Project 5 - Silhouette/Paper Cut Out Animation

The project given was to create a short silhouette animation, a thought that put me on a nervous edge at first, seeing as I had never tried this technique before, nor knew what equipment I'd need. Fortunately we focused on silhouette animations for that session, which included looking at various examples of silhouette animation from past years, as well as listing the equipment we would require in order to shoot the animation, which the film school had available for us to use. We were also shown how to properly set up the camera, stand, light etc, to take the frames while also able to reach the paper cut outs without accidentally hitting the light or trip over a cable.

To improve our historical understanding of this technique, we looked at Lotte Reiniger's work. We discussed Lotte's history and work, as well as watching a few examples at home, such as Cinderella and Papageno, to gain a further understanding of the technique. We were also instructed to watch the documentary 'The Art of Lotte Reiniger' to further prepare us for our own attempt. By today, the technique is still used in short films, such as this, and this. and met with positive criticism. But uncommonly seen in big budget, feature length films, but recently it has been used in a independent video game. Which I personally played after seeing the spectacular visuals and atmosphere of the game.

Due to the list of equipment necessary (and the financial standing of me and my fellow students) most of the class decided to use the school's equipment to shoot. Which meant that we would be paired up and given a time slot (90 minutes) during friday to set up and get to work. Luckily though we found on the day that there was enough equipment for both of us to film at the same time, although I still had my doubts about completing my animation in 90 minutes, but fortunately I was able to finish without eating into the another students time slot.

One important note to make is that I misunderstood the projects goal, although I was still able to create the silhouette, I was (for some reason that only Cthulhu can explain) under the impression we would also be making a Paper Cut Out animation, perhaps because I read a section on it in the pamphlet handed to us. Regardless of the reason, the end result was that I had created 2 seperate animations by the end of the day made with the same cut out paper sections, but in 2 different animating techniques. Which is a benefit as I had learned the basics of making a Paper Cut Out Animation, which wasnt too different from that of a silhouette.

I wanted to have two characters on screen at the same time, but understood that the time it would take two move each limb of both characters in unison would be too much for the time I had, and so I wanted one that did not have any moving parts, this is where I came up with the idea of making one a spaceship with an alien inside, as all I'd need to do would be to move the spaceship along the slide, and it would appear to be hovering/flying. I based the design of the ship on the oldest and most common image of an alien 'disk' spaceship with the dome cockpit directly on top.

I arrived friday morning with tired eyes and a stomach full of red bull, with my cut outs and pins (To hold the cut outs together) in hand, and set up the equipment in the class. I felt that I set up the equipment well, I knew where to get the equipment from and how to piece it together, so there was no real difficulty or problem, and managed to finish in a few minutes.

I decided to shoot the Silhouette animations first (as it was more straightforward than the paper cut out).

Silhouette Animation - CLICK HERE

I feel that my animation is unsatisfactory. From a technical point of view there are many faults visible while watching. One of which is that the character appears to be running 'up', into the sky, and then move back down again before being hit by the laser. The reason for this was the paper sticking to my finger after I moved it, which wasn't initially obvious, but after a few more frames, it was clear that from looking back at the first frame that the character seemed to now levitate. Another problem was the bulb from the light source breaking (Which I can only assume was an act of god), therefore when it was replaced with a new bulb that was much brighter, the amount of light in the animation suddenly changes towards the end. I could also have made it longer, by adding more frames in between, which would also have made the animation run smoother. I would have liked to basically redo all the frames for the animation, but unfortunately I still had the Paper Cut Out animation to do, and was nearly half way into my 90 minute time slot. 

Paper Cut Out Animation - CLICK HERE

I believe I had more success with the paper cut out animation. Set up wise there was not much I needed to do, aside from move the light source from underneath to above the camera, which took less than a minute. Technical-wise I had much more success compared to the silhouette. The movements are smoother compared to the other, as well as the details being visible. Although I still had difficulty with moving all of the limbs at the same time to make the character appear as if he was running, the moving background on the secondary makes the scene more realistic, even though the characters were just moving on the spot. One problem I felt I resolved to a satisfactory level, is the shadowing from the characters being displayed on the background, which shows that the background is on the secondary panel. To resolve this I placed books underneath the background so the background was closer to the characters, and the shadow smaller. This problem actually become somewhat of a benefit, as the shadow looks intended and realistic.

I pieced both animation together using Windows Movie Maker, as I am still new to using flash, and a stranger to other editing software. Although it did the job, there are obvious flaws, such as black frames and some in the wrong order. In the next few weeks I hope to find a more suitable software than movie maker to install on my personal laptop, while still able to feed myself for the rest of the month.