Stop Motion

[JimmyO]

Hey, can you guys give me the basics of stop motion and what i need. Its for a school project

Thanks!

 

[Big Mike]

If it's a school project, shouldn't you do the research yourself? :er:

Do you want to stop motion in a photograph? or are you talking about stop motion video?

 

[JimmyO]

Like a video

Are there like programs out there that will stitch all the pics together and play them back at speed

 

[TamiyaGuy]

Well, as a budding clay movie maker myself, I hope I can give you a few tips...

Don't use your DSLR to shoot the photos, the aspect ratio is ofter weird and the photos take up a huge file size.

Depending on what kind of stop-motion movie you want to do, get a decent mini-tripod. Jessops does a very good one. Failing that, just get a huge wad of Blu-tack and stick it under your camera

Stick your characters down with Blu-tack or, if you have clay characters, with their feet. There's nothing worse than almost getting through a scene when your guy falls flat on his face.

If you're doing claymation, use a frame rate of between 12 and 15FPS. For video, that would look awful, but in claymo it's fine.

DON'T use Windows Movie Maker for the stop-motion bit.

As for the movie making part, you can either go for Stop Motion Pro, which costs a bit of cash, but is VERY good (the Junior model is £40), or you can go for VirtualDub. I don't use this as I use SMP, but I've heard really good things about it.

Do things in little bits. For my movies, I do about 100 photos at a time, put them together, and do 100 more. Also, do each stage in bits. Shoot the photos, compile into a movie, add sound, etc etc.

I think that's about it, really. Just take your time and try not to get stressed. If you need any more info, feel free to ask! Good Luck!

~TamiyaGuy