Classic Animation Defined
To me, classic (or classical) animation means any animation in which the animator creates each frame individually. Cartoon animation is just one variety of classic animation. There are many more varieties already in existence, and yet more waiting to be invented.Classic animation can be shot with a movie camera, a digital camera, or can be created using a computer - as long as the artist creates each frame individually, using classic visual arts techniques and media, or their digital equivalents. I exclude things like Flash animations and CG animation in which the computer generates frames algorithmically. Of course, the definition is pretty loose and there are gray areas. And the categories I list here shade into each other as well.
Types of Classic Animation
All animation can be regarded as stop motion animation; the subjects - drawings, clay, sand, puppets, paintings, or people - are all stopped in their motion and photographed one frame at a time. "Stop motion animation", though, conventionally means animation with dimensional models or armatures. While there are many ways of dividing animation into categories, I'm splitting classic animation into these broad types:- Cartoon (Cel) Animation
Stop Motion (Model) Animation
Direct (Cameraless, Scratch) Animation
Cutout Animation
Progressive (Painted) Animation
Pixillation
Lightning Doodles (Pika Pika)
Cartoon (Cel) Animation
In cartoon animation, each frame in the movie is drawn and/or painted separately. I think we all know what cartoon animation is, but just for completeness, here's some cartoon animation on a demo reel from EdSeeman.com. There's a wide range if styles in his work, and combinations of cel animation with live action.Cartoon animation can be anything from realistic to surreal. The work of animation pioneers is still inspiring. Here's the rather bizarre "Betty Boop, M.D." from the Fleischer Studio that includes four of their trademark characters.
This video was uploaded by azothstudios.
Stop Motion (Model) Animation
Stop motion animation or model animation is another type of classic animation. The original King Kong (1933) and all of Ray Harryhausen's movies featured stop motion animation. Tim Burton's "Corpse Bride" is a spectacular modern example. Here's an older movie, "The Milky Way", that I came across in some old 16mm films: it's one of a series of movies from Kinex Studios, made in the 1920s.Modeling clay is another favorite medium for stop motion animation. Animator Jimmy Picker won the Academy Award in 1985 for "A Sundae in New York". Here's another of his movies, "Breakdance".
Jimmy doesn't use armatures for his clay figures. He reveals some of his secrets in a video shot in 1986 at a Quickdraw Animation Society workshop. It's in my "Learn Claymation with Oscar Winner Jimmy Picker" post.
I think that Tim Burton's Corpse Bride
is an authentically great movie, as well as having incredible animation. The "making of" documentary shows that the movie was shot with digital cameras - one frame at a time. Click on the link to order the DVD from Amazon.com.Direct Animation
In this type of classic animation, the artist draws, paints, or scratches directly onto the film that goes into the projector. This is called "direct", "cameraless", or "scratch" animation. Once again, the artist creates the movie one frame at a time. Here's an example: "Aria", from glorialoyola:"Aria" isn't strictly a cameraless movie. glorialoyola freezes some of the frames in the movie to accent the music. This is done in the editing, and is easy to do with digital movies.
Some artists add direct animation to images already on the film. Here's "Whiz!", a very creative example from gazzookabazookaz.
No collection of direct animation would be complete without a movie by the National Film Board of Canada's Norman McLaren. Here's Begone Dull Care (1949). His work speaks for itself, and is one of my inspirations. The video was posted by JoniChe.
Cutout Animation
In still another type of classic animation, the animator moves cutouts or other objects around in front of a camera and shoots the movie one frame at a time. One of my movies in this style is "Face #1":If the artist turns the cutouts into silhouettes, the animation has the look of shadow puppets. (Shadow puppetry is "one of the oldest art forms in the world" according to ArtsEdge at the Kennedy Center.) Here's an untitled example on YouTube, from Bhavpreet81.
Progressive (Painted) Animation
In progressive animation the artist shoots frames of a piece of artwork as it is being created. A painting paints itself or transforms as the artist changes it. "Darfur" from joefrechette is a very powerful example.Some artists refuse to tie their art to a canvas or the camera to a tripod. Digital cameras are definitely making animation happen all around us, as in "Fantoche" from notblu.
"Progressive animation" is an older name for this type of animation. If you search for "progressive animation" videos, though, you won't find anything like these. People seem to be calling it "painted animation" now. I prefer "progressive animation" since that's what's happening - the movie records the progress of the artwork.
And the "artwork" can be very ephemeral. There are several kinds of sand animation. In one type, artists create flat images in (typically backlit) sand; in another, artists mold sand into shapes much the way they mold clay. Shoot them one frame at a time and you have animation, as in "EN TIERRA" from cesarlinga.
Pixillation
In "pixillation" the moviemaker shoots actor's performances one frame at a time. Norman McLaren's "Neighbors", done in this technique, is an Academy Award winner. The video was posted by JoniChe.More modestly (much more modestly), there's a lot of pixillation in Zanymation Magic, which I edited from improvised animations created by the instructors and facilitators at Quickdraw Animation Society's Zanymation animation events. Of course, we're improvising with cutouts and other things as well...
Here's a pixillation music video from VitaTigris.
Lightning Doodles (Pika Pika)
A more recent development is "lightning doodles" - it's sort of "air animation" or "air drawing". You open the shutter on a camera, draw in the air with lights, and close the shutter. Shoot a sequence of frames and you have animation. This movie is from the people who originated the technique:This movie was posted by beccatronic.
One Frame at a Time
The common theme in all these styles is that the artist/animator creates each frame as an entity of its own, and determines what's happening and how things are moving, frame by frame. At times (especially when creating textures in scratch animation) the artist takes advantage of patterns that emerge by chance, but it's still created one frame at a time.When animators began using computers, they were eager to automate parts of the process. The result is now a field of its own - CG animation. But computers can be just as useful in classic animation. Digital technology has made classic animation easier and better, and it's what I'm exploring through my software and my movies. My software is at StopMotion-Software.com and you'll be seeing more of my movies in this blog, on my site, and elsewhere on the Web. I'll be exploring all the classic animation styles in this blog, and showing how you can animate yourself.
Mixing it Up
Here's one more of my movies. See how many classic animation techniques you can find in it!Norman McLaren is a master of classic animation in all its forms. Norman McLaren: The Masters Edition
showcases all of Norman McLaren's work, not all of which is animation. This DVD set includes many documentaries. Some of the documentaries manage to make the principles of animation boring - but will reward close attention. These DVDs will stretch your mind. Click on the link to order them from Amazon.com.My thanks to all the posters who upload movies and let us view them. Where no other poster is credited, the uploads are mine.
1 comment:
Helpful information. Lucky me I found your web
site by accident, and I'm shocked why this accident didn't took
place earlier! I bookmarked it.
Feel free to visit my web blog : Rallye Stoppuhren
Post a Comment