What is Stop Motion Animation?
Stop motion, at its core, is a simplistic way to bring life to stagnant objects. The illusion of movement is achieved by physically manipulating an object, while photographing each step of the way.
There is much to be explored with stop motion animation. It’s a diverse avenue of art, and it can be as straightforward or as complicated as you want it to be. From taking everyday objects or making elaborate sets and models from scratch, stop motion movies are a captivating way of storytelling. So, what are the best examples of this in modern media?
1. 3-D Printed Animation: “Anomalisa”
Release date: December 30, 2015
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country of Origin: USA
Directors: Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson
Rated: R
“Anomalisa” is a psychological comedy drama, surrounding a motivational speaker named Micheal. His life is mundane—he lives day to day in a monotonous routine, where the faces and voices of the people that surround him converge. He struggles to recognise people due to this, a condition that his wife and son are not exempt from. However, circumstances change when Micheal leaves to Ohio, to promote his latest book. He meets a girl named Lisa, an anomaly in his otherwise dull life.
The puppets in this stop motion animation were all 3-D printed, where dozens of each character and object had multiple, slightly altered, versions of itself. For example, they had printed 12 martini glasses, each differing in amounts of mock liquid in it, for a scene where Micheal sips from his drink. In an interview with Variety, Micheal noted that “Every single thing you see on screen was fabricated.”.“Anomalisa” is a true display of the freedom that stop motion can bring.
2. Felt Animation: “But Milk is Important”
Release date: 2012
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Country of Origin: Norway
Directors: Eirik Grønmo Bjørnsen, Anna Mantzaris
Rated: -
This 11-minute stop motion animation is centred around the themes of anxiety and paranoia. Audiences watch as a man riddled with the aforementioned struggles, is closely followed by a large creature. The ball of fluff is clumsy and naive, bringing comedy to the dismal mood of the movie. Fearful, the man attempts to flee, not knowing that the creature has pure intentions.
This short is made of hand-crafted objects and characters, with the creature being a figure of white felt. The creators of “But Milk is Important” intended for their work to appear so, refusing to hide brush strokes or texture—all for the sake of delivering the themes of the short with the impact it deserves. With how real and human the set and characters look, audiences are bound to feel a heavier emotional attachment to the story.
3. Toy/Object Animation: "A Town called Panic"
Release date: June 17, 2009
Genre: Comedy, Fantasy, Adventure
Country of Origin: Belgium, France
Directors: Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar
Rated: PG
“A Town called Panic” is an adventure, fantasy comedy about three friends; a cowboy, a Native American and a horse. It’s Horse’s birthday—but the other two had forgotten. In a panicked frenzy, they order 50 million bricks by accident, while trying to build their animal friend a barbeque. Resultingly, they traverse the Earth—and a parallel underwater universe—in order to make wrongs, right.
People, animals and objects were miscellaneous toys. The movements were hardly fluid, with most two-legged characters having a block of plastic beneath their feet, just so they could stand upright. However, being a physical comedy, this only added to the movie’s charm. The Town called Panic is surmised of 1,500 plastic toys and had taken 260 days to produce.
4. Paper Puppet Animation: “Consuming Spirits”
Release date: December 12, 2012
Genre: Mystery, Drama, Thriller
Country of Origin: USA
Director: Chris Sullivan
Rated: Not Rated
Semi-autobiographical, “Consuming Spirits” is a stop motion animated drama, directed by Chris Sullivan. The movie depicts three different, yet interconnected, lives of townsfolk of the fictious Magguson. The trio are coworkers at their local newspaper, whose relationships seem shallow at most. Yet, as the movie progresses, we learn that there’s much more between them, and that they each house shameful secrets of their own.
Characters are made of paper, with delicate hinges for intricate movement. While it does have 3D models, like for rooms and vehicles, this stop motion animation feels flat—appropriate to its narrative. With sketchy lines of coloured pencil, and at times grayscale, this movie’s atmosphere is bleak. Drawn and crafted over the course of 15 years, "Consuming Spirits" is a movie that deals with themes of alcoholism, neglect, poverty and despair.
5. Claymation: "Wendell & Wild"
Release date: October 21, 2022
Genre: Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy, Horror
Country of Origin: USA
Director: Henry Selick
Rated: PG-13
Directed by Henry Selick, this light-hearted horror comedy features Key and Peele as the titular demon brothers. The pair, Wendell and Wild, convince the 13-year-old Kat to summon them to the land of the living—through the empty promise of resurrecting Kat’s parents. However, after Kat performs the summoning ritual at the cemetery, the demonic brothers take a wrong turn and get lost. This leads to Kat believing that she has been stood up.
Partly made out of tin, silicone and cutout animation, “Wendell & Wild" utilised the same techniques that were employed in Coraline—a famed movie that Selick had also created. However, unlike Coraline, they hadn’t removed the seam lines of where puppet and replacement faces met. The director wanted to draw a clear distinction between 3D animated movies and stop motion ones, arguing that technology has evolved to the point where the two techniques were almost indistinguishable. Ultimately, “Wendell & Wild” is yet another showcase of Selick’s storytelling prowess.
Conclusion
With the right materials, it can be amazing what stop motion artists can do. These movies show that this animation technique is limitless, and with skill and time, unassuming materials can be leveraged to create pieces that enhance the plot and themes of a story.
Author Bio
From Malaysia, Leia Emeera is a writer at TESSR and a published author. She has been putting pen to paper ever since she learned how to, and has an anthology to her name, titled 'Ten'. Leia loves music, games and her beloved labrador retriever, George. She aims to further her studies in English Literature and Creative Writing the moment her gap year ends. 'Till then, you will find her sitting behind a desk, writing with TESSR.
Connect with her on LinkedIn: Leia Emeera
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