Strata-cut animation

Strata-cut animation,also spelledstratcutorstraticut,is a form ofclay animation,itself one of many forms ofstop motionanimation.

Strata-cut animation is most commonly a form of clay animation in which a long bread-like "loaf" ofclay,internally packed tight and loaded with varying imagery, is sliced into thin sheets, with the animation camera taking a frame of the end of the loaf for each cut, eventually revealing the movement of the internal images within.Waxmay be used instead of clay for the loaf, but this can be more difficult to use because it is lessmalleable.

Technique

Designing the interior contents of a clay block is complex in and of itself. Abstract images and patterns are easier to create than recognizable images or character-driven moving images. Both the pace and forms of the movements of the internal imagery have to be considered when building the block (or loaf). A kind of non-high-tech "underground" quality of the all-moving imagery is usually the result.

Interesting abstract images can be created by folding strips of different-colored clay together, flattening them out, and then folding them again, repeating this process until the final result is a relatively tight mosaic of "woven" patterns. Eventually, a series of blocks of these mosaics can be combined into single blocks (loafs) and also combined with non-abstract imagery.

History

Experimentally toyed with in both clay and blocks of wax by German animatorOskar Fischingerand his associate Walter Rutmann during the 1920s and 1930s, a crude form is specifically found in theLotte Reinigerfilm "Prince Achmed".The technique was revived, named and highly refined with precision and control in the mid-1980s byCalifornia-OregonanimatorDavid Daniels,a past associate ofWill Vinton,in his 16-minute short filmBuzz Box.

In popular culture

The method of strata-cut animation was used in themusic videofor "Big Time"byPeter Gabriel(1986),for the "ABC" part ofMichael Jackson'sMoonwalkervideo compilation,and in the title sequence for the 1993 filmFreaked.Daniels has also used it as background imagery as other forms of animation or live action are superimposed over it.

Daniels has used variations of this style for a variety of TV commercials and bits made for thePee Wee's Playhouseseries during the mid-1980s, "10th Anniversary Birthday", a network ID forMTV,and an 'acid trip' section from the television seriesGary and Mike.In reference to the 'time sculpted extrusion block' or 'geometry loaf' slice-reveal technique, Daniels coined the visual results or look as ‘insanimation’ in 1984 while a graduate student atCal Arts.

An example of a strata-cut sculpture by David Daniels.

External links

• ExplanationatStopMoWorks,with a diagram and links
• Buzz Box review
• Bent Image LabDavid Daniel's Company