Stop Motion Movie/ Video Analysis of Animated Motion

How good is it?  That is that question videographers have to ask each day when they put together animations, whether it it something that is created in 3d (Blender or Maya), or even a stop motion movie.

linked from http://capsicumsunset.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/wile_e_coyote-gravity-lessons.jpg

In original animations, each picture was drawn on a cellulose or acetate sheet, and then a picture was taken of each.   If you look at it frame by frame, you can see that sometimes the images were 'padded' or the same image was used twice in a film to cut down on work for the animators.  We do this today with stop motion animation, an extension of the techniques that have been around since the claymation movies.

A History of Animation tells this story well.  Animation single cells are now sold as collector pieces

In the past five years, this hand-animation has experienced a bit of a renaissance, with both Pixar and Disney doing some still work.  It takes very simple tools.

Digital tweenings then started to take over, with wire-frame animation and user-friendly programs like Flash.  These gave way to more robust programs with physics engines and 3D graphical modeling which have boosted the CGI and animation industries.  

Your project is to look at the physics of motion in movie clips.  You can do this in a variety of ways, but you will need to analyze what is created using Logger Pro.  This includes segments on constant motion, on acceleration and deceleration, and vertical motion.

Possible options include

• making a stop motion movie
• comparing two types of animation

Print or save each of the the Logger Pro analyses, and email them to me, as well as any video products you create.

Grading Rubric is here

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Group Reflection (Presentation or Linoit)  Using v(i), v(f), d, a, and t variables

1.  How well did you or others animate this project?  What specific evidence do you have to support your claim?
2.   What are three things that could have been done better in this project to mimic reality?  Again, show specific evidence.
3.   Identify a .2 sec time interval.  Identify the initial v(i), and the v(f).  Calculate an acceleration in m/s/s and calculate the distance traveled.  SHOW FORMULAS used.
4.  Find a place where the y-velocity is decreasing for .1 seconds.  Identify the v(i), the distance traveled, and calculate the acceleration in m/s/s.  SHOW FORMULAS used.
5.  Find a place where the x-velocity is relatively constant.  Identify data and calculate the acceleration.  How close does this data match to the assumption that acceleration should be zero?   SHOW FORMULAS used.
6.  Based on your work, and work done in class, which do you believe is the best type of animation:  a) hand-drawn, b) stop-motion movement, c) computer-animated children's programs, d) computer-animated for motion picture movies.    Explain this to me in 2 or more paragraphs, listing advantages and disadvantages of each.


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