Case Study - ParaNorman

ParaNorman is a 2012 stop motion animated film produced by Laika Entertainment and directed by Chris Butler and Sam Fell. It is the second feature length film Laika have produced and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animation.


How Stop Motion is Used in the Film

The whole movie features stop motion characters and set. CGI is used sparingly to enhance background details and add addition visual effects. Like Coraline, ParaNorman uses 3D printing technology to assist in the facial animation of characters. Faces are created in 3D software packages, printed out and swapped in each frame to create the character performance.

The stop motion in this movie focuses heavily in creating subtler and more accurate performance through the use of 3D printing technology. The movement is smoother and therefore is not as much evidence that there is stop motion being used.

Common Themes

ParaNorman continues with a mild horror theme that Laika featured in their earlier film Coraline. The film deals with ghosts, the undead and witchery. While targeted towards families, the film does deal with mature themes such as the story of the character of Agatha and her accusation of witchcraft.

In 2012 there were a number of stop motion films released including ParaNorman, Frankenweenie and The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists! Two of these were horror based which stop motion has numerous examples in this genre.

Stop Motion Techniques

A scene in particular I observed which utilised stop motion for visual appeal is the scene near the end where Agatha is challenged and Norman tries to calm her down. There is a good use of texture in the forest: the trees and ground feel very traditionally crafted. As Agatha gets more upset the world changes around them becoming more of a distorted reality. I liked how CGI enhanced but didn’t take away from the stop motion charm in Agatha’s character performance. Finally as she calms down, the environment changes into something more pleasant, with cleaner textures and brighter lighting. These are all things that could've been done in CGI or another animation medium, but there’s something quite special about using stop motion to create something very visually rich and unique.

Case Study - The Nightmare Before Christmas

The Nightmare Before Christmas is a 1993 stop motion film directed by Henry Selick and based on the story and characters by Tim Burton.

How Stop Motion is Used in the Film

The film is a well known stop motion animated film. The characters and sets feel real and the quality of motion comes across as a traditional stop motion film, featuring the odd jerky movement that we associate with the medium. Overall the animation in the film is very convincing and there is a real sense of physicality to the look of the movie. In scenes such as the Christmas town and the forest, the depth of the closed sets give the illusion these worlds are enclosed, and separated from reality.


Texture

The Nightmare Before Christmas features a lot of texture in its sets and characters. The film takes place mostly in outdoor locations in a fictional universe. Textures are used effectively to separate the different locations of the Halloween town, the Christmas town and the "real" world. Halloween town use a lot of unnatural textures that make up their characters such as Sally who is threaded together.

The film has a distinct Halloween or gothic look to it, featuring a lot of well known fictional characters based around Halloween. I remember as a kid finding some scenes and characters pretty creepy but not too creepy where it became unwatchable. Maintaining a visual style and not straying into uncanny territory helped the film to achieve this. I think this was important as it allowed the story to be told while also including story elements that involve scaring children.

Compared to Corpse Bride, the colour palette is a lot duller, which helps to convey the grim atmosphere that the Halloween town has. This contrasts with the Christmas town and the positive atmosphere it has. As the movie progresses the Halloween town brightens up over time.

Animation - Paper Cut Out

I really liked how the technique of layering materials over a lightbox turned out for the rice animations so I tried adding layers of paper to create a simple environment.

I made a simple character made from cut-out card that had a limited degree of movement and animated him walking across the screen.

The camera was set to give a contrast between the light and dark. I turned up the exposure and contrast, while reducing the colour saturation. Positioning a light beneath the table illuminated the set well and each additional layer of paper reduced the light shining through.

Overall I like the visual look of this appears. I was inspired by the likes of Limbo, a game which has a similar aesthetic. While the animation doesn't have a lot going for it due to the limited character movement, I like the quality of movement it has as it walks across the screen. It was challenging to keep this character's limbs in position while moving others and sometimes the layers of paper would lift up preventing the character from sliding across the surface. 

Progress Presentation Feedback

Earlier this week I presented the progress so far regarding my honours year project. The presentation can be viewed via Google Drive.

In the presentation I explained my background in stop motion animation and that it is something that I'd like to try in university. In explained how I started with a lot of questions which have guided me so far but many remain unanswered and that I was not certain on my research question for the project just yet. However the rough direction I was going in asked the questions:

• What is the appeal of stop-motion animation?
• Why would an animator choose stop-motion over other mediums?
• What are the processes behind stop-motion animation?
• How can I use stop-motion animation to better my skills at animation and filmmaking?

It is my goal to make a short animated film in second semester but I'd be focusing more on the animated craft rather than narrative or characterisation where I am not as skilled. The film would include things I'd learn through researching throughout the year.

I described some of the techniques that Barry Purves had mentioned in his book Stop Motion: Passion, Process and Performance such as the use of texture and lighting.

I showed some of the animation work I'd done so far such as the short fight scene and the rover on the alien planet animation. I explained how I'd tried to understand how some elements of using stop motion are unique to that medium however I was aware that some of the animations were made purely for the sake of making and that I'd hope to uncover questions to ask by animating.

I also mentioned how I'd started to study films by identifying common themes and elements and comparing them to other films I'd studied. I was building a framework that would help my analyse other films and I'd build upon it to get an understanding of the visual appeal of stop motion.

Some examples of texture and materials were shown and I described some ideas I had for the coming weeks for what to try next. Finally I showed some further reading material that I was interested in looking at. Examples of which can be found in the presentation slides linked at the top of this post.


I received feedback from tutors Lynn Parker and Simone O’Callaghan. The response was overall positive and the feedback was informative, the main points being:

• They both seemed to like my presentation and thought I'd put in a good amount of work. Lynn and Simone both have a soft spot for stop motion animation so the familiarity with the subject helped them to see how I may continue the project in the future.
• I talked a lot about focusing on the process of stop motion, but I should perhaps read more about the others aspects of stop motion and the exploring the process will come naturally.
• I should expand more upon the imperfections of stop motion animation and what affects they can have on the quality of the animation such as its style or influence on genre. There is potential on this path if I choose to look further into it.
• I mentioned the potential creepiness stop motion can evoke but I only scratched the surface. There are particularly grotesque stop motions by people such as Jan Švankmajer. I had mentioned Quay brothers but admitted that I hadn't explored their work as much as I'd liked. I think it'd be good to look at all of the mentioned directors to understand what kind of darker animations can be made with stop motion.
• I was suggested to also check out a documentary about Cosgrove Hall and a film called Tale of Tales (1979) which is considered by some to be one of the best stop motion animations.
• Begin to look at concepts and ideas for the final outcome.
• I could use questionnaires or interviews to question other animators about the quality of motion in an animation.

Overall I am happy with the presentation and feel more confident in the work I am doing. For my next presentation I will start it earlier and talk with a tutor beforehand. A lesson learned from this presentation is that I left the slides and practice too late which led me to be pretty nervous and I'm aware that I must have seemed like a nervous wreck while talking.

Looking forwards, I can begin to think about new practical exercises to do, and what purpose I have for doing them that relates to my project aim. The next hand-in is the project proposal which is where I will better clarify my intentions for the project's direction. I will also need to come up with a more concise research question.

Animation - Fighting

Something that 3D computer animation does very well is camera movements, because you can animate the character performances then worry about the camera movements later which you can alter at any time. With stop motion, camera movements are set in stone as soon as you include them and they are difficult to change later in production.

I wanted to how stop motion camera movements affect the physicality of a stop motion. By moving the camera around the set, you get a sense of its scale and depth. I think it’s something that adds quite a bit of visual style to an animation as it feels more personal and natural compared to digital panning or zooms.

This animation was a short fight scene that I made without focusing too much on the narrative or details. I just wanted to animate something and this came to mind.

Animation - Rover Exploration

This animation set out mostly just to create something, focusing more more on the production pipeline of stop motion animation. I wanted to test out some camera and editing techniques. As I've not really got a research question, I hoped by just making something I'd be one step closer to having a research question. While I'm still not entirely sure what my research question is, I do think I have a better idea of the practical exercises I want to attempt next.


As mentioned in a previous post, the character design came from a doodle which I created a Lego model from. I chose to use Lego as it was a material I had available at the time from working on a previous project in the Summer. However I wanted to try something different with the Lego and instead of using their minifigures I wanted to create something from scratch. The series of character models I made each had a unique mechanical feature. The character that I animated with was able to use a mechanical arm to dig up and store soil samples to analyse.
As for techniques, I tried out a few techniques. Something I always enjoy doing is moving the camera around a scene because it's unlike a live action camera as you have to move the camera in small movements which you can't easily plan out so you have to wing it and hopefully get a feel of how it will turn out. The camera in a few shots track the rover as he navigates the environment and looks at an unusual rock.
The animation presented a few challenges. In particular, the size of the set I built wasn't always big enough for the camera angles I decided upon. The background plate I had wasn't big enough to be static so I made the decision to move it with the camera, something which turned out all right as it appeared the sky was static and therefore far off in the distance. However due to the imperfections of moving it every frame, it was still clearly a stop motion background and that added to the charm of the animations visual style.
I am happy with this animation. While it doesn't show particularly strong animation, I was happy with the length and process behind the making of it. I liked that it was something different that I hadn't tried before. Overall, the animation was intended to explore stop motion in the hope that I could discover new ways of thinking that could inform my practice.

Although this animation’s tone is different to that of the films I’ve looked at in my research, this was more inspired by TV series I was looking at such as Clangers (BBC 1969) and Chorlton and the Wheelies (ITV 1976). The animation uses Lego bricks but doesn’t include the traditional minifigures. 

I wanted to see if the use of stop motion would help to enhance the quality of the characters movement. The little bumping movements as he navigates the landscape feel natural and gives the character an innocent or chirpy quality.

I also encountered a technical problem with my camera where it changes contrast and brightness without explanation, even on manual settings. I've put this down to either a graphics problem on my laptop or the age of my camera which has been running for a good number of years but acts up from time to time. I was able to colour correct any frames affected and it isn't too noticeable (other than the last few seconds of the animation).