1. Stop frame animation
Stop frame is a technique used in animation to create movement with still images. The illusion of movement is created by an image being taken of an object, the object is then slightly moved before another image is taken. Once a series of images have been taken, they are put into a continuous sequence which gives the illusion that the object is moving without showing it being physical manipulated between frames.
This technique is used in both films and
television with models and figures, it was
very popular amongst films before CGI
was used such as the Star Wars Trilogy.

2. Phenakitoscope
The Phenakitoscope was invented by Joseph Plateau in It consists of two discs that are mounted on the same axis.  One of the discs has slots around the edges spaced between each image to stop the image from blurring. The second disc with the drawings progressed through motion around the phenakitoscope . The discs would spin in the same direction and when the slots in the first disc are looked through in a mirror the drawings shown on the second disc will have the illusion of moving.

3. Zoetrope
The Zoetrope was the next device that was developed several years after the Phenakitoscope by William Horner. It is very similar to the Phenakitoscope although it had been enhanced slightly by removing the need for a mirror which allowed multiple people to view the animation inside. The sequence of pictures are on strips of paper that are around the inside of the cylinder. When the cylinder is spun, the slits in the cylinder allow people to see the animated sequence.

4. Praxinoscope
The successor to the Zoetrope was invented in 1877 by Emile Reynaud , it quickly took interest over the Zoetrope because of the enhancement made. This was a much clearer picture that stopped images from blurring through its design. The praxinoscope created this clearer image by having a mirror set on the inside cylinder for each picture. The pictures on a band on the outer cylinder were reflected by the mirrors and when it was rotated it created the illusion of a moving picture.

5. Kinetoscope
The Kinetoscope was designed for one person to look through the viewer at the top and watch much longer animations than displayed before on other devices. This was because the design allowed large amounts of film to be stored inside ran around spindles. The movement of the film was powered by an electrically powered wheel which kept the motion of the film smooth as it run over a light with a high speed shutter which cast the images over a lens that was then viewed through the window at the top of the device.

6. Kinetoscope
Although the idea of a Kinetoscope was invented by Thomas Edison in 1888 it was not created until Edward Muybridge also assisted towards the development of the Kinetoscope with his earlier invention of the Zoopraxiscope in 1879 which was used to project images in a sequence of movement through the use of multiple cameras.

7. The Lumière brothers and the Cinématographe
The Lumière brothers aimed to overcome the limitations that the Kinetoscope device was too big and only allowed one person to view the film at a time through the viewer. They invented their own device in 1895 called the Cinématographe, the limitations on Edison’s device were removed from their new device allowing more than one person to watch the film at a time as it is projected onto a screen, the device was hand cranked and had a significantly reduced size compared to the Kinetoscope.

8. George Pal
George Pal was an American producer of film and animation in the 1900’s. He begun producing short films advertisements in the early 1930’s before moving on to make an animation in the 1940’s known as the Puppetoons which he received awards for his development of methods and techniques for animation. In the 1950’s he went on to produce many live action films such as The Great Rupert, Destination Moon and The War of the Worlds which received rewards for their visual effects.

9. Willis O’Brien
Willis O’Brien was a pioneer of stop motion animation and visual effects. He was hired by Thomas Edison to produce a series of films in 1917 that were stop motion animations using models of dinosaurs. During this time he assisted in producing the first film to combine models and live actors. He later went on to produce King Kong in 1933, dancing Pirate in 1936 and worked on the visual effects for Tulips Shall Grow in 1942.

10. Ray Harryhausen
Ray Harryhausen created his own technique of animating called Dynamation, which solved the issues of needing a large budget and also the time and difficulty to create these scenes.
This technique involved a number of steps, first the background of a scene would be filmed in which any actors would feature. This footage would then be projected on to a sheet of plastic.
A camera is then put into position in front of the sheet which photographs the film when the new action is being created with models. Between the screen and the camera is a sheet of black glass that will black out the parts of the image that are in front of the model in the cameras perspective.

11. Ray Harryhausen
Next the scene is filmed, positioning the model and moving it frame by frame. After the scene has been completed, another sheet of glass is put in place and is blacked out over the areas that were clear on the other glass screen. This technique made scenes very realistic during the 1900’s.
He used this technique for many of his films throughout his career beginning its use in The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms.

12. Jan Švankmajer
Jan Švankmajer begun creating stop motion films in 1964, he become well known for his iconic style of animation often using fast motion sequences, Claymation and Pixilation which makes an actor become the object that is being animated frame by frame. His most well known films came to be Alice in 1988 and Faust in 1994.

13. the Brothers Quay
The Quay Brothers were influenced by many different animators, Jan Švankmajer was one of the most influential animators to them. This can be seen in many of their films which depict dark atmospheres and puppets that look worn and damaged. Very little dialogue is used in their films often making them difficult to understand, music is often used to set the atmosphere and build tension.

14. Tim Burton
Tim Burton helped to renew interest in stop motion animation during the 90s to modern day, this was created in his animated films like A Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach and Mars Attacks! Which were influenced by many other animators such as Ray Harryhausen.

15. Aardman Animations
Aardman Animations also renewed interest in stop motion animation through its many films. Wallace and Gromit use both stop motion and claymation and was credited for its ambition throughout the films. The use of clay models can also be seen in many other films of the companies such as Chicken Run in 2000 and the series Creature Comforts in 2003.

16. Modern Day Format Use Television And Film
It is much easier for animations to be created in 2D and 3D using computer software due to the ease of creating new and interesting ideas. One of the most popular and successful stop motion animations since the 1990s has been Pingu using claymation for its models and sets.
Modern Day Format Use Television And Film
Since the 1990’s the use of stop motion animation has appeared much less often in Television and film due to the use of CGI in creating 2D and 3D animations. There are still some television series and films that are being produced using stop motion. For example The Box Trolls a recent film produced as a 3D stop motion animation. The use of stop motion in television has declined due to the length of time it takes to produce just one episode.

17. Modern Day Format Use Advertisements And Channel Indents
Many channel indents are created using stop motion animation. One of the most well known channels to do this is E4. The use of stop motion in channel indents is uncommon on most channels making it iconic and memorable to the channel.
Stop motion is still used amongst advertisements in modern day, they are not as popular as other forms of animation used in adverts because of how time consuming the method is when compared to the speed an advert could be produced using computer software. The Bear and the Hare John Lewis Christmas advert created in 2013 featured a combination of hand drawn animation and stop motion. Due to it’s infrequent use, stop motion becomes much more iconic and interesting to the audience.

18. Modern Day Format Use Music Videos
Stop motion is not used frequently to produce music videos, when it is used it can be much more memorable and iconic making much more popular. For example The White Stripes 2002 video used stop motion with Lego bricks, this was memorable due to its different style making the song much more popular.