Problems & limitations;

The problems and limitations that I faced during the production of my animation, were mainly problems with the movement of the mannequins. During planning for the animation I originally decided I wanted to use three mannequins and follow a direct story-line with those mannequins. However after attempting filming with the three mannequins I decided to come up with another idea, and make an animation based on drawings instead.

The only main issue that I had was moving the mannequins. The problem with using mannequins as the main feature of my animation was that the 'joints' of the mannequins were difficult to move and would ping back into their original shape and position. I attempted several times to manipulate the mannequins and find ways for them to be easier to use, but realised that using them would waste time and would also result in a less consistent animation. I intended to shoot in twos but found this near impossible to do with the mannequins, therefore decided in order to create a better animation piece, that would flow better and with consistency, I would use them minimally and make a drawing the main feature of the piece.

Evidence of Production; Characters and Set

For my stop motion piece I decided to use wooden drawing mannequins, because I thought they would be an easier form of model to use, because they are designed to be physically moved in stages. People use drawing mannequins as references when drawing the human body. I originally decided to try and use three mannequins as my different characters, as I had originally planned on having a different story-line as the main focus of my animation. 

My first idea was to have a genre of drama in my animation, with three mannequins being involved in a conflict with each other. I was content with my original plan until 2 weeks before filming and decided to change my idea, because I realised how difficult mannequins are to move/position and don't really maintain their positioning very well. It seemed impractical to solely use mannequins in my piece because the frames wouldn't have moved consistently. I decided instead to make an animation based on mannequins drawing, instead of being drawn. I thought this would be easier because the viewer could get the idea that the mannequins are drawing, even if the actual mannequins aren't being shown very often. 

I originally planed on using these three mannequins, for my two male characters, and my female character, but decided against it when I realised how difficult it was to manipulate the joints (shown below) of the mannequins. Shooting in twos would have been difficult to do because the 'joints' of them kept pinning back into their original position., which would have altered the consistency of the animation. 

These were the three mannequins against the backdrop that I was considering on using. I later decided to use a lighter background as the setting of the piece, and used my bedroom wall to position the drawing on and then my desk with the wall behind it, to set my mannequins up again.


I decided to have them against a black backdrop for some parts of the animation so as to concentrate focus on just the mannequins at certain points of the animation, when climax is built during certain points.

Inspiration for Stop-Motion Animation;

For my stop-motion I decided to use a drawing mannequin as my main object being used in the animation. Mannequins are (although disproved later on during filming) easier to manipulate and move and are meant to represent the human form. I thought it would create an interesting concept to try and incorporate having the human form in the animation. The original idea I came up with for this animation project was to have a full set and backdrop behind the mannequin, with a made up story-line, to represent a the format of a short-film.