Assignment 1: Pioneers

Pioneers

Introduction:
This is part 2 of task 1 about pioneers. These pioneers impact the future of stop motion largely because they created the technology for us to mimic movement. Without them there wouldn't be stop motion animation. 

John Plateau
John Plateau was the inventor of the Phenakitoscope, the first widespread fluid 'illusion of motion' animation contraption. It was only a short continuous loop however it was the one of the first moving media entertainment devices that paved the way for future devices and film industries. It was released as a scientific invention because it was invented through scientific research of optical illusions. However, it was then referred to as a novelty toy. When the novelty aspect wore off it was then referred to as a children's toy. Joseph Plateau was a Belgian physicist from Brussels and was known for his research of soap bubbles (Plateau's Laws).













William Horner
William Horner was one of the inventors of the Zoetrope. William Horner was a British mathematician who after taking notice of Joseph Plateau's work on the Phenakitoscope (which was released in England as 'Phantasmascope') invented a cylindrical version of the Phenakitoscope. Horner published the details of its mathematical principles in January, 1834. The Zoetrope was originally called 'The Dædaleum' by Horner as a reference to the Greek myth of Daedalus. Unlike the later versions of the Zoetrope that had viewing slits above the pictures, Horner's was a revolving drum with viewing slits between the pictures. This variation (The Dædaleum') was supposed to be published in Bristol with optician King Jr but it "met with some impediment probably in the sketching of figured".


Emile Reynaud
Emile Reynaud was the inventor of the Praxinoscope. Emile Reynaud was a french inventor and invented the praxinoscope in 1877. The praxinoscope is the successor to the Zoetrope. Like the Zoetrope, the Praxinoscope uses a spinning cylinder with a strip of pictures placed around the inner surface. Unlike the Zoetrope, the Praxinoscope has an inner circle of mirrors instead of the Zoetrope's narrow viewing slits. If you looked at the mirrors you would see a rapid succession of images producing the illusion of motion, it would brighter and less distorted than what the Zoetrope produced.

Assignment 1: Techniques

Techniques

Introduction:
This is part 1 of task 1 about techniques. These techniques impact on the future of stop motion because without stop frame and frame rate there wouldn't be stop motion. Persistence of vision, beta movement and the phi phenomenon are an important impact because it helps to create movement.   

Persistence of Vision:

Persistence of Vision is a theory which says that the human brain subconsciously stores images for around 1/25 of a second. The human brain recognises a fluid movement when slightly different images are shown in a quick succession. It was later debunked because it only explained why black slides on early projected animations and films were not recognised by the audience (This was known as an ‘illusion’ and only worked when it was down to 16 fps). Two more theories came out about vision called ‘The Phi Phenomenon’ and ‘Beta Movement’. The Phi Phenomenon was founded by Max Wertheimer in the early 1900s. The Phi phenomenon is an optical illusion that when different objects are viewed in rapid succession gave the illusion of movement. Beta Movement was also founded by Max Wertheimer in the early 1900s. Beta Movement, like The Phi Phenomenon, is also an optical illusion where a series of static images on a screen can create the illusion of smoothly flowing scenes. This happens where the frame rate is higher than 10-12 images per second.
Phi Phenomenon Example:

 Beta Movement Example (Snake Game): https://playsnake.org/

       Persistence of Vision                 The Phi Phenomenon                     Beta Movement

Stop Frame:

‘Stop Frame’ is a type of animation where each frame is manipulated that when played together in quick succession, images seem to move. There are positives and negatives to Stop Frame animation. The positives are that you have more control, you can animate inanimate objects, you can create more surreal story lines, you can make difficult subjects easier to tackle and you can create interesting effects. The negatives are that it is difficult to get the correct speed, it is time consuming, you can’t have fluid motion, it is difficult to visualise and you need to create a separate audio track.

Example (Wallace and Gromit): 

A recent example (Early Man): 

                Wallace and Gromit                                          Early Man
Frame Rate:
Frame rate is expressed in ‘frames per second’ (fps). It is the rate at which consecutive images called frames appear on a screen. It is seen in film, video cameras, computer graphics and motion capture systems. Frame rate can also be called frame frequency which is expressed in hertz.

Frame Rate Example (Beginners Guide to Frame Rates): http://aframe.com/blog/2013/07/a-beginners-guide-to-frame-rates/

                                    Frame Rate Chart

Dragon Ball Z - Goku vs Vegeta Animation!

by Counter656
https://www.youtube.com/user/counter656

Dragon Ball Z - Trunks vs Piccolo Animation!

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Magic Water Animation!

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First Post

Hello there!
General Kenobi