LEE SHEARMAN
MY WORK: MULTIPLANE SCULPTUREDimensions: 24cm (w) x 28cm (d) x 29.5cm (h) Materials: wood, Perspex, acrylic, metal, brass After making several practical versions of a Multiplane rostrum I assembled a more abstract sculptural piece from wood, acrylic and metal. Multiplane Rostrum (Artists’ Maquette) is a ½ scale model of a piece of equipment used in the creation of stop-frame animation. The handmade scale model is a speculative sculptural piece with a mechanism with the frame, scrolling, trays and moveable arms. The various mechanisms allow visual materials such as filters to be passed below and in front of a camera in and out of the frame. The sculpture, which is a sculpture on what an animator needs to create an animation, speculates on the various processes involved in making abstract animation. ‘Traditionally, experimental animators have avoided the standard animation stand and the production-line procedures of the commercial studio. One common bond among all experimental animators is that, in varying degrees, they personalize their equipment and techniques, as does any fine artisan or craftsman. Some animators have gone far beyond the conventional mechanisms by building complex devices…’ - Cecile Starr & Robert Russett from ‘Experimental Animation’, 1976’. Lotte Reiniger, a pioneering German animator, developed her own version of the multiplane camera in the 1920s to enhance her silhouette films. Long before Disney popularised the technique, Reiniger built a system of glass planes stacked at different levels, each holding paper cut-out figures, backgrounds, and scenery. By moving elements independently and adjusting their distance from the camera, she created depth, perspective, and dynamic motion within her intricate shadow animations. This innovation gave films like The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) a remarkable three-dimensional quality. Reiniger’s multiplane method was both technically inventive and artistically poetic, influencing generations of animators.
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