The first two-week rotation is an introduction to the stop-motion animation technique.
- Introduction to the software for creating stop-motion
- Exploration of hand-made approaches that underpin the approach
- Animation puppet, pixilation in conjunction with performance
- Materiality
- Displacement and replacement animation
- Metamorphosis
Invites you to make extensive use of the tactile qualities inherent in stop-motion animation and embrace the hand-made processes and material properties that come with the art form. AVOID using digital processes such as digital effects or image manipulation – although editing software is allowed.
WEEK ONE – given the tools and thinking required to approach the HOW– in the context of stop-motion animation this will introduce you to the software tools for creating an animated stop-motion sequence and an approach to the notion of Materiality, to help you initiate ideas.
Monday – MATERIALITY
- Explore the notion of materiality to design and build puppets using puppet theatre tradition. Aim to complete a finished puppet in your teams that can be manipulated by 2-3 people. Puppet should be roughly between 30cm and 50cm. Additionally, your team will need to designate a camera operator and animator, whose roles can be alternated.
- Examples: Ainsley Henderson: “Stems” and Simon Cartright’s “Man-o-Man”
- Materiality – consider the material that your puppet is made from. What properties have you and your group further explored and discovered in Week 1 and how might your discoveries be developed further in this sequence?
- How might the material transform? Cardboard might tear, crumple, shred, grow, fold, accumulate, twist… Are there any narrative opportunities within these actions that could be woven into your sequence?
Wednesday – MANIPULATION
- Displacement Animation / Testing / DragonFrame
- In this session, you explore the narrative potential of gesture and the environment. We will be creating tests using Dragonframe to capture stop motion and/or pixilation tests.
- YOUR SEQUENCE WILL BENEFIT FROM YOU WEARING DARK CLOTHING THIS SESSION!
Friday – TRANSFORMATION
- Replacement Animation / Testing / Dragonframe
- This session will introduce you to the replacement animation approach, which will play a significant role in the sequence you will be creating in week two.
- You will take part in a workshop that explores the technique in greater depth and you will reflect on your outcomes to expand on your tests from week one.
BRIEF FOR WEEK 2 (delivered on Friday) – To expand on your initial tests from Week 1 by designing and creating a 30-second stop-motion animation sequence that incorporates your puppet, and your chosen soundscape and includes a sequence of TRANSFORMATION / METAMORPHOSIS.
- By the end of the animation, the sequence should reveal a SIGNIFICANT TRANSFORMATION.
- Consider ending with a moment that shows the puppet or associated prop in a new form, evolution, fragile, stronger or abstract.
- Does not need to be in the form of a narrative but it may point to existing stories or feelings. Ambiguous, mysterious or dreamlike.
KEY CONSIDERATIONS
Use this as an opportunity to explore how the notion of materiality can inspire unexpected changes in form, movement, and content!
- Consider how the puppet shifts from one state to another – slow, fast, violent, gentle?
- Is there a catalyst that sparks the transformation?
- Does the setting you’ve chosen indicate the process of transformation – with opportunities for storytelling?
- Is there a difference between transformation and metamorphosis?
- It doesn’t need to make logical sense, can be process-led, go with the flow if it feels right!
- Are there pre-existing myths or stories that could be re-imagined or subverted?
- How might you subvert the expectations of your audience?
- The focus is on material transformation – so prioritise changes in texture, structure, and form over narrative and story!
- Incorporate sound, using the time in the second week, between Wednesday and Friday, to work on a final edit of your sequence.
WEEK TWO– responding to the findings from the first week by creating a sequence of your own. Challenged to consider the WHAT– aspects of your work that align with broader contexts, themes, narratives and discourses. It may only imply the WHAT in the final outcome but could be articulated more explicitly in the critical reflection that you submit for assessment.
Production, screening and reflection
- The final screening will be on Friday (14:00-17:00) of the second week
- May be edited and must include sound, which can be added in the time between Wednesday and Friday in preparation for the screening)
- Must be an MP4 and uploaded to Youtube
Written Analysis
- Write a brief analysis addressing the final submission (1 paragraph) – telling the why and how what choices did you make and why? What did you learn, and what will you carry forward into future projects?
- 1 Page PDF; A4 Landscape Format
- Include links to your films within the document, your responsibility to make sure links work
- Include written analysis