Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames is played back.
Stop motion can be done with a video camera, still camera, phone, chromebook, laptop... basically anything that can take a picture.
For this Unit, you can use people or any materials you like: found objects, puppets, clay, people, paper, cars, plants, your pets, string, drawings, paintings, food, hair, a newspaper, or dirt, etc. Your "main characters" can be completely abstract objects, patterns or visuals, they can be puppets with personalities, or they can be things from your everyday life. Animate whatever you think would be really FUN and interesting to watch it MOVE in creative and wild ways!
What is stop motion. In this video you will learn the basic principles of frame rate, shooting and editing your video. In this video, Gerard show how you can take frames out of a video clip (faster to film, longer to edit) and using still pictures and playing them back (longer to film but very little edit time).
He also gives you 4 tips to make your animation professional.
Setting up your home stop motion studio
Adding jumps and flips to your animation. In this tutorial the user uses the program Gimp to remove the rig. Photoshop or Photopea are also good choices. Just remember that every photo that you have the rig in, will be a photo that you will need to edit. Try to make your rig as small as possible. (editing 20+ pics will be time consuming)
As a small note, you may also mask instead of deleting or copying the good layer. By masking, you can select the mask and apply it to the next picture and make minor adjustments to the mask to make the workflow go a little quicker.
The following like has apps for IOS and Android users. https://freeappsforme.com/stop-motion-apps/ I have used iMotion and the lego app.
If you have an SLR then that is great as well. Please change the setting on your camera to shoot at a low resolution, remember that 1080p is 1,920x1,080. There is no need to be using 6mb photo, it will slow down your editor as it tries to play back 90mb/second. If you are using premiere, before you add your photos to the project, you will want to change the default properties for a still image from 5 seconds to 2-3 frames. To change this, go to the Edit menu and select Preferences > Timeline. In the Preferences dialogue box you'll see a place where you can change the Still Image Default Duration. You can specify a duration in seconds or frames
For those that only have a chromebook, here is a great option for you.
This video will go over everything about stop motion in a nutshell.
You will need to add Stop Motion Animator for a Chromebook https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stop-motion-animator/dhgmfcabdnkbdhelnooodefedbilcpho
This app is great and allow you to toggle between frames and see an onion skin of previous frames as you animate.
Keeping your device from moving will be the most challenging part. Here are some tripod hacks that you can try https://fixthephoto.com/diy-iphone-tripod.html or post something that you have created. Bottom line, you need to keep your camera steady.
You can approach this assignment's audio/video component 2 different ways:
-Audio first, visuals second: record and edit your audio first. This is standard in most television/Hollywood productions, especially for any animation that will have lip synching (difficult to do). Record audio in a quiet space. If you have multiple tracks you will want to edit the final mix of in either an audio or video editor. Finally, edit the visuals to synchronize with the audio.
-Visuals first, Audio second: create the animation, THEN add sounds. This is the way some Visual artists work. Once you have the visuals, it will be easy to fit the mood of the piece. You will be creating a voice over for the project.
Here's a link to the youtube audio library. Please make sure you copy the part that you would need to include in your description of you were to post on youtube. (I generally have a text file with that information stored with all the files that I used to make my project) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCht8qITGkBvXKsR1Byln-wA
Some professional inspiration.
Notice how often the camera angle changes. If the video was created at 15 frames per second, how many pictures were taken before those camera changes.
This video took: 22 months 1,357 hours 30 people 2 ladders 1 still camera 288,000 jelly beans
Here is the making of the "In Your Arms" video. What surprised you about the process?
I'm pretty sure that I wouldn't want to be the skateboard. Please do not harm any little brother in the creation of your animation.
In your video, please use stopmotion to create a visual that couldn't be done with just video. What I mean, is don't use stop motion to make a person walk, use stop motion to make them glide across the ground (or sit on their bum and drive an imaginary car, or use a pizza box as a skateboard....
Your assignment is to create a short video demonstrating a knowledge and understanding of stop motion by creating a series of stills in which you move, shape, change, form, and manipulate your objects.. Have fun and be creative.
Your video must demonstrate
- fluid motion
- videography- steady shots, in focus, use of different camera angles and shot types
- consistent lighting
- tells a story
- include audio that is clear and royalty free
- includes intro titles and closing credits
- there is no specific length, please use the time allotted to the best of your ability.
- a scene with 12 items moving requires more tracking and time,
- a scene with on character moving may be longer and tell more of a story.
- Both can achieve a level 4 and both could achieve a level 2.