Stop-Motion

A general description.

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Here you will find how-to's and hints for the do-it-yourself, stop-motion animation enthusiast. I've recently discovered this addictive hobby, and I think it may just catch on a little bit. My wife has taken to it as well, by creating Whiskey, and taking photo's while I move the figures. Anyone with a digital camera can do it. I've put all the tools you need on this very site! It's a great family activity, and your friends will enjoy the product.

I purchased my camera before I was aware of this application. which surprised me in two ways.

It's very, very, easy.
It's very, very, fun.

These two surprises lead to a third surprise.

If it's so easy and fun, why wasn't I aware of it?

After I made my first clip I went to the internet for more information, I was surprised yet again. All I seemed to find was sites specializing in high-end animation. This is all well and good, but what about the guy who just wants to try it out for fun? I didn't find any sites dedicated to this kind of animation. I decided to use my site to help others who may be looking for simple "bathtub stop-motion" information. If you know more than me about his stuff, please don't go away. Drop me an email, and I'll add your pearls of information here.

The general principal is to capture a series of photos on a digital camera. Take picture, move subject, take picture, move subject... etc... Until you run out of either patience, organization, or storage space. When you've captured all your "frames" you can use one of several software packages to cut, paste, and edit the order of the frames. Now the "frames" are strung together in a single movie file to be played back at a certain speed.

Here is where the math comes in; you will need to decide how many pictures to take. For the Sammy clips on my website, I tried to imagine how far I wanted Sammy to move in one second, and then made him move that far in 10 steps, taking a picture of each step. Then, I chose 10 FPS (frames per second) when stringing them together. The Higher the FPS, the smoother the video. I've considered making a shorter clip using more pictures, at 20 or 24 FPS, but I just can't imagine breaking up 1 second of movement into 20 or 24 steps, and making moves that small.

These ten picture will make one second of video. Click here to see the video.

For example, if I want Sammy to move his hand from his side to a hand-shake position in about a second, I will move his arm about an inch or so. At 10 FPS each move would be just 1/10 of an inch. At 20 FPS each move would have to be 1/20 of an inch! I just can't imagine doing that. It seems that I already move him as little as I can for each picture, but it works out to look best at 10 FPS.

There are devices to make these very small moves easier. They are called armatures. These act like a skeleton inside your figure (if you are using clay) that adds stability, and enables smaller moves. I haven't tried this technique yet, but there are plans to make your own on The Clay Animation How To Page.

If you are interested in trying it out for yourself, please click on the links above. There, I have some useful information about cameras, subject matter, and software to get you started with. All the software is available for download, and it is free. A simple clip could take less than an hour to make, from start to finish. Windows 95 and 98 come with players for these movies, you can make them small enough to email to friends and family, and kids love them.