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Stop motion facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

Stop motion is a cool way to make still objects look like they are moving all by themselves! It's a type of animation where you take a lot of pictures, one by one, slightly moving an object in between each picture. When you play these pictures quickly, it creates the illusion that the object is moving. Think of it like a flipbook, but with real things instead of drawings.

You can make stop motion with any camera that can take single pictures. It works by taking one photo, moving the object just a tiny bit, and then taking another photo. It's a bit like cartoons, but instead of drawings, you use real objects.

Famous creators like Tim Burton and Aardman studio have used stop motion in their movies and shows.

History of Stop Motion

People have been trying to make still pictures move for a long time! Even before movies were invented, people used devices like the zoetrope to show sequences of images that looked like they were moving.

Early Experiments (Before 1895)

In the mid-1800s, inventors like Joseph Plateau and Jules Duboscq thought about how to make objects appear to move using a series of photos. They imagined taking many pictures of an object in slightly different positions. While they didn't have modern film, their ideas were the start of stop motion.

The Silent Film Era (1895–1928)

When movies first started, filmmakers discovered a trick called the "stop trick." This is where the camera stops filming, something in the scene changes, and then filming starts again. When played, it looks like the change happened magically! Stop motion is like doing this trick many times in a row.

French filmmaker Georges Méliès was famous for using the stop trick in his movies. He even used it to make letters move in 1899.

Early Pioneers

  • Segundo de Chomón (Spain): He made many "trick films." In his movie Hôtel électrique (1908), you can see objects like hairbrushes moving on their own!
  • Edwin S. Porter (America): He made a short film called Fun in a Bakery Shop (1902) where a baker molds faces from dough. He also used stop motion for small teddy bears in The "Teddy" Bears (1907).
  • J. Stuart Blackton (America): His film The Haunted Hotel (1907) was a big hit. People were amazed by a table setting itself without visible strings! This inspired many other filmmakers.
  • Émile Cohl (France): After seeing Blackton's film, Cohl figured out the trick. He made his own stop-motion films like Les allumettes animées (Animated Matches) (1908) where matchsticks come to life.
  • Arthur Melbourne-Cooper (Britain): Some believe he made the first stop-motion animation in 1899 with Matches: an Appeal, showing a matchstick figure writing.
  • Alexander Shiryaev (Russia): This ballet dancer made amazing puppet animations between 1906 and 1909. He used small puppets with wire frames to plan his dances, and his work was very advanced for its time.
  • Ladislas Starevich (Russia/Poland): He started animating dead insects in 1909 because live ones wouldn't cooperate! His films like The Cameraman's Revenge (1912) were very popular and made people wonder how he trained the insects.
  • Willis O'Brien (America): He made The Dinosaur and the Missing Link: A Prehistoric Tragedy (1915) using clay models. He became famous for animating dinosaurs in movies like The Lost World (1925).
  • Helena Smith Dayton (America): She was possibly the first female animator. She made clay animation films in 1917, including an adaptation of Romeo and Juliet.

The 1930s and 1940s

  • Ladislas Starevich finished the first full-length stop-motion movie, Le Roman de Renard, in 1930.
  • George Pal developed his "Puppetoons" technique, where he would replace parts of wooden dolls to show movement. His films won many awards, like Tulips Shall Grow (1942).
  • Willis O'Brien created the famous giant ape in King Kong (1933). His animation made the ape feel real and emotional.
  • Jiří Trnka (Czech Republic): He made award-winning stop-motion features like The Czech Year (1947) and The Emperor's Nightingale (1949).

The 1950s

  • Ray Harryhausen learned from O'Brien and became a master of stop motion. He created amazing creatures for fantasy films like Jason and the Argonauts (1963) and Clash of the Titans (1981).
  • Art Clokey created the famous clay character Gumby in 1955, leading to the long-running TV series Gumby. He also made Davey and Goliath.
  • The German show Unser Sandmännchen (Our Little Sandman) started in 1959 and is one of the longest-running animated series in the world, featuring animated puppets.

The 1960s and 1970s

  • Tadahito Mochinaga (Japan): He helped popularize puppet animation in China and later supervised the "Animagic" puppet animation for Rankin/Bass Productions. Their Christmas special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964) is still loved today.
  • British TV shows like Snip and Snap (1960) and Clangers (1969) used stop motion for young children.
  • Jan Švankmajer (Czech Republic): His artistic films since 1964 often use experimental stop motion and have influenced many artists.
  • Will Vinton (America): He and Bob Gardiner won an Oscar for their clay animation film Closed Mondays (1975). Vinton even trademarked the term "claymation."
  • Aardman Animations (UK): Formed by Peter Lord and David Sproxton in 1976, they created the popular character Morph and later made films for adults using clay.
  • Co Hoedeman (Canada): Won an Oscar for his sand-coated puppet animation film The Sand Castle (1977).
  • Lubomír Beneš and Vladimír Jiránek (Czech Republic): They created the clumsy but inventive neighbors Pat & Mat in 1976, a very popular series in many countries.
  • John Hardwick and Bob Bura (UK): Their company, Stop Motion Limited, made many early British TV shows like the Trumptonshire trilogy.

The 1980s

  • Industrial Light & Magic used stop motion for special effects in movies like the original Star Wars films. They even invented "go motion" for more realistic blurring.
  • Aardman Animations continued to grow, with films like Creature Comforts (1989) winning an Oscar. This film featured talking animals voicing real interviews.
  • Nick Park (Aardman): He introduced his famous clay characters Wallace and Gromit in A Grand Day Out (1989). This led to many more short films and a feature film, Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, which won an Oscar.
  • Will Vinton released the feature film The Adventures Of Mark Twain (1985) and created the Nomes for Disney's Return to Oz. He also made popular commercials like those for The California Raisins.
  • The Swiss children's series Pingu started in 1986, featuring a charming clay penguin.

The 1990s

  • The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), produced by Tim Burton and directed by Henry Selick, became the highest-grossing stop-motion film of its time. Selick also directed James and the Giant Peach and Coraline. Burton directed Corpse Bride and Frankenweenie.
  • Bob the Builder, a popular British stop-motion TV series, first aired in 1998.
  • Will Vinton launched the first US prime-time stop-motion TV series, The PJs, in 1999.
  • Tsuneo Gōda (Japan) directed the 30-second sketches of the character Domo in 1999, which are still produced today.

The 21st Century

Variations of Stop Motion

Stereoscopic Stop Motion

This is stop motion filmed in 3D! It's not very common, but some films have used it. Coraline (2009) was the first full-length stop-motion movie made in 3D. The Nintendo 3DS also lets you make stop-motion videos in 3D.

Go Motion

Go motion is a more complex type of stop motion. It was co-developed by Phil Tippett and used in films like The Empire Strikes Back (1980). With go motion, a computer slightly moves parts of the model during each photo. This creates a realistic blurring effect, making the movement look smoother and more natural, like real motion.

Why Use Stop Motion?

Even with amazing computer-generated imagery (CGI) today, stop motion is still used because people love its unique look. It makes objects feel real and textured, almost like you can reach out and touch them. CGI can sometimes look too perfect or artificial. Directors like Guillermo del Toro and Henry Selick appreciate the handmade, artistic feel of stop motion.

Guillermo del Toro wanted his movie Pinocchio to show the beauty of "a handmade piece of animation — an artisanal, beautiful exercise in carving, painting, sculpting."

Stop Motion in Other Media

Many young people start making movies with stop motion because it's easy to learn with modern software and online video sites.

  • Music Videos: The music video for Oren Lavie's song "Her Morning Elegance" (2009) used stop motion and became very popular online.
  • Video Games: Some video games use stop motion for their characters, like ClayFighter for the Super NES and The Neverhood for PC.
  • Science: Scientists at IBM even used a special microscope to move individual atoms to make the tiniest stop-motion video ever, called A Boy and His Atom.
  • CGI that looks like Stop Motion: Sometimes, computer animation is made to look like stop motion, including its small imperfections. The Lego Movie is a great example of a CGI film that looks like it was made with stop motion.

Images for kids

  • Claychick

    A clay model of a chicken, designed to be used in a stop motion animation.

  • Stefano Bessoni Canti 2014

    Stefano Bessoni, an Italian filmmaker and stop-motion animator, working on Gallows Songs (2014).

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Animación en volumen para niños

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