Animation is film-making in reverse. If a movie is action captured at 24 frames a second, then animation is 24 still frames made up to produce a second of action. Due to a phenomenon known as 'persistence of vision' (where our eyes retain images for a tenth of a second) the individual images have the illusion of movement, and animators can bring objects to life. Animation allows film-makers to tell fantastical stories. Stop motion animation has been in use since the birth of film-making, from special effects pioneer Georges Melies Voyage to the Moon (1902), through Ray Harryhausen's arm of marauding skeletons in Jason and the Argonauts (1963) to the colourful clucking characters from Nick Park & Peter Lord's Chicken Run (2000). If you have big ideas and a small budget animation is an excellent method of telling your stories. Peter Jackson, director of the multi-million dollar Lord of the Rings trilogy, started out producing stop motion animation in his bedroom. Creating animation doesn't require a crew of thousands armed with walkie-talkies or a convoy of teamsters to move your production. Equipped with a cine camera, modelling clay and a quiet working space you can produce your own animated films. For info and advice on getting started in animation exposure caught up with 3 Bear Animations, an award winning studio with a host of shorts to their name, from the only film-noir to feature a Welsh detective The Short Goodbye to And the Winner Is... a tale of award hungry animators. Q: What skills do you need to get animating? A: You have to be an obsessive control freak with no social life basically! Animation attracts quiet, low-key people who are happy to work away in relative obscurity with little contact with the outside world. Focus, the ability to mentally break down an action into frame by frame movements, and a grim determination to see things through to the bitter end are useful qualites, as are very short fingernails and a vampirish aversion to daylight. Q: Could you run through the process of creating a single shot. A: Well, sets are usually built in advance and constructed so that they can easily be dismantled and reset. In our productions we like to make the sets look as if they have been made out of plasticine so the characters look more at home in their little clay world. The main structure is made out of wood and cardboard and is covered in plasticine before being painted. You can build sets out of practically anything though - one film we saw recently used vegatables, broccoli for trees etc. The set is positioned then bolted, clamped and glued to make it immobile. The models (brand new or revamped) are brought in and positioned for the camera. The scene is lit, then the flags, reflectors etc. are also clamped to prevent accidental knocks. The light reading is taken, exposure adjusted, shutter checked, then animation starts. Usually, only one animator works on each scene, with another operating the video assist and - when shooting lip sync - keeping track with the dope sheet to prevent errors. The third prepares for the next scene, does office work, or answers questionnaires sent in by people called Dale. Scenes are shot in rotation, with each animator working on every third scene. (Incidently we call shots scenes, shots refer to the seperate movements). Q: How are models constructed? What do you use to allow characters to be poseable? Usually just plasticine. The models usually last around three scenes before ingrained dirt and cracked limbs make them rather unphotogenic. We do build twisted aluminium wire armatures (skeleton-like structures that the model can be built around) which are used for models with simple or limited movement. We have also used ball and socket armatures for more difficult scenes or for models whose limbs need to be thinner than usual made using ball & socket joints, aluminum wire and tubing Q: What do you use for eyes? A: White beads. We paint the pupils on in black and use a pin to move them around.  Q: In cel and 3D animation characters can fly through the air, but models are obviously limited by gravity. How does this affect animation? Are there any secrets for stopping models falling over? A: Not really, it's something you learn from years of trial and error. You just need to be able to find the model's centre of balance and use it to your advantage. Obviously, building a model with a good centre of balance helps a lot - if your model won't stand up when you're making it, you can't expect it to under hot lights. It is possible to put small magnets in the models feet but this technique is better suited to puppet animation (Wind In The Willows for example) than claymation. Ball and socket armatures have metal feet, which can be used on thin set floors with magnets underneath. Q: For Chicken Run Aardman have been busy showing off a box of replacement mouths for their characters which they smooth onto the face. How do you animate character's mouths to fit their voices? A: We adapt the original mouth to form different shapes. This ruins the heads after 3 or 4 scenes, so you have to be good at remaking a model in exactly the same way. Q: You mentioned before that you use a 'dope sheet' when lip sync. A: Yeah, a dope sheet is a kind of graph which shows the animator exactly how a piece of dialogue breaks down into frames. It also tells the animator how each syllable is pronounced, and if there are any coughs, grunts etc in the scene. Q: So the animation is created to fit the sound. A: Dialogue is recorded before filming as you need to break down the dialogue into frames for lip sync. Other sound effects are dubbed to the completed cutting copy. 3 Bear Animations 3 Bear Animations are a prolific young animation company based in the Lake District. The team started out experimenting with Super8 "We sent begging letters to television and film companies asking 'can you help us out', and they said 'sure'. We managed to get some equipment and figured out how to use it". While still maintaining a presence at international film festivals with award-winning short films, the company has recently moved into producing animation for mainstream entertainment with the production of a pilot for an animated children's TV series. Q: It must be very difficult to maintain concentration. If you nip off for a cup of tea how do you remember where you were? A: What?! Pop off for a cup of tea in the middle of a scene?! Once we start shooting we're in there until we've finished. Most scenes take an average of 2 - 3 hours for 4 - 5 seconds, although lip-sync is a lot slower - anything up to 3 hours to produce 1 second of a character talking. If completing a scene means having lunch at 4 o'clock or not finishing work til 7.30pm, then that's what it takes. To maintain concentration, you've just got to clear your mind of everything except the scene you're shooting. Hopefully everything else comes back to you afterwards, although we're getting a reputation for Olympic level absent-mindedness when outside the studio... Q: It sounds like a tiring process. Are there shortcuts? Do you have to work at 24 frames per second? A: Yes and yes, depending on the animation. Lip synch and intricate movements are done at 24fps, regular movements are done at 12fps. Fast movements are also done at 24fps. Q: What about equipment? A: Lights, camera and plasticine. Camerawise your best bet would be a second-hand cine camera. Super8 cameras can be picked up from a fiver upwards at car-boot sales and second-hand shops although they are getting increasingly difficult to find. . Look for a lens with a long focal length (so you can get in close to your models) and the facility to take single frames (ideally with a cable release shutter so that you don't move the camera when explosing? a frame). Super8 film cartridges are available from good photographic stores for about £12 which thankfully includes processing. You also need a projector or editor to view your animation results because the processed spools don't fit very well in VCRS... For better picture quality use a 16mm camera which are a little more at £400+ (lenses are often sold seperately, so make sure they're included in the price). We use a H16 reflex Bolex with animation motor. The quality is fine for TV broadcast and animation motors give us more accuracy from one frame to the next, because the shutter speed alters slightly as the spring winds down in the clockwork motor. Q: One of the advantages of animation is that you can use long exposures and slow film stock to reduce grain and capture a lot of fine detail. Can you recommend a film stock? A: Kodak 7248 neg (100T) for colour and Kodak 7231 (60T) for black and white. Finding a lab which can process 16mm black and white filmstock is difficult though. We use Film Lab North in Leeds, very helpful and friendly. Also good for proving to the London film scene that there are facilities north of Watford. Contact Howard Dawson, Film Lab North, Croydon House, Croydon Street, Leeds, LS11 9RT. Tel: 0113 243 4842 Fax: 0113 243 4323 email: fln@globalnet.co.uk. Q: Is it possible to shoot animation on video? A: Not unless you have a lot of money as you would need an EOS Animation Controller or similar to animate effectively on video. Your best bet would be a second-hand cine camera, and it's also possible to use a PC providing you kit it out with a videocard and the necessary software. The current quality is nowhere near as good as film though. Q: But you do use a video camera alongside your film camera to store frames. What purpose does a frame store serve? A: To check your animation. It's very useful to know if the speed and expression works as you animate. If it's no good it's better to reshoot while the set is still in position as it can take all morning to prepare a set for shooting. We have a computer run framestore which works alongside an EOS Animation Controller. Q: What kind of lights do you recommend? A: We use all kinds, ranging from little 20w spots to a 1000w focusable lamp you can fry eggs on. Try to use something fairly cool and reliable, as animation lights are left on for very long periods of time. We once had a 500w video lamp which blew every four or five days, and we had to use it every day for 13 months during 'Doodius' for the sake of continuity. Cost us a small fortune keeping it supplied with bulbs. It exploded one day and sent white hot glass flying across the studio. Q: Finally, do you have any hints or tips for animators starting out? A: Ah, time for The Plug. Together with Humbrol, we'll shortly be launching an animation kit for beginners called 'Let's Make Movies', which includes everything you need to make a plasticine model, a booklet with tips and technical advice, and a video of one of our animations. John Lewis and Hamleys will both be stocking the kit from the end of July, and it'll be priced at £12.99. (NEWSFLASH! The kit is now available direct through the 3 Bears website) Our other tips are 'Practice' and 'Don't take anyone's word for anything'. We never attended any courses or film schools and basically made it up as we went along. There's no right way of doing anything - what works for Aardman might not work for you - and a lot of equipment (tracking systems, cranes, rostrums etc) can be adapted or built yourself. We ran a Bolex backwards for one scene recently and were told later by a Bolex specialist that it shouldn't have worked. But it did, so who's to say that official training is better than teaching yourself?