Unit 1 - Stop Frame

Design Brief

The overall objective is to investigate, design, plan and create a stop motion film to spread awareness of issues affecting the world today using clay and evaluate the effectiveness. Stop-motion has been used as a method of animation since before the dawn of the celluloid age. Stop-motion animation is a general term for an animation technique which makes a physically manipulated object appear to move. The object is moved by extremely small amounts between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames are played as a continuous sequence. Clay figures are often used in stop motion animations, known as claymation, for their ease of repositioning. This method of presenting information can be easy to understand, and FUN! Your challenge is to investigate and collaboratively design, plan and create a film to spread awareness about any issues related our school community and evaluate its effectiveness.

LESSON 1 - Brainstorming

Outline your thoughts and ideas after watching some of these videos:

http://youtu.be/cn-Ztku1Tzw A quick claymation showcasing some breakdancing clayman doing dance moves.

http://youtu.be/9dWU9jPCjkM A great short animation movie. Making the most of clay animation in a fight sequence that is reminiscence of the famous Neo and Agent Smith fight scenes from the movie THE MATRIX.

http://youtu.be/lK0LSscth6s Four clay guys clash.

http://youtu.be/1XC6f4YpPJs A man wakes up to find himself in a a white room. This is my AS film studies coursework, it took 1 and a half weeks to complete using iStopmotion 2 Pro to animate, and iMovie HD to edit it. The music is My Body Is a Cage by Arcade Fire.

http://youtu.be/52xQb7uUegc A stop Motion Lip sync test using a freeware program called FrameByFrame. The program does not have Audio scrubbing so Imovie was used to record sound over the animation and this is the result.

http://youtu.be/PTFI7_tAgm4 Behind the scenes Clay Animation.

http://youtu.be/HEtPJshcM9I Jim Jam Clay Play

http://youtu.be/IOu0DuxFAT0 (not clay) but a great stop animation video clip In Your Arms - Kina Grannis.

http://youtu.be/oX1fRBrWyGE A safe driving video made by CSADD Monterey.

http://youtu.be/AKOLZp7Do7c This was a PSA created with stop motion animation techniques.

http://youtu.be/pyMRnOT4gbo Stop Motion Stop Bullying PSA.

http://youtu.be/C3Ue1AXSzyw Animated In Bed - Wonderful Stop Motion.

http://youtu.be/6vZ0iqUS6sg The Marker Maker is a fun stop motion whiteboard animation.

http://youtu.be/mk6zbY8i4_8 Wallace & Gromit : The Wrong Trousers: Cracking Toast!

http://youtu.be/V1G8kXNMrks Aardman Animation

http://youtu.be/YKWa9OuYR9w Puppet Design on "The Pirates! In an Adventure With Scientists"

http://youtu.be/ieN2vhslTTU 'Gulp' is a short film created by Sumo Science at Aardman, depicting a fisherman going about his daily catch. Shot on location at Pendine Beach in South Wales, every frame of this stop-motion animation was shot using a Nokia N8, with its 12 megapixel camera and Carl Zeiss optics. The film has broken a world record for the 'largest stop-motion animation set', with the largest scene stretching over 11,000 square feet.

Once you have a rough idea of what you have to produce, whatever the product, you must come up with a Design Specification. This is a list of criteria that your design must meet before you can begin production. Even Apple will have a Design Specification - for example, the iPhone 6 must have two 10 megapíxel camera, it must have a retina screen and it must have a screen bigger than iPhone 5S. Only once all of these criterion are met can Apple consider production. The same is for you. Here is the Design Specification for your animation:

Design Specifications

The stop animation video that my partner and I create will:

• be for MYP students at Newton, but may also be of help to MYP students from all around the world

• be viewed by lots and lots of people (be available for all Newton MYP students to view and be viewed by over 20 people (the more views - the better!))

• be between 2-5minutes in length

• primarily use some form of material (clay, paper, cardboard, jelly beans, lego, paints, etc.) to tell the story

• have a clever and meaningful title and clear and stylish title screen

• have credits at the end of the film that identify the music, producer, screen writers, directors, cameraman, sound recorder, voice overs, materials used, set designer and creator, etc.

• include excellent original video/image filmed and shot by you

• have clear sound and, if used - appropriate music and background noises

• address a school issue by explaining the issue clearly and raise the viewers understanding and awareness of the issue

So you know what you need to do, now you can start to plan ideas.