Stop motion techniques such as cutout animation, the use of construction paper and computer animation were/are used in the american tv series 'South Park'. Whereby, the pilot episode used
cutout animation which mean't the character were used as paper cutouts. Also, for the original animated shorts for the programme, construction paper was used. However, subsequent episodes have been produced by computer animation, one of the reasons because it took far less time. The target audience for this tv series is adults, because of its crude language and surreal humour. The use of animation is inspired by the paper cut-out cartoons made by animator, Terry Gillian, for 'Monty Pytho's Flying Circus'.
Also another television series that used stop motion techniques was 'Pingu'. Whereby this tv series used clay animation.
Below is a video of the pilot episode of South Park used with construction paper:
the television channel, E4, uses stop motion animation in a variety of their channel idents. There idents seem to have a theme of different types of rooms. The techniques being used is stop motion on objects and furniture etc. For example the illusion that the curtains close on there own, shown in the example of a E4 Channel Ident below:
"We wanted something that reflected E4's personality - beautifuly random, joyously daft and generally not taking things too seriously."
- Neil Gorringe, the creative director of E4
As well as this, in 2007, BBC Two used a zoetrope in one of their channel idents. Therefore, promoting one of the first ways that stop motion was put in place.
Music Videos
A zoetrope was used in the filming of a music video for 'My Last Serenade' by Killswitch Engage, where there is the illusion that the band is playing the song in the slits of the zoetrope.
Also, stop motion is used in Oren Lavies 'Her Morning Elegance' which was viewed by over 15 million people. Therefore advertising the use of stop motion and it will live on to be one of the celebrated uses of stop motion in our time. The video shown on the right is the music video and they shot it in 48 hours without any breaks. This is extremely creative, and it has a great uniqueness to it. I very much enjoyed watching this piece of stop motion and I'm not surprised that it was viewed by so many people, its exceptional!
Cinemas
Stop motion animation has proved popular in the cinema with releases such as, Chicken Run (2000) and Coraline (Feb 2009). By September 2009, Coraline had grossed over $120 million worldwide and when Chicken Run was released it grossed $227 million worldwide..
Coraline is a stop motion 3D fantasy film. Whereby thousands of high-quality 3D models, ranging from facial expressions to doorknobs were printed in 3D. This resulted in the transformation of computer designed drawings into high-quality 3D models than could be used on set.
Chicken Run is a stop-motion animation comedy made by Aardman Animations, which was directed by Nick Park. Who is a director at Aardman Animations who has won several Academy Awards for Best Animation.
Below is a video behind the scenes of the film, Coraline, about bringing the characters to life. Including content on the models and words from the animators:
Computer games
The game's creatures and characters were constructed by animation expert Alan Friswell, using the stop-motion techniques used in the films of Willis O'Brien and Ray Harryhausen.
The figures were made of modelling clay and rubber, over an armative of wire and ball-and-socket joints. I think that using this technque is not only clever but it's what makes the computer game so realistic.
Also the 1996 computer game The Neverhood, which features the technique of clay animation.
Websites
The internet has allowed many people, especially young people who wish to experiment in movie making with stop motion, to do this with modern stop motion software. (http://www.stopmotionpro.com/)
Over the past couple of years stop motion has become more popular on the web, with stop motion videos ranking up thosand and even million of views on websites such as Youtube.
On Youtube, because anyone can uploas images it means that people who are experimenting with stop motion animation can upload their videos onto the web for others to view. Therefore, not only advertising forms of stop motion animation but for the creators to get a sense of accomplishment as their video views continue to increase.
A wide range of stop motion techniques have been showed in videos on Youtube. Such as, Clay animation, animation with action figures, objects and more.
The top ten viral stop motion videos are listed on this website. See link: http://socialtimes.com/stop-motion-videos_b11092
My favourite creation of stop motion animation video on Youtube is called T-shirt War. It is also very popular on Youtube as it has almost 10 million views. I like it because it is a very creative idea, and when I first saw the video I hadn't seen anything like it before. Therefore, its unique and I find it amazing how they managed to make it look so real!!
You can watch the video below:
Advertising
An example of the use of stop motion animation in advertising, is the success of Evian's Baby Inside advert. Evian's previous advert, 'Roller Babies' which was the most viewed viral video of all time, has been succeeded by baby inside. This ad features a lineup of adults wearing baby t-shirts filmed in stop motion, which took roughly 6 months to produce.
The advert is shown below:
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