7. Stop motion animation formats

Lego:

The lego movie was made using 3,863,484 lego bricks. It was created using CGI animation and actual lego sets. The target audience for the lego movie is young children, this is because young children play with lego at home. Using stop motion animation is quite popular in terms of viewing however, stop motion animation takes a long time to film and edit. The primary target audience for The Lego was Movie was at an age range of 4-12 years old. The secondary target audience was at an age range of 18-30 years old.

Claymation:

Claymation is one form of stop motion animation. Each animated piece either character or background is deformable and can be changed and moved so that the frames can have a smooth transition. Wallace and Gromit are a popular show watched by both children and adults. The primary target audience for Wallace and Gromit rage between the ages of 6-15 years of age. The Wallace and Gromit fins are very comical but in appropriate way. The secondary target audience range from the ages of 16-32 years of age.

People and objects:

When using stop motion animation, hundreds or maybe thousands of pictures will need to be taken. The object or people will have to be still, the picture will be taken then the person or object can move a very small amount and the next picture can be taken. The movement between each picture has to be very small so that the transition between each frame is smooth. Target audience for the kindle advert would be towards anyone of any age but more aimed at book lovers. The extraordinary kindle allows people to download thousands of books and take them out and about. This saves people from walking around with books in their bags or pockets.

Sand Animation: 

Sand animation, also known as sand art, is a term which has two meanings. It is the name given to a style of live performance art and to a type of animation. In the former, an artist creates a series of images using sand, a process which is achieved by applying sand to a surface and then rendering images by drawing lines and figures in the sand with one's hands.

Paper Animation:

Cutout animation is a technique for producing animations using flat characters, props and backgrounds cut from materials such as paper, card, stiff fabric or even photographs. The world's earliest known animated feature films were cutout animations. Today, cutout-style animation is frequently produced using computers, with scanned images or vector graphics taking the place of physically cut materials. South Park is an example of this transition since its first episode was made with paper cutouts before switching to computer animation. Target audience for the creators of South Park are teenagers as the term of language in the series are very crude and not suitable for a younger audience.

6.charity research

For our animation project we have been asked to research charities to create an animation for a final charity we have chosen. The five charities we chose were children in need, cancer research, cry (cardiac risk in the young), Gosh (great ormond street hospital) and the salvation army.

• Cancer research: Cancer research is basic research into cancer in order to identify causes and develop strategies for prevention, diagnosis, treatments and cure. Cancer research ranges from epidemiology, molecular bioscience to the performance of clinical trials
• Cry: cry stands for cardiac risk in the young and is a charity helping to raise awareness of cardiac risk, Sudden Cardiac Death (SCD), Sudden Death Syndrome
• Great ormond street hospital: mission is to provide world-class clinical care and training, pioneering new research and treatments in partnership with others for the benefit of children in the UK and worldwide.
• Salvation army: The salvation army is a christian and international organization. It has a worldwide membership of over 1.5 million consisting of soldiers, officers and salvationists. 

The charity we chose is children in need. We chose this charity because since 1980 is has raised over £600 million for disabled and young people in the UK. We also chose this charity because children in need has an iconic figure, pudsey the bear. 

This advert sends out a message that there are too many homeless children sleeping on the streets. The target audience for this advert is for people with children because they will feel empathy and have a connection with the homeless children because they themselves have children. This advert has real life footage because it shows the seriousness of homeless children and makes it more believable. 

This advert shows people dressing up to try and raise money for children in need. It shows them having fun whilst doing a good cause and helping the children. This advert is also real life footage to show all the support that the people are giving to help children in need.

This advert made by Aardman is to show support for children in need. Wallace and Gromit are well known characters and therefore have a connection with the general public. Also, this advert is animated which will appeal to the younger audence as well.

4. Aardman case study

Job Roles:

Animator- An animator is an artist who creates multiple images, known as frames, that give an illusion of movement called animation when displayed in rapid sequence. Animators can work in a variety of fields including film, television, and video games.

Story board artists- A storyboard artist is able to visualize any stories using quick sketches on paper at any moment. Quick pencil drawings and marker renderings are two of the most common traditional techniques.

Layout artist- A layout artist deals with the structure and layout of images and text in a pleasing format. This can include magazine work,brochures, flyers, books, CD booklets, posters, and similar formats. 

CGI animators- CGI animators are responsible for generating animated images by using computer graphics.

Characters/ props/ sets:

Characters- The process starts as a director comes through from creatives department with 2d designs and from this the  model makers sculpt and mould a 3d Maquette or prototype, usually in plasticene. This is then modified, adapted and fine-tuned. The sculptors then use this maquette to make a mould and cast pieces in different materials to create the puppet that can be animated.


Aardman do not build sets or props, with the exception of immediate props like hats or suitcases the sets and props are usually built by specialist local companies. 

Aardman Commercials


Change for life commercial: This advert was made using clay characters, props and sets. It was filmed using stop motion animation; like the rest of Aardmans work. The reason the commercial is animated is because it fits the corporate identity theory for Aardman, It appeals to both young and the older target audience and thirdly because the characters do things in the commercial that human couldn't do such as bending their bodies into letters. 













Vimto Vimtoad commercial: This commercial was filmed using both real life people and an animated character. The background is also real rather than animated. The animated character adds fun and appeals to the younger target audience. 












Maynards discovery patch commercials: This commercial is completely animated including, characters, props and the set. The characters in this commercial are animated hedgehogs which appeal to both the older target audience and younger audience because they are cute and cuddly. 

5. lesson plan

3. stop motion animation guide

Equipment List: 
- HD Camera (with loads of free memory space) 
- Tripod 
- Clay/lego 
- Film Set 
- Computer 

Stop-motion animation can be the most simple way of creating your own animation film. Not only can it be very fun but it also allows you to be very creative and artistic. 

First of all before you start anything you will need to think of an idea to base your animation around. It can be anything from an artistic video with loads of creativity in, or a simple story which has a meaning to it to send out to the public. Which ever idea you choose, it is best to start of with a simple idea, something which will not be too hard to create being as it is your first time making a stop-motion animation. 

Once you have come up with your idea you will need to create a set for your story to unfold on and also you will need to set up all the camera equipment including extras such as lights for example. When setting up your camera you will need to make sure that you have a tripod to place the camera on, this is very important as it will keep the camera still for each photo you take which will also reduce the chance of each photo being out of position which in the final product will show as a major mess. After you have set up your camera you will need to create your set, this can either be something as simple as a cardboard background with maybe images painted/drawn onto it to give the animation a feel of depth and atmosphere or it can be something creative such as lego or plasticine. However when filming you will need to make sure everything placed in the set stays in the exact same position unless wanting to move it, if not then the overall product again will look messy and un-professional. Finally when using l 
ighting on an animation set, the one thing you need to take inconsideration is shadows. This meaning that anyone standing in the way of the light or anything causing a shadow onto the set will cause the finish product to look once again messy and untidy. So when using lights you must make sure that there is nothing in the way of it to cause a shadow. 

When filming the characters you have made out of whether it be lego or clay or anything else, you must make sure that after each photo you take, the character makes a slight movement different from the other (unless you want it to stay still for the whole clip). Doing so will give the overall effect that the characters that you have created are moving around like a living thing. 

Once you have finished creating your stop-motion animation, it is now time to upload all the photos you have taken on the camera to the computer. You may notice now looking back at all the photos that you have taken that there are in fact a lot of photos, this is why on the equipment list i stated next to "HD Camera" that there must be a lot of free memory to take up on the camera, otherwise you would of struggled to complete a successful stop-motion animation. 

Now this is where your computer comes into play. You will need some sort of editing software on your computer in order to merge all of the photos that you have taken together to create your final animation piece. Simple softwares such as "Istopmotion" for Apple computers is a perfect example of  a simple yet effective software to use as it is so easy to use and still get an amazing product out of it. Once you have uploaded all of the photos you have taking to the editing software of your choice, it is now time to cut them down into smaller segments for them to all be places together so when played, it shows a fluid stream of photos which create a moving image. To accomplish this you must change the length of each photo to be shown to a shorter amount of time, for example if it is shown for 10 seconds, you will need to cut it down to 1/2 seconds, otherwise the overall film will last for ages and will not look like one moving image. 

Once you have cut down all of the photos together and made sure that they are in the right order then you have successfully made your first stop-motion animation. You can now go back and watch your finished product and make any changes if need be, but now that you know the basics of how to create a stop-motion animation, you can now create a whole new variety of different animations.

music video story board

music video analysis

with our music video we decided to challenge stereo types of the typical hip- hop video. instead of having women in bikinis we have harry and myself in our swimming trunks doing flips in to the swimming.