Major project

It's been a while since I last blogged but anyone who knows anything about stop motion will know just how time consuming it can be. My project will be part of a website that I'm launching called Stopping the Motion, the finished piece now titled Midnight Mischief will be as a final demo film to show what can be achieved. The site itself will be an informational site for young adults with an interest in making stop motion, providing useful tips and advice. 

Stop motion is becoming increasingly popular, with new evolving technologies making its appeal in the cinema more so. The birth of stop motion can be credited to Albert E. Smith and J.Stuart Blackton for The Humpty Dumpty Circus (1897), in which a toy circus of acrobats and animals comes to life. How ever the great pioneer of stop motion was Wladysaw Starewicz who animated The Beautiful Lukanida (1910), The Battle of the Stag Beetles(1910), The Ant and the Grasshopper (1911).

Above is an example of early stop motion, this piece is titled The Insects Christmas, it was made in 1913 by the Khanzhonkov Company, and although the person who uploaded it has made some minor changes with the text overlay, and sharpened the film, the actual content of the piece hasn't been changed and is a good example of what stop motion used to look like when compared to today's work, for example

Paranorman is an American 3d stop motion animation comedy horror film produced by Laika, distributed by Focus features and was released on August 17, 2012, when viewing this, it becomes very obvious just how far we have come since the birth of stop motion.