Sara E. Thomas
Stop animation is a type of film making where a series of images is captured and the subject is only moved ever so slightly, then a new image is shot. The process is repeated until all of the necessary photographs are taken. These images are then played in rapid succession, tricking the eye and brain into perceiving motion. Some recent examples of stop animation are
Gumby
,
Chicken Run
, and
Wallace and Gromit
. This technology was developed in the early 1800s and there are a variety of theories why the brain perceives motion even though it is looking at a series of still shots.
In 1825 John Paris created a thaumatrope. A thaumatrope is a piece of cardboard with an image on each side of it. The most common example has an empty birdcage on one side of the cardboard, and a bird on the other side of the cardboard. In each side of the cardboard next to the image a hole is poked and string or elastic is attached. The image is wound up, and then when "played" or flipped around, your eye sees the bird in the cage, no longer two separate images. Students will create a thaumatrope of their own to begin to understand this process. They will take an index card and draw an image using a sharpie marker on one side of it, eliminating a part of the drawing. For instance, a student might choose to draw a face missing some of the features. Then the student will line another index card up on top of the one they just drew. One the new index card they will draw in the missing features in the correct spot. The student should be able to see through the index card, so lining up the image shouldn't be a problem. Next the student will line up the cards back to back, and rotate one. For instance, if the face is facing the correct direction on one side, the features will look upside down on the other side. This step is imperative for the thaumatrope to work. Next the student will poke a hole to either side of their image through both cards and thread an elastic through each hole. Once wound up the student will let go and watch their thaumatrope trick their brain into believing that the face is one image.
The next advancement was the zoetrope created in the 1830s. This is a drum with a strip of pictures along the inside. The strip of pictures shows something in motion, but in still shots. When the viewer looks through slits in the side of the drum, the images appear to blend together and the object appears to be in motion. I will show the students an example of a zoetrope and we will talk about how the animation strip is similar to what the film for a stop animation film might look like. We will also talk about why it is important to have a separation between the images, because if you see the zoetrope spinning from above, instead of through the slots, the images do not appear to be moving they simply blur together.
The initial explanation for seeing motion from still shots is called persistence of vision. An image remains in your retina for a fraction of a second. For instance, when you look at a pattern of lights and then look away, you can still see the shape of the lights because the image is still in your retina. This is called a positive afterimage. Since your eye retains the information for a fraction of a second, the theory goes that the image retained then overlaps with the next image shown. Your brain perceives this overlapping when played at a high speed as motion. You can perceive motion at about two frames per second, like a flipbook, but you perceive fluid motion at sixteen frames per second. Most current stop animation is shot at twenty-four frames per second. This is a theory which many filmmakers still believe today. I will have my students create their own flipbook so that they begin to understand the mechanics of stop animation, and story boarding.
In the 1870s a photographer names Edward Muybridge made huge strides in the filmmaking trying to win a bet. Muybridge and another man were arguing about whether or not all four of a horse's legs leave the ground when it is galloping. In order to resolve the problem Muybridge set up a series of twelve cameras along the length of the track to record a horse galloping. The cameras were triggered by a series of strings along the track. As the horse ran through and broke each string the shutter of the camera would be pressed. This resulted in a series of twelve successive images of the horse in motion.
Soon after a new theory about why we perceive motion from still images was released. This theory is called the Phi Phenomenon. The Phi Phenomenon is what most psychologists today credit for our eyes perceiving motion when still shots are played quickly in front of us. The Phi Phenomenon states that when the eye sees an object move from one place to another, the brain automatically fills in the missing information. Though the object is just moving from one place to another, it is a small enough, quick enough move that our eye perceives it as motion. For instance, take the marquee signs at movie theaters. They are a series of lights which are lit one right after another. If you look at them separately in a series of still shots it will only look like one light is lit at a time. However, because the light looks like it is moving only a small distance your brain fills in the fact that it "moved" from one light bulb to another and therefore perceives motion. Students will read literature about each of these theories and after creating their own flipbook answer a CAPT modeled questions about which theory they would support and why.
Lesson Plan One
Objectives
Students will understand how a stop animation movie is created. They will be able to compare the similarities of a stop animation movie to a flipbook and will be able to successfully construct a flipbook showing fluid motion. Students will understand the different theories about why when a series of images are viewed in succession our eyes translate it into motion and be able to explain each theory.
Materials
Students will need twenty to thirty unlined index cards, a fine point sharpie and either an elastic band or binder clip to hold the cards together.
Do Now
Students will look at a movie clip of the marquee lights of a movie theater, a piece of film from a movie, and a flipbook. They will be asked to compare the similarities of these three things, and then hypothesize what allows us to perceive motion.
Procedure
Students will have a class discussion sharing their theories about how our eye perceives motion, and the similarities between the above three media.
After students have given their suggestions they will read an article about the phi phenomenon, and then an article about persistence of vision. They will be asked to put each theory into their own words to help them retain the information.
Students will then watch a demonstration about creating a flipbook. The teacher will explain how working from back to front is easiest, and if you place on index card over another you can see the image through the cards, making tracing easy. The teacher will also hand out a variety of flipbooks which have already been made so that students can see the concept, and also so that they can see how much you can move the image from one index card to another while maintaining fluid motion.
Students will then create their own flipbook, drawing anything that they would like. Their goal will be to keep motion fluid, and keep the drawings looking similar.
Closure
Students will revisit the two theories about our perception of motion and will choose which theory they think is accurate. They will support this decision with evidence from the examples they have looked at in class and from their experience creating and viewing their flipbook.
Assessment
Students will be assessed on how fluid their motion is, how interesting their flipbook is, and whether or not they can show enough supporting evidence to back the theory they have chosen to support.
Once students understand the basic principles behind stop animation, they will begin doing character sketches. We will study the proportions of the human head. An average human's eyes are halfway down their head. One eye can fit between the two existing eyes. The nose is halfway between your eyes and your chin. The mouth is slightly above halfway between your nose and your chin. The ears start at your eyes and end at the bottom of the nose. The hairline is about halfway between your eyes and the top of your head. Students will practice drawing these proportions.
After students have looked at the frontal view proportions they will be challenged to create their own characters to begin writing a story about for their stop animation. Now that they have learned the correct proportions we will look at a variety of different cartoon and stop animation characters to see what gives them their personalities. Students will watch the movie
The Incredibles
to begin brainstorming for their own characters. After viewing
The Incredibles
students will look at a variety of the different faces and bodies that were tested for each character. Students will discuss whether or not they think that the face chosen best fits each character and why.
Students will write a brief character sketch of their own character. They will be responsible for listing traits, a brief history, friends and family of their character. They will also be responsible for drawing their character from the front, profile and three-quarter views. This sketch of their character will be the basis for their stop animation sculpture of the character they will produce.