Stop motion animation is a technique where physically manipulated objects are photographed in small increments to create the illusion of movement when played as a continuous sequence. Clay is often used because it can be easily repositioned and reformed. Some early influential examples include The Humpty Dumpty Circus (1898) and Fun in a Bakery Shop (1902). While clay animation was once common, computer animation is now more widely used except in some children's cartoons. Modern examples that demonstrate creative uses of stop motion include the post-it note animated Deadline and the cut paper animation Dharma Boom Boom.

1. Stop motion animation.

2. WHAT IS… Stop motion animation? Stop motion animation is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to be moving on its own. In Stop motion animation, clay is often used to create the objects and characters because they are easy to reposition and be re-molded. However, this type of animation using clay is called, clay animation or clay-mationHere are some examples of different stop motion animation pieces…

3. Stop motion animation has a huge history in the film industry. It is often used to show the illusion of magic. One of the most significant animations in the history of animation is ‘The humpty dumpty Circus’ (1898) and ‘Fun in a bakery shop’ (1902) Many critics called it a ‘modeling extraordinaire’ The first woman animator is Helena Smith Dayton. She began experimenting with clay stop motion and successfully released her first Clay-mation film in 1917, ‘Romeo and Juliet’ by William Shakespeare. December of 1916, brought the first of Willie Hopkins's 54 episodes of "Miracles in Mud" to the big screen. HISTORY. Over the years, stop-motion animation has changed dramatically and clay mation is very rarely used, only in children’s cartoons is where you would see them mostly. A brief Fun in a bakery shop.

4. How it’s done - The aim is to make a materially manipulated object appear to move on its own.- The object is moved in small increases between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence. - Clay figures are often used in stop motion for their ease of repositioning. Motion animation using clay is called clay animation or clay-mation.

5. Post it notes  EXAMPLES. Of modern stop motion animation… This one has to be my favorite stop motion animations. It’s directed by bang-Yao Liu and is called ‘Deadline’. I can imagine that this would have been very time consuming! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpWM0FNPZSs

6. Cut out animation Dharma – Boom Boom Boom Boom – another, colourful and modern stop motion animation. The simplness of the props used caught my attention. It clearly means that you do not have to be the greatest artist ever, but having a great imagination will make an interesting animation. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmQ3uURNWBM&NR=1 Coloured paper cut outs 

7. A legendary animated British feature length film by Nick Park from Aardman animations. All the characters are made from moulded plasticine modelling clay on metal armatures, and filmed with stop motion clay animation. Wallace and Grommet

8. Bibliography http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_motion http://www.stopmotioncentral.com/articles-5.html