What Are the Possibilities? - Frame-by-Frame Stop Motion: The Guide to Non-Traditional Animation Techniques - page 14

In more recent history, several American television shows started out
as cutout animation but evolved into computer-generated images that
simulate the cutout approach. South Park , created by Trey Parker and
Matt Stone, was first conceived in cutout animation but became too
difficult to produce in volume using this technique. Many more pieces of
animation for television and the Internet mimic the cutout look but use
computer animation for efficiency, including Blue's Clues , JibJab, and Angela
Anaconda .
These examples of cutout animation primarily use flat illustrated or
photographic elements but a downshooter can also manage to hold more
dimensional objects like beads, candy, clay, sand, or any other object that can
fit between the shooting surface and the mounted camera. An example of this
approach is from the 1988 film CandyJam , directed by Americans Joan Gratz
and Joanna Priestly. It features the work of animators from around the world
and is themed around candy. Several of the animators animated candy on a
glass surface in patterns and figurative forms. The wonderful mix between flat
and dimensional styles helps make this rich in texture and style.
Sand on glass is another popular downshooting technique mastered by
the American-born Caroline Leaf. Although Leaf was born and educated in
the United States, she is associated with the National Film Board of Canada,
where she produced numerous films over the 1970s and 1980s and into the
twenty-first century. Sand is manipulated on a flat glass surface with the
camera mounted directly above the glass. The lighting comes from below
the glass and the sand blocks the light from the camera, leaving a silhouetted
image. The thinner the layer of sand, the more light comes through, giving the
image a feathered look. There are many variations on this technique, and Leaf
employs them well.
Fig 1.16 a still from The Street ,
directed and animated by
Caroline Leaf. © 1976 National
Film Board of Canada. all rights
reserved.
We have only touched on a bit of the history and highlights of these
alternative stop-motion techniques. Filmmakers have always been
fascinated with the potential of creating images frame by frame to create
illusions and fantasy. Although the majority of animation artists followed