Constantin Ernst

Stop Motion Animation

A: Investigation Our task in Design & Technology is to create a stop motion animation to educate the small children of the BBIS. A stop motion animation is a small film made up of a lot of pictures. To get a smooth video you should take 30 pictures per second. I personally like stop motion because you can experiment with clay and create your own story however you want. A good example of stop motion is the movie Wallace and Gromit.

Stop motion studio

Tips and suggestions to make a clear stop motion video: Take a lot of frames Move the characters millimeters to make a smooth transition of the frames. Keep it simple Try to find music that fits the context.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_GLzXVKlzUg An Alien invasion Although the animation above is not a claymation for EC children, it is still a good example of a well photographed scene, because everything is in very much detail. For example the brains of the aliens must have been time consuming. I like the story line and the end is very funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkZGDTIijHs Sammy Squid Sammy Squid is a short claymation which purpose is to teach children to be inclusive to everyone. The is shown by three octopi playing ball. As a fourth wants to join the game the octopus with the ball refuses him to play and gets punished by his father. Then they all play together. The educational message is not to exclude other people.

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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7iygBPJtM8 Smile-Uncle Cracker This Claymation is a song acted out. The screenshot is a frame where the guy is about to mutate to a black wolf. The song talks about a boy who loves a girl that he cannot sleep and she is gold. The animation is very cute and interesting. I love the transformation from a guy to a wolf.

Design Features: My first option for a claymation is the education of the letter C for cheese. The idea of how i am going to teach the children is that first a round cheese and a mouse comes an eats the cheese until it forms a C. The mouse escapes the trap because it doesnt eat all the cheese. The backround drawing is the mouse trap.(chose this one) Second idea is S for Snake. The S would transform to an S and would go into the jungle. Third Idea is O for Opel. The car drives in the frame and the logo is formed.

Design Specifications

1. Only move character in mm 2. Take up to 30 frames per second 3. Keep the camera at on place

Makes finished animation smoother. To ensure the frames show a neat transition. It would ruin the video suddenly taking a picture from another point of view.

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4. Use the same lighting (no flash) 5. Create/change the clay figures on a different paper to not ruin the white ground in the frames Script:

Every frame must be equal in lighting. It would look animated not like a smooth video.

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Background: Mousetrap ( I will draw it with pencils) Round cheese with holes (beige clay Mouse (blue and pink) comes in and sniffs at the cheese Starts eating the cheese piece by piece Eats out a C Mouse escpapes the trap because it didnt eat all the cheese C FOR CHEESE!

Story Board: 1.

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Picture of the 23 frame I took.

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Yesterday I started to film my stop motion animation. What I think went well was the creation of the mouse and the amount of frames to crate a smooth transition. I took 70 photos in total. The picture is one of the first 20 frames. The mouse is in the act of eating out the C out of the cheese on the mousetrap-background.

Evaluation: 1. P for Pasta In this particular claymation, well actually it is not a claymation because there is no clay used, instead the materials used here are dry noodles. I like the Idea of using pasta to from the word pasta. The educational message is not clearly stated. The animation techniques were quite neat and the background was well chosen in contrast to the yellow colour of the pasta. What could be improved are the transition between the frames. I also like the techno music because its contrasting to the black and white background. The text and credits were a bit boring, only black background with no animations.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBRpBqiVvQY

2. S for Soap I very much like this claymation because its very well animated. Apart from that I think the educational message is one should
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-

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wash their hands. The message in general is also very clear. The credits are very well placed and animated. It is very I cannot think of an improvement apart from making it longer because I enjoyed watching it.

3. F for Frog & Friendship This animation is very nicely made and educative. It teaches the EC children to make friends with your enemies. I also like the creation of the characters. Although the frog is bigger than the farm house in the background, it is still a very well planned and filmed animation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvP7Wvmi rHs

C for Cheese My claymation was about a mouse eating cheese from a mouse trap. Although it was not very clear, the educational message was not to fall for traps and be careful. I think
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that I could have done a much better job but I missed two lessons andf therefore I was under time pressure. The music does not fit the context. Apart from that my animation is too fast. I like the intention and the design of my mouse. Reflecting on my video, I think I got to excited in making a claymation, but I didnt focuse on making an educative video.

What have I learned-Summary? To succeed in making a good claymation there are several difficulties. First the characters have to be well designed. The frames of your animation have to transition smoothly; that can be achieved by moving objects only millimetres. Our task was to make a claymation for EC children and make the video educative. I learned that it is not very hard to make a claymation, but you need to plan well and pay attention to the tips and tricks of how to succeed. I hope that my claymation will educate the children to avoid traps.