Evaluation

Being as though an evaluation isn't completely necessarily for this project I did want to include some form of closure to the project to round off the development blog and synthesis with the dissertation. Through many talks, books and secondary sources I was able to gather many referable quotes and opinions on my topic and to test them all I created two versions of the same animation to but various methodologies and statements to the test but to mainly experience these techniques first hand to gather a sound foundation in order to justify my own opinions in the final dissertation. 

There were various hurdles that I encountered through the practical development, such as rig and rigging problems but this only strengthened my arguments and contradicted some of the biasses that was evident with several secondary sources. The reasoning for not doing a more resolved animation that was longer for example was because I was only exploring the processes and how they differ for the better or worse with the ability to see the benefit of hybrid techniques which were supported by secondary research. 

I think as a whole the project was successful considering there isn't a lot of material out there that discuss this topic in detail, which is what I have set out to do, but also it was a chance to not be influenced by any other opinions, I was starting this from scratch by using secondary sources from the history of both mediums to the techniques used by practitioners in both fields of animation so that was an exciting element of this project so hopefully if someone in the future has the same questions then they can gather some research from my own work!

The secondary sources that really helped during this project were as follows 

Alger, J. (2012) The Art and Making of ParaNorman. San Francisco: Chronical Books LLC.

Brent, M. and Scott, E. (no date) Choosing a camera for stop motion. Available at: http://www.stopmotionanimation.com/page/choosing-a-camera-for-stop-motion (Accessed: 7 January 2016).

Brent, M. (no date) Claymation or stop-motion: What’s the difference?. Available at: http://www.stopmotionanimation.com/page/claymation-or-stop-motion-what-s-the-difference (Accessed: 7 January 2016).

Brotherton, P. (2014) The Art of the Boxtrolls. San Francisco: Chronical Books LLC.

Cavalier, S. (2011) The world history of animation. London: Aurum Press.

Harryhausen, R. (2003) Ray Harryhausen: An Animated Life. London: Aurum Press Ltd.

Lanier, L. (2011) Maya Studio Projects Texturing and Lighting. Canada: Wiley Publishing Inc.

Lipson, H. and Kurman, M. (2013) Fabricated: The new world of 3D printing. Indianapolis, IN: Wiley, John & Sons.

MyVue (no date) How CGI has changed the face of animation. Available at: http://www.myvue.com/film-news/article/title/how%20cgi%20has%20changed%20the%20face%20of%20animation (Accessed: 7 January 2016).

Sanurag (no date) Stop motion Timeline. Available at: http://www.tiki-toki.com/timeline/entry/314216/Stop-Motion-Timeline/ (Accessed: 7 January 2016).

Sito, T. (2013) Moving innovation: A history of computer animation. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Spicer, D. (2015) Timeline of Computer History. Available at: http://www.computerhistory.org/timeline/1968/ (Accessed: 7 January 2016).

The uncanny valley (2012) Available at: http://heinakroon.com/2012/10/20/the-uncanny-valley/ (Accessed: 7 January 2016).

Tinwell, A. (2014) The uncanny valley in games and animation. United States: A K Peters.

Wells, P. (2007) Basics Animation 01: Scriptwriting. Worthing: AVA Publishing SA.

Wells, P. (2007) Basics animation: Scriptwriting (basics animation). Switzerland: AVA Publishing SA.

Wold, K. (no date) Willis O’Brien - the man who created Kong. Available at: http://www.animateclay.com/index.php/articles/11-stop-motion-pioneers/44-willis-o-brien-the-man-who-created-kong (Accessed: 7 January 2016).

blog, R. (2015) ‘Stop motion animation..’, Stop Motion Animation..., 16 September. Available at: http://stopmotionisgreat.blogspot.co.uk (Accessed: 7 January 2016).

Everything in these sources was used in conjuction with my practical work to inform my dissertation to much length. not to forget the seminar with Barry Purves that featured fairly often in my theory.

So over all I think it was quite an exciting project due to the way I learnt lots of techniques and opinions (especially from Manchester animation festival) which helped form this dissertation that has quite a unique standing because of the lack of content around that incorporates my exact theory, so it was a case of researching into the past of both mediums and understand where there were overlaps in order progress through to more singular sources dealing with only one of the mediums as a whole and how it effected animation, the tricky bit was combining these theories, questioning and testing them in order to achieve the argument that I managed to form. I planned to have around 5500 words after my initial tutorial but as my whole project progressed and formed into the exploration into why stop-motion is still popular despite the ever increasing technology and popularity of CGI, I finished with 8500, this wasn't a shock due to how much digging I had to do to question this topic to my full advantage.

I also set out to use COP 3 as a way of figuring out which medium I will be using in my upcoming extended practice module, this was because I have a strong love for both methods. but after completing this project I realised is was mainly the building and creating the stop-motion sets, it was animating and modelling in Maya that really kept the fire burning in my belly due to the infinite possibilities that aren't restricted by space or cost of materials. so I decided to use CGI in my next module and keep stop-motion as just a hobby, I have however accepted the invitation to create my fellow classmates stop-motion sets that will feed my need to create physical sets but allow me to pursuit my favourite animation method which has become CGI.