Time Line

Claymation
It first appeared around 1908. It is the one people most associate with stop-motion animation. These films became more popular in 1897 because an art teacher invented plasticine, which is a malleable non-drying clay and it will hold the shape well. Filmmakers soon found themselves using claymation instead of moving objects around. Animators started to put plasticine on top of wire-armature skeletons, which helps the models to move around with more ease. This style of claymation is used to make Wallace and Gromit. the rise in popularity of claymation accelerated during the late 70's. Vinton and Aardman studios produced his short claymation films during the 1980's which brought us the worlds first stop-motion animated film in Will Vinton's adventure of Mark Twain. In the 1980's Wallace and Gormit also made an appearance for the first time. Although they mainly starred in a series of shorts. They finally debuted their first feature film called Curse of the Were Rabbit in 2005. Although it was pre-dated by Chicken Run in 2000 as Aardman and Dreamworks' first feature-length claymation film.


Pixilation
Is a live-action form of motion s which uses people being posed frame by frame instead of inaminate objects or drawings. The earliest example known is from 1911 which was in the short film called Jabard cannot see the woman working its a strange form of stop-motion animation because it uses people so it looked like they were flying or levitating. filmmaker Mike Jittlov obsessed with this technique he created a pixilation called the Wizard of Speed and Time this was from a short film he made by Mike Jittlov, an animator who previously worked for walt disney company and made a short film called Mouse Mania featuring object animation, In 1979, Jittlov Directed a short film called The Wizard of Speed and Time for disney's major effects television special. Ten years later Jittlov directed a feature film version of the wizard.


Object Animation
The earliest form of stop-motion animation is object manipulation which involves taking photographs of an object and moving it a tiny bit then take another photograph. Its quite time-consuming , but its one of the easiest forms of stop-motion and quickly became complex when using multiple objects, trying to create unique paths and eveents for each different object. The first example of object manipulation and stop-motion animation was a short film by Albert E. Smith and J. Stuart Blackton in 1898 called the Humpty Dumpty Circus this film has been considered lost and only infomation exists today. They both used Blacton's son's circus toys, and photographed them moving around frame by frame. the next surviving example was directed by Edwin S. Porter called Fun in a Bakery Shop, and in 1902 it was released by Thomas A. Edison. This is a mixture of object manipulation and stop-action photography, where filming halted and something is changed in the shot before filming resumes. the camera would stop, actors would "freeze" and filming would resume.


Puppet Animation
Not long after object animation filmmakers started experimenting using different forms of objects that are easier to manipulate. Puppets were one solution, which led to the popular rise of stop-motion animation known as puppet animation. Puppets were used because there easier for animators to manipulate an personify, without this we wouldn't have filmmmakers like Willis O'Brien, Ray Harryhausen, Jan Svankmjer, The Brothers Quay. A good example of a good puppet animation is street of crocodiles by the brothers quay. Both stop-motion and puppet animation gave rise to special effects artist and filmmaker Willis O'Brien who helped pioneer special effects in filmmaking by utilizing stop-motion animation. He started with models made out of clay for his short film but then he started to make full armature skeletons and rubber skin and fur over them. This is how he made the stop-motion shots of king kong on top of the Empire state building. O'Briens work has inspired filmmakers like Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Will Vinton, Peter Jackson. Tim Burton and more.

Story Boards

Final E4 ident

Evaluation

In this project we came up with a few ideas. We started with an idea of an alien that winds up a huge jack in the box, then the E4 logo springs out and hit the alien in the heads, which we would have been shot on the moon set made out of plasticine or clay, but we struggled with the making of the set. So then we changed the whole idea. Our second and final idea was to shoot from a bird’s eye view of a woman with long, thick hair so then we could make the hair look like its moving. Then we had sunglasses coming in to the shot and they made their way on to the face and their facial expressions slowly change. Then she will slowly turn her head and the E4 logo will be attached to her hair, then the camera zooms in a bit on the E4 logo. We came up with this idea after our first idea didn’t work out. My role for this project was editor. My partner’s role was camera operator. We both directed and animated throughout the tests and final animation. We had a bit of trouble with the bird’s eye view because we didn’t have the proper equipment therefore we found shadows and blurs from the tri-pod. I found the animation as a whole to be quite successful except for the last 3 seconds where the light changes slightly but we tried to edit the photos lighter, which didn’t really work. I also found the music went well with the animation, like when the sunglasses came into shot and the music changes in time. I also think that the testers worked a bit better than the final animation. Once we completed our animation I was asked to present it to the class. I thought that showing the class helped a lot with the ideas on how to improve our animation. We got an even amount of positive and comments on how to improve back from the class. A few people said it was quirky, well executed and they said it look very professional. Then a few other people made comments on how I could improve our animation like the back ground could have been more busy like something else happens like in the testers were we had ribbon in the back ground along with the sunglasses. They also said her eyes should of followed the glasses and that her mouth should of stay shut. A few more people said it was different and interesting in a good way. And the music suited the mood and went with the movements. The main thing people picked up on was the E4 logo at the end was not centred, not straight or zoomed in enough. I feel that if we made the changes that were suggested our E4 ident would be a lot better than it already is. I’m very happy with the way it turned out. I also believe it was very successful.

Questionnaire

For my E4 research i was asked to make a questionnaire to help us to see what the average age range, interests and likes are. We handed these out to 21 students.

Below are the pie charts we produced. More than 3/4's of the students we asked did watch E4, it also shows that most of the students watch E4 of an evening. We selected a few of the more popular shows on E4 and asked them to selected the shows they watch, this shows that comedy more appeals to them as The Inbetweeners and Misfits this shows that i could take inspiration from the comedy and try to incorporate it into my ident. We also asked what music they listen to more, although theres a variety of music its easy to see dubstep and R&B are the more popular choices. So now i can incorporate these results into my ident.

E4 Testers

After we chose our final idea, we explored the different ways which would be best for idea. we wanted to use someone with long thick so it would be easier to manipulate into different forms.

The ident above is the one we changed the speed because it wasn't long enough and we thought the movements were to fast. We thought it work a lot better with the movements slowed down. The ident below is the original  

E4 Research

E4 launched as a pay – TV companion to channel 4 in 2001 but in 2004 E4 become apart of free view and is a very successful channel. The channel is mainly aimed at the 16-34 age group. E4 has a wide range of programmes from drama to comedies. As well as showing British shows like Shameless, Skins and the Inbetweeners. Its also shows programmes imported from America like the Big Bang Theory, How I Met Your Mother and 90210. They also air music programmes at spectic times during the day E4 also has a catch up channel known as E4+1 where you can watch the programme you missed an hour later, there's also 4oD: their official website where you can catch up on programmes you missed on television.

The E4 channel has a very recognizable look, with their simple and easily recognizable logo and the color purple. the channel has a look which is appealing to young adults and teenagers, with their advertising of programmes and the channel. One of their most recognizable ways of advertising their channel is by make idents using stop motion animation and using the right music to play as a background sound which helps a lot with getting people attracted to the channel.

Existing E4 stings

For my research into making a sting for E4 i looked at ones other people have made in the past.

Above is a sting someone made for the E4 competition in 2009 (didn't win).

Below is an E4 Ident from a recent appearance on television.

Below an Ident for E4 music. 

Tester Animation

Storyboard

This is the storyboard we choose to draw for our idea, it also gave us a guideline for the camera angles, movement and how the animation will plan out. Using a storyboard helped us a lot and with the planning  this allowed use to start shooting straight away because we were confident in what we were doing with camera angels and the movement of the props because we planned it before.

Production Schedule

Roles

Layla - Animator

Billy - Camera Operator 

Risha- Editor

Martin-Director

Props

Banana - Real banana or a banana made out of plasticine which both can be perchased from mostly any supermarket.

Box- A cardboard Box can easily be found or made.                                                   

Location

Discussed within the group and comfirmed on the table of the studio.

Final Animation