A Sense of Drama - Frame-by-Frame Stop Motion: The Guide to Non-Traditional Animation Techniques - page 115

into stop motion animation. This gave the director more unified control
over the performance of the animation. The more successful animators used
this reference only as a bouncing board for animating, incorporating more
dramatic expressions, holds, and actions in their puppets. We used this same
technique using digital video cameras more recently when I animated on
Aardman Animation's Creature Comforts America .
The important point is that even the most experienced animators can rely
on reference footage. It is a wonderful learning tool, but one that is to be
interpreted. Animation is best when it does something that live action cannot
do. Pixilation has the look of live action when you view the individual frames,
but it is the relationship of those frames, one to the next, that makes this
art form interesting. When you start playing with the incrementation and
variation of the placement of the human subject in the frame, you enter into
the realm of the moving cartoon. This approach is exemplified in the pixilation
work of McLaren, Kounen, Jittlov, and PES and can be realized by trying out
the exercise just mentioned.
One technique that many pixilation filmmakers promote is the use of the
wide-angle lens. This can add dramatic effect to a cartoon that can be
humourous. These lenses range from 12 mm to 35 mm in focal length and
usually are best when they are prime, or single focal length, lenses. The wider
lenses are most effective, but are also expensive to purchase. Using an 18 mm
lens on human faces can be very dramatic, humorous, and even bordering
on the grotesque. When you use a wide lens like a 24 mm, 28 mm, or 35 mm
focal length on animated objects, it helps bring you down into that object's
world and scale. Using a wide-angle lens for close-ups when the lens is set at
eye level to the object helps make the image appear larger than it actually
is, because the lens makes the background recede faster than a longer lens.
The foreground subject looks larger than the background, giving it a grand
appearance. This close proximity of the lens and camera to the object can
make it difficult for an animator to get to the animated objects, but the effect
can be worth it. The only area where wide-angle lenses can be a problem is
in the downshooting mode. Wider lenses require wider background shooting
planes, and this can be impractical. Most downshooting stands are made
for 35 mm and longer lenses, like 50 mm, 85 mm, 105 mm, etc. Any dramatic
quality like distortion has to be incorporated into the artwork. As mentioned
previously, longer lenses like 85 mm, 105 mm, and 135 mm have an inherent
shallower depth of field than wider lenses, so it is important to consider this
if you have artwork on a downshooter background that needs to be in focus.
Oftentimes, a lens in the 35 mm to 50 mm range works well on downshooters.
Look in the Eyes
Audiences have to care about your characters. Whether your performance is
broad or subtle, stylized or naturalistic, photographic in nature or fabricated
from nuts and bolts (literally), the characters have to have a humanity to them.