, as I don't have the ability to create a high production animation. I can replace backgrounds with images that I find on the internet, and blur them out a little so that it appears the objects are "far and out of focus", when in fact, it's not there. I really liked the plot twist at the end, where a hand reached out towards the rabbit from the sky, and the hand turned out to be a magician's hand pulling him out of a hat. It had nothing to do with the story in the middle, but the beginning made sense from it.
Next, we watched the video, 'Bottle' by Kristen Lepore. This video was about two mans; Sandman and Snowman, interacting with each other through the use of a bottle and an ocean. At the start of the film, the sandman can be seen receiving a bit of snow from an unknown sender. Curious, he opens up the bottle and the snow falls out, ultimately melting on the shore. The sandman then sends back sand to the unknown sender, which turns out to be a snowman when received. This kind of interaction goes back and forth, where both sides send something that relates to what the other side sent, eventually creating a 'facial features'. In the end, they try and meet, but the ocean melts them away, leaving them to leave from one another's presence, just a few cm away. What I really like about this animation is the way the whole idea was told and the creative aspect behind it. The technique that is used behind it doesn't seem hard, but it doesn't seem easy either.
Next, we watched, MUTO by Blu. Mr. Powell stated that he was another famous stop motion artist. This stop motion, was kind of creepy, as strange peculiar things kept on happening. For example, a group of white beings would emerge out of a man ripping his mouth open. It crept a lot of my classmates out, to be honest. However, I really liked the idea of painting the place that he drew before with white so that people knew what was happening before. It was sort of messy yet satisfying. I also liked the idea of using the world as a canvas, but I couldn't help but wonder if it was all legally done.
Finally, we watched a bit of Stanley Pickle by Vicky Mather. The video was different from the other stop motion, as it had an animate object in it. Mr Powell told us that the video was probably created by importing the video to images and then deleting every second frame. This will create a stop motion like effect, instead of an overly smooth video. I really liked how everything was rhythmic. For example, the father was laughing in a rhythmic manner at the start of the video, making everything in the stop-motion seem fake, and well, animation-ish.
That's all that I've done this lesson.
If we search up Great stop motions, it'll come up with opinionated search results, but by searching award winning animations, it'll show stop motions that actually won and was nominated by the professional judges, making it easier for the searchers to determine what stop motions are actually - the best.
<https://www.nyfa.edu/student-resources/stop-motion-animation-5-award-winning-stop-motion-films/>
The New York Film Academy was founded on the philosophy that "learning by doing" combined with the best industry practices is more valuable than years of theoretical study for filmmakers and actors. This educational model allows students to achieve more in less time than at all other film or acting schools in the world.
We first watched the video, Fresh Guacamole by PES. I knew about PES from before, as he is a well-known stop motion artist. He makes animations with everyday objects, to create a completely surrealistic animation. For the Fresh Guacamole animation, he used materials such as green play doh, dice, monopoly houses and poker chips to "create" a Guacamole. It was really interesting how objects that are one thing can be another thing. I really liked the part where he diced the baseball into small dices, that was then diced into even smaller dices. The smooth transaction from one frame to another surprised me, as it seemed as if he really did cut the baseball into dices.
Similarly, we watched a video of making spaghetti by PES. This video was similar to the previous one, where he used inanimate objects to create food. I really liked the part where he smashed the tomato, as I didn't get the logic behind it. How did he make it go so smooth, that the needle holder actually appears to be smashed? Don't you usually use a soft object to make it seem as if it's squashed? How do you do that with something hard? I would have to ask Mr. Powell about this, but I really want to figure it out myself.
Next, we watched a video called, 'Out of Forest' by Tobia Gundroff. This film was about a pack of rabbits being targeted by a hungry wolf. The animator wisely used big eyes on the main rabbit to capture the viewer's heart, so that they feel more sympathy towards it during tough situations. At the start of the animation, a man can be seen standing in front of complete darkness, buttoning up his sleeves. This is apparently done by shooting it in front of a green screen, and then replacing the green with dark void (Black). I might use this technique for my animation, as I don't have the ability to create a high production animation. I can replace backgrounds with images that I find on the internet, and blur them out a little so that it appears the objects are "far and out of focus", when in fact, it's not there. I really liked the plot twist at the end, where a hand reached out towards the rabbit from the sky, and the hand turned out to be a magician's hand pulling him out of a hat. It had nothing to do with the story in the middle, but the beginning made sense from it.
Next, we watched the video, 'Bottle' by Kristen Lepore. This video was about two mans; Sandman and Snowman, interacting with each other through the use of a bottle and an ocean. At the start of the film, the sandman can be seen receiving a bit of snow from an unknown sender. Curious, he opens up the bottle and the snow falls out, ultimately melting on the shore. The sandman then sends back sand to the unknown sender, which turns out to be a snowman when received. This kind of interaction goes back and forth, where both sides send something that relates to what the other side sent, eventually creating a 'facial features'. In the end, they try and meet, but the ocean melts them away, leaving them to leave from one another's presence, just a few cm away. What I really like about this animation is the way the whole idea was told and the creative aspect behind it. The technique that is used behind it doesn't seem hard, but it doesn't seem easy either.
Next, we watched, MUTO by Blu. Mr. Powell stated that he was another famous stop motion artist. This stop motion, was kind of creepy, as strange peculiar things kept on happening. For example, a group of white beings would emerge out of a man ripping his mouth open. It crept a lot of my classmates out, to be honest. However, I really liked the idea of painting the place that he drew before with white so that people knew what was happening before. It was sort of messy yet satisfying. I also liked the idea of using the world as a canvas, but I couldn't help but wonder if it was all legally done.
Finally, we watched a bit of Stanley Pickle by Vicky Mather. The video was different from the other stop motion, as it had an animate object in it. Mr Powell told us that the video was probably created by importing the video to images and then deleting every second frame. This will create a stop motion like effect, instead of an overly smooth video. I really liked how everything was rhythmic. For example, the father was laughing in a rhythmic manner at the start of the video, making everything in the stop-motion seem fake, and well, animation-ish.
That's all that I've done this lesson.
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