My project aimed to investigate whether animating using stop-motion in its pure analogue form was enough to make aesthetically realistic water. I came to this investigative question crucially through the research I conducted to begin with. The abundance of information I found through my research allowed me to discover and focus on a very narrow area of interest, which my project could then develop on from. I previously thought I was going to go down the avenue of special effects in stop-motion, however the research was useful for fine-tuning my plans. Gathering all the research first and then deciding on the practical response and essay’s argument after, felt much more natural, rather than pre-formulating the practical response and essay structure before finding the right information to fit it. Overall the research was successful, and despite not being able find as much of my information from published books as I would have liked, the triangulation of the online sources I found, made the research more reliable and helped solidify my arguments. Overall the research stage taught me just how interconnected every animation project is – no film was ever completely unique but rather, there are always similarities and signs of inspiration taken from other animations. My animation particularly showed direct signs of where I’d been inspired by the films I was researching.
The practical response’s design was inspired by the ocean in ‘Two Balloons’ (2017). The ‘wave table constructed for Two Balloons’ (TwoBalloons, 2017), which used ‘an intricate network of… pushrods to move dozens of shiny plastic layers to create the undulating waves of an ocean’ (TheAwesomer, 2017), inspired me to build a stage with a similar system of upright kebab skewers that could be moved vertically. I also based the stage on the ‘physical reference’ tests made by Laika for ‘Kubo and the Two Strings’ (2016), in particular the ‘water system’ made from ‘garbage bags’ and an ‘iron mesh that would undulate and roll like an ocean’ (Sarto, 2017), which inspired me to use a bin bag for the ocean surface. Although my ocean stage was smaller (only a fraction of the ‘20ft’ by ‘17ft’ (TwoBalloons, 2017) ocean made for ‘Two Balloons’), more fragile and rudimentary (the skewers couldn’t be glued strongly to the bin liner and the liner had creases in it that looked unrealistic for an ocean), I was still pleased with what I’d managed to create. The clouds were inspired by the fog and its opacity in ‘Hedgehog in the Fog’ (1975) and built similar to the ‘Two Balloons’ clouds, from cotton ‘wool’ that was stretched out incredibly thinly so as to be somewhat transparent (Smith, 2017). With more time, I could have improved the ocean by experimenting with painting the bin liner – attempting to get the analogue ocean scene to look more realistic, however, I thought that would reduce the flexible qualities of the bin liner once dry. I also could have made the background look more realistic by creating a sky scene with clouds, however I then wouldn't have been able to green-screen the ocean, so this would have set up many more complications. Overall, the building stage taught me that however thoroughly I planned, there were always going to be new problems that cropped up, which I hadn’t thought about until I’d started.
Overall, the practical response was very successful in the investigation. It included all three sub-categories of water that I was focussing on (water expanses – the ocean, moving water – the waves and spray, gaseous water – the cloud backdrop). The two versions of the scene I created (one analogue version without post-production work and a version with digital post-production work applied) was particularly conclusive to the investigation, where I discovered that stop-motion in analogue form was not good for creating aesthetical realism, however was still useful as either a ‘physical reference’ (TheAwesomer, 2017) that obeyed the physics of the real world, or a ‘puzzle piece’ (Rolewicz, 2018) of an animation that looked realistic once further digital processing was applied. I also worked this way because from the research, I found out that apart from ‘Hedgehog in the Fog’, which avoided digital technology and created ‘doubts… about the omnipotence of the computer’ (Shenderovich, 2004), stop-motion is rarely used without digital assistance. Stop-motion is ‘almost never used for VFX creation’ (VFXGeek, 2019) on its own, with Laika director, Steve Emerson (2017) even revealing ‘water and stop-motion are not a good mix’. By creating both the analogue and digitally assisted scenes, I could witness the difference it made aesthetically, of which, there was a huge difference and this evidence was the most conclusive element of my whole essay. The fact the analogue ocean had faults with it and looked unrealistic could not be seen as a criticism of the test but rather evidence for the test disproving the question I was investigating. Overall the animating stage taught me the extent that stop-motion nowadays is used in conjunction with digital CGI and VFX. While on the surface, stop-motion films appear to be analogue, below the surface VFX and CGI have huge roles. An example being a scene from ‘The Boxtrolls’ (2014), digital assistance was needed for ‘rig removal, then adding the far background, far distant atmosphere, closer atmosphere, then we start to drop in the CGI city because they don’t interact with the city in this shot, then the atmosphere between the characters and the camera’ (TalksAtGoogle, 2015). All these digital steps were required despite this being a stop-motion film.
Bibliography
- Emerson, S (2016) Kubo And The Two Strings Behind The Scenes “Animating Water”. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeWzM24HXWg (Accessed 19th November 2020)
- Hedgehog in the Fog (1975) Directed by Y. Norstein [Film]. Soyuzmultfilm
- Kubo and the Two Strings (2016) Directed by T. Knight [Film]. Laika
- Rolewicz, E (2018) For the love of lemurs. Available at: https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/feature/2018-07-16-interview-with-mark-c-smith-about-two-balloons-feature-story-by-emilia-rolewicz (Accessed 19th November 2020)
- Sarto, D (2017) Stop-motion and VFX Converge in the Vast Oceans of ‘Kubo and the Two Strings’. Available at: https://www.awn.com/vfxworld/stop-motion-and-vfx-converge-vast-oceans-kubo-and-two-strings (Accessed 19th November 2020)
- Shenderovich, V (2004) “Everyone is free” – a conversation on free topics. Available at: https://web.archive.org/web/20041105150620/http://www.svoboda.org/programs/SHEN/2004/SHEN.070404.asp(Accessed 19th November 2020)
- Smith, M (2017) ‘Featurette #6 | Shot 67’ Vimeo, 6th October. Available at: https://vimeo.com/311130004(Accessed 19th November 2020)
- Talks at Google (2015) The Making of the Boxtrolls |Anthony Stacchi + More | Talks at Google. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAK10UAAHIY (Accessed 19th November 2020)
- The Boxtrolls (2014) Directed by G. Annable [Film]. Laika
- The Awesomer (2017) Stop Motion Ocean. Available at: https://theawesomer.com/stop-motion-ocean/456630/ (Accessed 19th November 2020)
- Two Balloons (2017) Directed by M. Smith [Film]. Four Winters Films
- Two Balloons (2017) Featurettes. Available at: https://www.twoballoons.film/featurettes (Accessed 19th November 2020)
- VFX Geek (2019) ‘Stop motion animation in VFX’ YouTube, 13th July. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTfJx5D-8x8 (Accessed 19th November 2020)
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