What is Stop Motion Animation? Stop Motion is a film technique where static objects are moved in small increments one frame at a time while filming. It is like when viewing a flip book- each page has a slightly altered imagine but when viewed in quick succession, the image looks animated.
Did you know that stop motion is one of the oldest animation styles? The first documented film was The Humpty Dumpty Circus made back in 1898!
Walt Disney Productions and Disney subsidiary studios have released 11 stop motion films…which I thought was a lot until I learned how old this technique is. I wonder why they do not make more. It could be the stop motion process is extremely tedious. Let’s take a look at the Disney classic, The Nightmare Before Christmas to learn how it is done:
Each filmed is shot with frames- there are 24 frames per second. That means ONE second consists of 24 poses.
It takes an average of one week to create up to 5 seconds of footage.
The Nightmare Before Christmas had over 110,000 frames which took more than 3 years to film.
Quarter-scale model sets are created but they are brightly lit up as if they were a regular sound stage set.
Crews consist of animators, camera operators, puppet makers, set builders, and prop makers.
A film typically consists of 50 to 60 puppets. One character could have up to 4 duplicate puppets.
Each puppet has an armature, or framework, for flexible movement.
Since animators want to give their puppets emotions/expressions, they often create different model heads that can be easily interchanged onto the puppet’s body. Jack Skellington had 400 heads!
Sally had long red hair which would have been difficult to create duplicates of, so animators gave her interchangeable masks instead of heads.
Here are more behind the scene pictures to enjoy!
The animation process takes a whole other level of patience and tenacity; but the end result is worth it!
Are you a fan of stop motion animation? Which film is your favorite? Share in the comment section below!
