Stop motion development

Here is the process of the stop motion animation:

The first step was to choose which materials to use as the foundations for the shop, this was from past experience that I knew to use foam board for walls and lollipop sticks and other scrap pieces of wood to create the bones of the shop working from the concept art and floor plans using the measurements assigned to each aspect of the shop.

The next step was to texture the building, if you see in the concept art you will see I initially wanted a brick texture but due to lack of funding for materials I was forced to compromise, so using a combination of tissue paper and watered down PVA I was able to achieve a very textured effect that resembles old wattle and daub techniques that I chose to keep as I could imagine I could gain a lot of texture with dry brushing techniques. This is very different to CGI as its all done by hand where human error can alter the outcome compared to the computer generating the required texture with no room for error if everything is input correctly. 

As expected the texture could be brought out a lot due to dry brushing so it was getting the desired look which could be achieved by applying more and more increasingly lighter paint. comparing this to CGI where only the bump value has to be changed.

After the main bodywork was painted it was time for the other elements of the shop such as the woodwork and windows that were going to be painted green as a make shift green screen to add additional aesthetic details.

Finally it was time for detailing, the sheep shop sign and any other highlights using dry brushing to really pop out those textures to make it look more appealing.

Now the floor had been attached to the shop it was time to create the sheep, I decided to use plasticine for these due to its durability and ease of use to sculpt, but also the weight behind them would allow them to be handled more efficiently rather than if I decided to use cotton wool or anything alike.

The next stage was to set up the studio with lighting and green screen to prepare for animating. this is a small animation so the space required is quite minimal but with bigger animations more and more space is required thus requiring more money making the whole process more expensive whereas CGI is all virtual which eradicates the need to rent space or buy materials to produce.

 After animating it was up to the post production part of the process to achieve the desired look, this includes keying out the green aspects of the scene to allow the incorporation of assets such as signs and windows.

The process of creating a stop-motion animation compared to CGI is very different due to its hand crafted nature and possible human error with lack of judgement or skill that create mistakes, but according to secondary sources such as Barry Purves and Travis Knight that is what makes it so appealing due to the hand made look that stop-motion creates and how tangible the animation is. I really enjoy creating sets for stop motion animations for this exact reason, how one mistake could be a blessing in disguise, such as using too much of one material by mistake could create a more desirable aesthetic. this process isn't present in CGI animation due to its accuracy and precise inputs that are used to create certain effects. this helped with my project progression due to having hard primary evidence of going through the process and acquiring knowledge crucial to comparing the two mediums to better understand why stop motion is still popular today such as the craftsmanship that the maker and viewer both see and adore in stop motion animations.