The History and Development of Stop Motion Animation

Part 1 - Pioneers and Technology:

The pioneers that helped to develop the idea of the "persistence of vision", which is basically optical illusions, it has also been described as the retinal persistence or persistence of impression, it occurs when your perception of an object has no cease even after light rays entering the eye have stopped. It has been believed to be the reason for motion perception for the cinema and animated films, but most scientists has discarded the theory. The theory of persistence of vision is also very different in some species for example pigeons, perceive images faster than humans, so metaphorically if you were to take a pigeon to a cinema they would only see a still image, because they reprieve images at a higher frame rate, unlike humans as we see lower than that so we see the images at the cinema like they are smooth and allow us to see them moving. But before the cinema and moving images were a thing there are five well known examples of persistence of vision and I shall discuss each one, on what and how it works and who invented as well as giving examples of it.

Thaumatrope:

The first one is called the Thaumatrope which can mean turning marvel or wonder turner. It is often said the credit of the creation goes to an astronomer called Sir John Herchel, But a London physcian called Dr. John A.Paris made the convention popular. The Thaumatrope was one of the first optical illusion contraptions which kept people entertained until the invention of the cinema. The Thaumatrope is a disc which has string on each side of the disc, each side has two images that when it spun at a certain speed the two images become superimposed. Although the Thaumatrope doesn't animated scenes it still does rely on the persistence of vision theory. The reason for this invention was that it was basically the first step towards animation and allowed people to discover the world of animation through and develop it to what it is today.

Phenakistoscope:

The second contraption was invented in 1832 by a Belgian physicist Joseph Plateau and his sons, who introduced the Phenakistoscope or the spindle viewer. The Phenakistoscope was an advanced adaptions of a contraption Michael Faraday invented called the Michael Faraday's Wheel which was two disc that spun together in opposite direction. The Phenakistoscope works by the persistence of motion principle by having two discs on the same axis, the first disc will have slot around the edge and the second one will have the animation being used, which will be drawn around the circle. When spun and viewed through the first disc slots and into a mirror the images on the second disc will look like they're moving. The reason why it was invented in the first place was in order to see how the animation could be developed more and see if the animation was just limited to one object and could be done to multiply and make it still look and work great. 

Zoetrope:

The third invention is called the Zoetrope, but was originally called the Daedalum, which stands for the "Wheel of the Devil" by the inventor William Horner in 1834, in which it was based on Plateau's Phenakistoscope, but instead it was more convenient as it didn't require a mirror in order to view and it also allowed more than one person to view it at a time. The Zoetrope was actually forgotten until 1867 when someone in England patented the invention, this was a man called M.Bradley and it also was patented in America as well by William F. Lincoln, who gave it the name Zoetrope or the Wheel of Life. The Zoetrope works by taking advantage of the persistence of motion principal to be able to create an illusion of motion. The contraption is basically a drum with the top open which has a supported central axis. Then a strip of paper is placed around the bottom of the drum, with a sequence of hand drawn pictures. Slot are also cut at equal distances around the outside of the drums just above the where the picture strip have been positioned. The drum is spun in order to create the illusion of motion, the faster the drum is spun the smoother the images progress. The reason for its invention was to make it so the animation could start with less effort than the thumatrope required and this mechanism only made the user to have spin it and then the animation would start and also be able to have the animation work most of the time, rather than the thumatrope which created more chance of not work then working. 

Proxinoscope:

The Proxinoscope was invented by Charles Reynaud in 1877, the Proxinoscope was the first device which fixed the distortion problem that previous devices had trouble with and that was the main reason for the proxinoscope was invented in order to basically create a better version of the Zoetrope as it wouldn't look distorted and only be able to see the actual animation through a slit on the sides of the Zoetrope , as the Proxinoscope allowed the animation to be viewed from any angle or direction, in which the Proxinoscope quickly replaced the Zoetrope in popularity. The Proxinoscope works by placing a band of pictures into a shallow outer cylinder, so that each picture is reflected by each of the mirrors. When the outer cylinder is spun the illusion of the images moving is created.

Kinetoscope:

The Kinetoscope was invented in 1891 by Thomas Edison and William Dickson in the United States. The Kinetoscope worked by it having a strip of film was quickly passed by a lens and and a electric lens, the viewer would view it through a peephole. Behind the peephole was a spinning wheel with a  narrow slit in it, which would act as the shutter, this would allow the user to get a momentarily view of each of the 46 frames passing in front of the shutter every second. the result of this process was a lifelike representation of objects or people in motion. This was also invented to test the bondaries of stop motion animation and it was the first stop motion animation movie viewer to exist and allow people to watch animation without having the user have to move the mechanism in order to actually see the animation or have to keep to putting in their own energy to start the animation. 

Part 2 - Developers:

George Pal:

George Pal was Hungarian born, the specific date of him being born was February 1st 1908, His specific animation style was puppetry or what George later patented in the 1930s called "Puppetoons", which is mix of the words puppetry and cartoon and his favorite materials used were more durable materials, like wood or metal, which allows him to make multiply differetn things but doesn't give him the same amount of movement as like clay. George Pal after immigrating to America from the the Nazi Invasion in 1939 began to work for Paramount Studio which in turn is when George created one of his most iconic stop motion animation called "Tulips Shall Grow", this animation helped his career forward as later his worked on bigger movies like "The Time Machine", "The War of the Worlds" and "When Worlds Collide". George was also one of the main contributors to inputing the stop motion animations within movies and have the characters act with them like they were part of the actual production.

Willis O'Brien:

Willis O'Brien was seen as creating some of best images in cinema history with his works in iconic films like "The Lost World (1925), "Might Joe Young (1949)" and "King Kong (1933)". Willis was born in 1886 March 2nd, in Oakland, California and made his major animation called "The Dinosaur and the Missing Link (1915)">. It was from this that Willis used Clay for his character and started using it for all of his character's in his films he was involved with. But the material likes to use in his
stop motion animation, was like George Pal with it being durable as the materials used for King Kong was metal mesh skeleton, rubber and foam for the muscle structure and rabbit fur for the hair of King Kong.

Ray Harryhausen:

Ray Harryhausen was born in 1920 June 29th in The United States till which in the 1960's he moved to Britain where he became US-UK citizen. It was Willis O'Brein who inspired Ray to take up stop motion animation, especially with the film "King Kong", in 1933. His first job with stop motion animation was with George Pal's "Puppetoons" shorts. He later in 1949 got to work with his inspiration on "Might Joe Young", to which Ray helped Willis get Academy Award for special effects. After this Ray got more roles in films like "The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (1953)", "Jason and the Argonauts (1963)" and his final stop animation film before his retirement "Clash of the Titans (1981)". Because Ray's inspiration was Willis O'Brien, the use of the same materials in his production were also the same with the characters being made out of clay and having a metal mesh skeleton in order to hold the structure of the characters.

Phil Tippett:

This stop motion animator was born on September 7th in 1951 in Berkeley, California. Phil worked on very famous films like Jurassic Park which he made a stop motion test of the T-Rex coming out of it's cage, which was changed to computer animation. He also helped in the Star Wars trilogy and in the RoboCop as well. Unlike the rest Phil has mixed with both stop motion animation and computer animation and also created a version of stop motion which incorporates motion blue into each shot that has motion, this was called "Go Animation" this went along with his characters he created which were mostly puppet. But what inspired Phil Tippett to go down the stop animation path was Ray Munchhausen's Film called "The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad".  The materials that Phil used were puppets made out of plastics or metal that were able to move barely, like the AT-AT's which could barely move during the animation, but got better in RoboCop with the ED-209 having better animation quality and in the Jurassic the materials were still the same with the character having a metal interior and changing the look of the exterior with the T-Rex rubber and clay face made for production. Phil made having the stop motion animation character actual in the shoot with the actors popular especially with his work in Jurassic Park films with the T-Rex scenes as it being their made the actual stop motion animation look even more realistic as if it was part of the movies during production and not post production.

Otmar Gutmann:

Otmar Gutmann was born in 1937 on April 24 in Germany. He is most known for his work on the once long running stop motion television show called "Pingu" with the help of the company he founded called "The Pygos Group" with this company which mainly used clay to created the iconic character sand clay was the main material that Otmar chose to use for his animations and they also used clay to create the show which disappeared in the year 2000, but he only made one professional work independently called "Aventures (1978)". 

Tim Burton & Henry Selick:

First with Tim Burton who was born in 1958 on August 25 in Burbank, California. He is most known for his dark Gothic films and that is no exception for his stop motion animation films as well. As his most known ones are "The Nightmare Before Christmas" or James and the Giant Peach. The film he first made a short film of was "Frankenweenie" which later on in his career he made into a full film and was released in 2012. But before he wrote and produced "Nightmare Before Christmas ( 1993", but he didn't direct it due to him directing the batman film, the directing of the film was left to Henry Selick which in turn made the film a success, so in 1996 both Henry Selick and Tim Burton got back together to make a claymation masterpiece of the Roald Dahl Book "James and the Giant Peach". Henry Selick on the other hand was born on November 30th, 1952, which as I said before was best known for directing and animating "Nightmare Before Chirstmas" and "James and the Giant Peach" along side Tim Burton. But after doing both films with Tim, Henry moved away to make his own stop motion animation film as he wasn't receiving as much credit to the film as Tim Burton was. The film Henry Selick Made was called "Coraline" which helped boost his independent career. 

Adam Shaheen (Cuppa Coffee):

Adam Shaheen was born in Canada on October 13th 1964. He is a founder of the company called "Cuppa Coffee Studios" To which like most other stop motion animators,  used clay to create and animate their productions. He is most known for his works with Disney and kids show called "Jojo's Circus", but also create a more mature stop motion animtion TV shows called "Celebrity Deathmatch" and "Starveillance". 

The Brothers Quay:

The Brothers Quay or Stephen and Timothy Quay were both born in 1947 on June 17 as identical twins. They have worked with many different stop motion animation methods, but the Quay Brothers mostly use puppets which are made of doll parts and other materials which are seen dissembled to create their dark and mood atmosphere. Their most known animation is one called "Street of Crocodile", which was an adaptation of a novel by Bruno Schulz. They also made a stop motion animation named after a animator called "Jan Svankmajer" to which the product was called "The Cabinet of Jab Svankmajer". But also they directed a stop motion animtion scene for a live action film called "Frida" as well. 

Nick Park (Aardman):

Nick Park was in born on December 6th 1958 in Preston, Lancashire. Nick Park is most famous for his creation of the two most iconic characters in Britain, "Wallace and Gromit" and also the children show, "Shaun the Sheep". His first animation was called the "Walter the Rat goes Fishing" in which he done his mother's camera and also where he discovered the main material he would use for his animation which was clay. He works with the company Aardman Animation where he first started animating shows like Pee-Wee's Play House. But with mostly all of his stop motion animation project his characters are made out of clay, as that is Nick Parks most preferred material to use when doing his stop motion animations. But Nick Park helped introduce solo stop motion animation films into the media industry with Wallace and Gromit and Chicken Run.

Part 3 - Media Platforms and Audiences:

Television Programmes:

The video above is a stop motion animation television show called "Pingu". Its Target audience is mainly for children as the show is both funny and also teaching kids a lesson, for instance in this clip the lesson is to share good things in your life with other as well.

This stop motion animation television program is called "Robot Chicken". Its target audience is more for mature people as the program use rude jokes and nudity in it.

Feature Films:

This movie is called " The Lego Movie". It's target audience is more for younger people as legos are normally made for kids so intail the movie is also targeted to same audience as the product is.
This film is called the Corpse Bride. Target audience for this film is like the Lego movie and is that up to be targeted towards young people but not too young as some scenes in the film can be disturbing for young children. You can tell from the fact, something can be seen as gross for some people.

Adverts:

This advert is called "Game Over by PES". The audience for this advert would be mainly gamers, because this demographic can mainly mean the older generation because of it makes it nostalgic to people who grew up with those games , as the advert depicts popular classic video games like frogger being replaced with food items the other also targets older people as the Vintage video games would remind them of their younger days.
This advert is called "Speech also by PES". And target audience for this is old audiences have the product helps easily work a phone which would be more difficult for older people than younger people to figure out, it shows it from the man easily working phone whilst moving around in his chair looking relaxed given the impression that this product gives older people a sense of relief when trying to work the phones.

Music Videos:

This Music Video is called "Mykonos by Fleet Foxes". The target audience I would say for this Music Video would be for people who have lost someone close to them as the song was a way to tribute to the singer's brother's death and it's a song which just gives ease of the mind.
This Music Video is called "Her Morning Elegance - Oren Lavie. The target audience that was targeted for this would be men in relationships and how they should always treat girl with respect and look after them and how women can be independent as the music is show the man saving her from floating away and lyrics implying she's independent.

Channel Idents:

Both of the clips above are from the same Channel four by two different ident. The target audience will be mainly the same, which is any range as the channel is popular popular with both young people and old people but the Ident implies that the audience for it is to attract more younger viewer to the Channel as the advert is very creative, which would appeal to younger audiences more.

Part 4 - Conclusion:

Stop motion animation is made for anyone really summation animation can appeal to both young or older audiences it just depends on what the animation is, micro Four you've got robot Chicken which is more of a mature audiences programme because of what it has and what it it shows off in it but something like Pingu which said to be educational and teach kids a lesson and just help them get forward in life. The same as any Media project like a television shows, feature films or music videos. 

I don't think stop motion animation will ever disappear or be taken over by computer animation. It is like the battle between filming with digital or film as even though more people are changing for digital cameras, film still hasn't been got rid of. The same I think we'll go with stop motion animation and although you might have used more   computer animations as these animations are more effective and can take less time to make rather than stop motion animations that take quite a long time. For instant a film by Nick Park, who created the Iconic characters Wallace and Gromit, is coming out with a stop motion animation film  called early days said to come out in 2018. But there is a documentary that was release based on this very topic as well as the history of stop motion animation, called "From Pencils to Pixels" and it discusses pretty much the same thing I said about digital animation not taking over stop motion for a long time and it also gives you more details on the process of stop motion animation.

Sources:

Part 1
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thaumatrope
http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/exhibits/fancy-names-and-fun-toys/
http://courses.ncssm.edu/gallery/collections/toys/html/exhibit07.htm
http://courses.ncssm.edu/gallery/collections/toys/html/exhibit10.htm
http://courses.ncssm.edu/gallery/collections/toys/html/exhibit11.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetoscope

Part 2
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Pal
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0657162/

https://www.animateclay.com/index.php/articles/11-stop-motion-pioneers/44-willis-o-brien-the-man-who-created-kong
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willis_H._O%27Brien

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Harryhausen
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0366063/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Tippett
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0864138/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otmar_Gutmann
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0349642/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Burton
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Selick
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000318/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Shaheen

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brothers_Quay
http://www.comingsoon.net/movies/features/474489-interview-with-stop-motion-animation-pioneers-the-brothers-quay

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Park
http://www.wallaceandgromit.com/nick-park
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0661910/

Part 3:
https://youtu.be/Sct5j7Quo54
https://youtu.be/MmRjXaxV_PE

https://youtu.be/fZ_JOBCLF-I
https://youtu.be/_tpLNUI9rQU

https://youtu.be/B-jHJdJ1hg4
https://youtu.be/iC6Wd15OIAI

https://youtu.be/DT-dxG4WWf4
https://youtu.be/2_HXUhShhmY

https://youtu.be/vFSaGi4niB4
https://youtu.be/hOw4i-UB8Lw