The History and Development of Stop Motion Animation

Part 1

Who invented each technology and when?

Thaumatrope:

The Thaumatrope is seen to be essentially invented by John Ayrton Paris (1785-1856) who was an English physician. It is said Paris had used it to demonstrate the persistence of vision at the Royal College of Physicians. In 1864, Charles Babbage that it was invented by known geologist William Henry Fitton. Fitton had told Babbage that an astronomer had challenged him to show both sides of a shilling at the same time. The pair created several designs together but it was forgotten about till Paris came out to the public about his invention. The Thaumatrope was the first instrument to exploit the persistence of images on the retina. It is a thin disk with a different image on either side attached to two pieces of string. When the strings are twirled the illusion that the two pictures are together is portrayed.[source]

Phenakistiscope:

The Phenakistiscope was invented almost simultaneously by two different people in 1833 by Belgian physicist Joseph Plateau (1801-1883) and Austrian physicist Simon Ritter von Stampfer (1792-1864). The pair both referenced and worked from Peter Mar Rogets article on the ‘Explanation of on optical deception in the appearance of the spokes of a wheel when seen through vertical apertures’. Roget claimed to have invented several models of the Phenakistiscope as early as 1831 but he never managed to publish his work due to more serious occupations. It works by having a paper disc that features evenly spaced, thin radial slots and a series of images in a sequence. When the disc is rotated in front of a mirror, a single motion image is seen through the slits. [source]

Zoetrope:

The Zoetrope produces the illusion of movement by viewing individual images through narrow slits in a rotating cylinder. It essentially works the same as the predecessor invention the Phenakistiscope. The first version of the Zoetrope was created with the name ‘dædaleum’ in 1833 by English mathematician William George Horner (1786-1837). The name is a direct reference to the Greek myth of Daedalus but it is most often known as the ‘wheel of the devil. Horner’s invention had slits between the pictures in which the illusion could be viewed. He had planned to publish his ‘dædaleum’ but was met with issues within the sketching. William Ensign Lincoln invented the definitive Zoetrope in 1865. His version had above the pictures which meant the illustrations could be easily replaced. The instrument was patented in the UK in 1867 under the number 629 by Henry Watson Hallet who was a communication to him by Milton Bradley. Bradley released several numbered series which had 12 slides each. [source]

Praxinoscope:

The Praxinoscope was the successor to the Zoetrope and it was invented in 1876 by Charles-Emile Reynaud (1844-1918) and he was a science teacher from Paris. The Praxinoscope works by having a cylinder and a strip of paper showing twelve frames for animation. As the cylinder begins to rotate, the stationary mirrors in the centre reveal the illusion of the animation.This was an improvement on the Zoetrope as this allowed numerous people to watch the illusion at the same time. In 1889 the Théâtre Optique was invented by Reynaud which was an improved version as it was capable of projecting images on a screen from a long roll pictures. This allowed for him to show hand drawn animated cartoons to a wider audience. However, this was soon eclipsed by an invention by the Lumiere Brothers which was a photographic projector. [source]

Kinetoscope:

The Kinetoscope is an early motion picture exhibition device. The Kinetoscope was designed for films to be viewed by one individual at a time through a peephole viewer window at the top of the device. A process using roll film first described in a patent application submitted in France and the U.S. by French inventor Louis Le Prince, the concept was also used by U.S. inventor Thomas Edison in 1889, and subsequently developed by his employee William Kennedy Laurie Dickson between 1889 and 1892. A prototype was shown to a convention of The National Federation of Woman’s Club 1891. The first demonstration to the public was in 1893 at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Science. [source]

Part 2

Developers

George Pal (February 1, 1908 – May 2, 1980) was a Hungarian-American animator, film director and producer, principally associated with the science-fiction genre. He became an American citizen after emigrating from Europe. In 1931 he married Elisabeth "Zsoka" Grandjean, and moved to Berlin. He founded Trickfilm-Studio GmbH Pal und Wittke. UFA Studios was its main customer from 1931 to 1933. During this time, he patented the Pal-Doll technique (known as Puppetoons in the US)George Pal (along with the film When Worlds Collide) is among the many references to classic science fiction and horror films in the opening theme ("Science Fiction/Double Feature") of both the stage musical The Rocky Horror Show and its cinematic counterpart, The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) [source]

Willis Harold O'Brien (March 2, 1886 – November 8, 1962) was an American motion picture special effects and stop-motion animation pioneer. He is best remembered for his work on The Lost World (1925), King Kong (1933) and Mighty Joe Young (1949), for which he won the 1950 Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. During 1915, Willis made models, which included a dinosaur and a caveman. These were animated with the assistance of a local newsreel cameraman. Herman Wobber (San Francisco exhibitor) saw this 90-second test footage and commissioned O'Brien to make his first film, The Dinosaur and the Missing Link: A Prehistoric Tragedy (1915) for a budget of $5,000. [source]

Raymond Frederick Harryhausen (June 29, 1920 – May 7, 2013) was an American-British artist, designer, visual effects creator, writer, and producer who created a form of stop-motion model animation known as "Dynamation". After seeing King Kong (1933) on its initial release for the first of many times, Harryhausen spent his early years experimenting in the production of animated shorts. Some of his most famous works are Mighty Joe Young (1949) with his mentor Willis O'Brien which won the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, the 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958 which was his first colour film and Jason and the Argonauts (1963). [source]

Phil Tippett (born September 27, 1951, in Berkeley, California). He is an American movie director and Oscar & Emmy Award-winning visual effects supervisor and producer. He specializes in creature design, stop-motion and computerized character animation. His work has appeared in movies such as the original Star Wars trilogy, Jurassic Park, and RoboCop. In 1975 Phil Tippett and Jon Berg were hired by George Lucas at Industrial Light & Magic to create a stop-motion miniature chess scene for the original Star Wars film.[source]

Otmar Gutmann (April 24, 1937 - October 13, 1993) was a German television producer, animator and director. He is best known for his long-running stop motion children's animation Pingu (1986-2006). [source] The character of Pingu (and other characters) uses noises rather than actual words when conversing so children of all capabilities can get a grasp what is happening. 

Tim Burton (August 25th 1958) is and American film director, producer, artist, writer and animator. His style is dark, gothic eccentric and quirky. He is most known for such films like Beetlejuice (1988), Corpse Bride (2005) and The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) As a preteen he would make short films using stop motion animation techniques. He studied at Burbank High School and found his pleasure in painting, drawing and watching films. He attended the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California, to study character animation. He has consistently used actor Johnny Depp in the majority of his films, as well as using the composer Danny Elfman to create the unique soundtracks to each project [source]. One of his earliest and most iconic projects is the six minute short known as Vincent. It is in black and white and based on a poem whilst depicting a young boy who fantasizes himself to be Vincent Price (who also narrates the poem). 

Henry Selick (November 30th 1952) is an American stop motion director, producer and writer who is mostly known for directing The Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline.

His fascination with animation came at a young age when he first saw Lotte Reiniger's stop motion movie The Adventures of Prince Achemd and the animated creatures of The 7th Voyage of Sinbad by Harryhausen. He studied at the Program in Experimental Animation at California Institute of the Arts, under the guidance of Jules England.Adam Shaheen (13th October 1964) is a British-Canadian animator, television producer and screenwriter. [source] He is the founder of Cuppa Coffee Studios where he creates and produces all his own original programming. Some of his most famous works include Celebrity Deathmatch and JoJo's Circus. Selick earned an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Film in 2009 for Coraline and has also worked on the popular Disney adapation of James and The Giant Peach [source]

The Brothers Quay are made up of the American twin brothers Stephen and Timothy Quay (June 17th 1947). They are seen as influential stop motion animators. They moved to England in 1969 to study at the Royal College of Art in London after they studied illustration (Timothy) and film (Stephen) at the Philadelphia College of Art, now the University of Arts. They made their first short films when they moved to England. Some of their most famous work includes Street of Crocodiles and The Comb[source] Their distinctive style has set them apart from other stop-motion animators and have been making moody and dark animated films for over 36 years [source].

Nick Park (6th December 1958) is an English director, writer and animator best known for being the creator of Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep. He has received multiple BAFTA awards for his work such as A Matter of Loaf and Death. When he was younger he had a keen interest in drawing cartoons and he used to make films with the help of his parents by using his mothers camera and cotton bobbins. In 1985 he joined the staff at Aardman Animations in Bristol, where he worked as an animator on several products. One of his most recent films, Early Man, has come into cinemas and has received somewhat positive reviews since coming out. The latest film is set during the dawn of time where prehistoric characters roam the Earth. As well as directing, writing and producing the film, Park also voiced a character called Hognob. [source1, source 2]

Part 3

TV Programme:

Noel Fielding's Luxury Comedy (2012-2014) aired for two seasons and had a very childlike feel to it despite it being an adult comedy show. To keep to this childlike feel the character Joey Ramone (The Ramones) is almost a parody of children's television characters, even with a polite narrator telling the audience what Joey and the other characters he interacts with are doing [source] The television show involves Noel Fielding playing himself whilst taking part in sketches with his friends Dolly (ex-girlfriend and model from Berlin), Smooth (human-anteater hybrid) and Andy Warhol. Noel seems to play the majority of the extra/minor characters for example Sergeant Raymond Boombox and Dondylion. 

Feature Film:

The film Corpse Bride (2005) sticks to Tim Burton’s aesthetic of dark fantasy type films. Personally, I was introduced to the film around the time it first came out and I have loved it ever since due to the ghoulish yet lighthearted manner in which Tim Burton tells the story of Victor, Emily and Victoria. I feel as if the target audience is really anyone who would enjoy a macabre love story, mainly towards young adults or mature teenagers due to the complex nature of the love triangle, the murder of the bride and the forced marriage. Corpse Bride was a critical success and it was nominated for the 78th Academy Awards for Best Animated Feature but it lost to Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Corpse Bride was shot with a Canon EOS-1D Mark II DSLRs which was different to how Nightmare Before Christmas (1993) as that was shot on 35mm film cameras [source].

Advertisement:

The advert for the Xbox uses clay which is a seemingly childlike material to portray characters or symbols that relate to the games they are advertising. The primary target audience would most likely be those who have seen the films the games are based on and gamers in general who are interested in the new console. As clay is a medium that a lot of children use, this can relate back to the presumed target audience of the console as well as the fact it will mainly be parents will be buying the console for their children. 

Music Video:

The music video by Oren Lavie uses human stop animation to create the illusion that the woman is travelling without ever leaving the bed. The video was shot in 48 hours without a break and earned a Grammy Award nomination in 2009 for "Best Short Film Music Video". [source] The video on YouTube has (of 2018) reached over 32 million views. I feel as if the target audience for this music video is more aimed towards mature people rather than a younger audience (children) as there is mostly likely a hidden message due to the fact it is labelled as a short film.

Part 4

-Stop motion animation is seen as a breakthrough point for young artists as it easier thanks to the software and video publishing websites (e.g: YouTube). It is also easier to acquire the tools needed to make a stop motion film because you can essentially use anything you want and by using stop-animation, you can bring any object to life. There is also something nostalgic about stop-motion because it doesn't rely on modern day CGI which is practically everywhere nowadays. Personally, I don't feel stop motion animation is going anywhere. I feel as if CGI and other forms of computer animation will not overtake such a nostalgic form of animation such as stop motion due to the fact it is an extremely important part of animation history.