Understanding the Art of Stop Motion

Stop motion: the art of bringing inanimate objects to life. While some filmmakers might find this style of animation tedious, there are those that appreciate and treat it as an art form. There is something magical about physically touching the objects to immerse oneself into one’s work, and stop motion is slowly gaining recognition for its peculiar style. Its origins trace back to the late 1800s, to a time when ‘movie magic’ helped viewers believe that the objects were moving on their own. Unfortunately, compared to Computer Graphic Images (CGI), stop motion may no longer seem impressive to viewers, as its choppy movements can be considered too ‘retro’ for the audience.

However, technology has advanced to improve this process, thus stop motion can no longer be considered ‘out-dated’ compared to its competitors. This article will explore how stop motion has become popular by looking at its history, and analyze how other studios are currently using it. Although it is always compared to other animation styles, such as CGI, stop motion has its own charm that has led filmmakers to choose this medium for stylistic reasons, as stop motion is able to present a ‘handcrafted’ feel to the audience.

Stop Motion: A Brief History

What gives stop motion that ‘handcrafted’ feel is the fact that it is the art of object manipulation, as the object is moved in small increments between individual photographed frames. This creates the illusion that the object is moving, and there are many forms of stop motion to give this animation style its own genre. There is claymation (or clay animation), the most common form of stop motion, in which clay models are created around a wired skeleton to be used as subjects. There is also time-lapse animation, in which single frames are taken at periodic intervals (ex: to make the weather change in the course of a day), puppet animation, and pixilation, which has human subjects move from frame to frame. ¹ With such a rich history, it would be impossible to make this brief history lesson ‘brief’ because of stop motion’s vast timeline. Thus, this article will focus on the pioneers of this art form and a few American artists that are well-known in history.

The first use of stop motion animation was in 1898 when Albert E. Smith and J. Stuart Blackton made The Humpty Dumpty Circus using object animation. The premise was simple – move the objects to make the toy circus come to life. Following this notion was Thomas A. Edison’s Fun in a Bakery Shop, which was directed in 1902 by Edwin S. Porter (the video below). Fun in a Bakery Shop used a mix of object animation and stop-action photography, which involves pausing and changing something in the shot before resuming the film. In this particular short, the baker stops his motions to appear to be instantaneously making all of the faces out of dough. ² These techniques made stop motion easy to make, and it took America 31 years later to notice it as an art form thanks to Willis O’Brien.

Willis O’Brien was gifted in the creation of stop motion creatures and is known for his visual effects in the film King Kong (1933). The film’s success was dependent on O’Brien’s realistic creatures, as he focused on King Kong and the dinosaurs. He was obsessed with details and based his dinosaur models on precise paleontological studies. He also created a King Kong that was not just a model but also a character. ³ O’Brien did this by using full armature skeletons and putting rubber skin and fur over the models, creating the iconic stop-motion shots of King Kong atop the Empire State Building ⁴ (which can be viewed below).

O’Brien’s work inspired his protégé, Ray Harryhausen, to carry on the work, as he further blended the stop motion model with live action footage. Harryhausen is well-known in stop motion’s history, as he created creatures for films such as Jason and the Argonauts, One Million Years, and Clash of the Titans. Following the release of the 1981 release of Clash of Titans, special effects evolved to utilize computer graphics and diminished the art. However, stop motion’s animation still appealed to many artists, which led to its revival decades later thanks to the release of The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993).

Popularizing the Art Form

There are many artists that popularized the art form in their storytelling. Stop motion is perhaps chosen because of preference, but fans believe that the appeal of stop motion lies in its magical qualities, as stop motion animators are able to transform the ordinary – similar to how children use imagination to transform their toys ⁵. In particular, there are a few filmmakers that are well-known for their stop motion films, which will be explored in the section below.

Tim Burton

The most influential stop-motion artist is Tim Burton, as his film, The Nightmare Before Christmas, was the first film to be made entirely with stop motion techniques. Previously, stop motion was used for shorts and special effects, and was designed to only hold the audience’s attention for a brief moment ⁶. This was because stop motion was and still is time consuming, thus involving the audience on an emotional level for 90 to 120 minutes was an arduous task. However, Burton was able to achieve commercial success with The Nightmare Before Christmas, and he built upon his success with other films such as James and the Giant Peach (1996), Corpse Bride (2005) and Frankenweenie (2012). As for Burton’s decision on why he chose stop motion, he states, “There’s an energy with stop-motion that you can’t even describe. It’s got to do with giving things life.” ⁷

Henry Selick

Although Burton’s name is associated with The Nightmare Before Christmas, many are not aware that the director that brought the movie to life was none other than Henry Selick. Before working on The Nightmare Before Christmas, Selick worked on his own projects, and one that became a critical success was Seepage. For Seepage, Selick mixed stop motion and water colour animation to tell the story of two people talking while sitting near a pool ⁸. He then worked with Disney, and worked on films such as Pete’s Dragon (1977) and The Fox and the Hound (1981). In his boredom and anticipation to search for his next film, he found The Nightmare Before Christmas, and was excited to work with his former classmate Burton.

While Burton handled the creative decisions, Selick decided to push the boundaries of stop motion. It was a painstaking process, as each model had to be created and constantly retouched. This resulted in the film to be in production for two years until it was released. In his review of the picture, Roger Ebert, a well-known film critic, said:

But the director of the film, a veteran stop-action master named Henry Selick, is the person who has made it all work. And his achievement is enormous. Working with gifted artists and designers, he has made a world here that is as completely new as the worlds we saw for the first time in such films as Metropolis, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Star Wars ⁹.

The studio was so proud of the film’s success that Selick continued to work with Burton and directed James and the Giant Peach and Coraline. Although Selick’s films are not consistent blockbusters, some consider his films to be the most interesting and innovative, as they feature a number of emotional and technical layers that add a personal tone to each production ¹⁰.

Nick Park

A British animator, Nick Park is known for creating the characters, Wallace and Gromit, and completed his first short at Aardman Animation called A Grand Day Out (1985). Park became well-recognized in the industry after winning a British Academy Award for A Grand Day Out, and he created more Wallace and Gromit shorts such as The Wrong Trousers, A Close Shave and A Matter of Loaf and Death.  ¹¹ After winning awards for his shorts, Park set his eyes on making feature length films, and created Chicken Run (2000) and The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005). He continued to win many awards until an unfortunate incident occurred when a fire destroyed the Aardman warehouse that stored all the sets and models for Chicken Run. ¹² Luckily, the Wallace and Gromit models were safe, but there was no hope for a sequel to Chicken Run (although one can enjoy the animation for the scene below). 

With so many inspiring stop motion filmmakers, one would think that there would be more artists working with this medium. Unfortunately, stop motion does not always do well commercially, thus many filmmakers prefer to work with CGI instead. This makes it fair to compare the two mediums, as there are pros and cons for both styles of animation.

CGI vs. Stop Motion

Unfortunately, there is a large difference when it comes to the profits between stop motion and CGI. The highest gross film for stop motion is Chicken Run with an estimate of 225 million ¹³, which is an impressive feat, as the film was made on a 42 million budget ¹⁴. However, the 1.2 billion that Frozen cashed in makes Chicken Run‘s profits seem like ‘chump change’ in comparison, but it is also worth mentioning that Disney had an excellent marketing strategy, as explained in this article.

With the advancement of modern technology, techniques for CGI are also getting better, as CGI is not only used to make animated films but also special effects (a more detailed look can be seen here). This notion is the same for stop motion, as video assist and capture software enables for a more efficient technique and sophisticated motion. ¹⁵ Therefore… if both mediums are steadily improving, which one is better?

Honestly, deciding between CGI and stop motion is similar to asking a painter if they prefer to paint with acrylics or watercolours – it all depends on preference. Whereas some viewers may be more accustomed to the look of 3D films (and find stop motion strange), there are also those that enjoy stop motion and appreciate the effort it takes to create these masterpieces. Not all viewers care about the animation style, as the most important element in a film is to entertain the audience. Therefore, the medium should not be blamed for a loss in profits, as storytelling is the primary goal for every film that is produced.

Rather than deciding which one is better, why not combine the two styles together? If utilized properly, CGI is able to improve stop motion by reducing the blur and increase the smoothness in animation. If the two styles mix, this will not only bring new life to the art, but also increase the quality of these films. Thus, a marriage is formed.

The Marriage

There are limitations when it comes to producing stop motion films by hand because of the time and effort it takes. Hence, the marriage of CGI and stop motion not only makes it easier, but also provide a gateway to create some incredible things. Some might call this ‘cheating’, but according to the directors of ParaNorman, CGI comes in a pinch when it is not practical to create certain things by hand. Chris Butler, one of the directors, states:

“We’re not militant purists about it. We always think, ‘We know what imagery we want to capture and then we use the best method to get it.’ Our starting point is always going to be practical; it’s always going to be handmade because that’s the studio we are. But we would never say no to something because you can’t realize it practically. If we need CG to fix this…” ¹⁶

The studio Butler refers to is called LAIKA Films, an animation studio based in Oregon known for its stop motion creations. LAIKA Films has created films such as Coraline, ParaNorman and The Boxtrolls, and has ‘handcrafted and transformed everyday materials into living creatures infused with dimension and soul’. ¹⁷ However, practicality wins over stop motion traditions (aka building everything by hand), thus LAIKA films is known for using innovative technology to help with the process.

For example, the character models for The Boxtrolls were created with 3D printers. This was essential to the production, as The Boxtrolls had 79 sets and more than 20,000 props to make. Before 3D printing existed, the art department had to individually make each expression by hand. It seems tedious to make a new face each time, but for stop motion, this is part of the process on creating an animated character. In fact, Eggs, the main character in the film, had 1.4 million expressions in total.  ¹⁸ That’s a lot of expressing!

If the people in the past were told to make 1.4 million expressions, they would certainly quit on the spot. Thus, 3D printing and other modern tools have made the impossible possible because of the existence of this technology. Graham Annabele, the director of The Boxtrolls, explains, “It’s the subtleties that the printers are capable of, which goes back to the printers themselves but also the materials that they’re putting through them now. The faces have a look kind of like a Lucian Freud portrait or even an Egon Schiele painting where the color variation is very subtle.” ¹⁹

LAIKA Films is an example of a studio that takes a classic art form and transforms it using technology. The past meets the future in this production process, which demonstrates that stop motion has the ability to make an impact on screen if the right tools and people work on the project together.

So what is to be expected for the future of stop motion? With the lack of stop motion films being produced, many assume that stop motion is dying and that studios prefer to use CGI for their feature length films. Is it because CGI performs exceedingly well compared to stop motion? By looking at its history, it can be speculated that the interest for stop motion simply fluctuates, and that the interest grows depending on how the filmmaker uses the medium.

The advancement of technology has also helped with stop motion productions, and there is no shame in combining CGI and stop motion together. In regards to numbers, it is not always the medium’s fault for a film’s loss of profits. Rather, storytelling is an important factor for the film’s performance, which is why scripts are rewritten several times before they are put in production. Although stop motion can be time consuming, its lengthy process also makes for a good joke, as explained in this ‘fourth wall breaking’ scene from The Boxtrolls. After all, there is nothing scarier than a fictional character questioning their existence and universe.

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