Stop-motion is an animation technique in which a series of still photographs are strung together like frames in a film to create the illusion of movement. Creating a stop-motion animation video requires little more than a camera and video editing software. But your projects will really come alive with these tips.
Stop-motion
animation has been around for many years—it’s the technique that was
often used to animate monsters in old fantasy movies—and it’s still
popular today in claymation cartoons. With today’s digital cameras and
video editing software, stop-motion animation is easier than ever, so
anyone can try it.
How Stop-Motion Animation Works
The stop-motion technique is quite simple. Say you want a drinking glass to appear to be sliding across a table. The drinking glass is placed at one end of the table and photographed, moved very slightly in the desired direction, photographed again from the same camera angle, and so on. After the last photograph is taken, the photographs are edited together, as if they were frames of a film.Of course, stop-motion animation can be used for more complicated video projects: Dolls can be made to dance, spoons can stir cake batter by themselves, miniature knights can have sword fights. The story possibilities are limited only by your imagination—and your deadline, since stop-motion animation is time-consuming. But whatever your ideas, the following photography tips—and an advanced, full-featured camera like the Samsung Smart Camera NX300—can help make your stop-motion project a go.
Understand Frame Rate
A film moves at 24 frames per second; television/video moves at around 30. Stop-motion animation specialists recommend a range of 10 to 15 frames per second (depending on how smoothly you want the action to move; more on that below). That’s up to 900 photographs for a minute of stop-motion video! With so many photos to shoot, a camera like the NX300, with its advanced Hybrid AutoFocus system, can speed the stop-motion shooting process. Hybrid AF lets you shoot quickly with perfect accuracy, so you can rapidly move on to the next setup.Storyboard Your Project
While you probably don’t want to plan every photograph of your stop-motion video, you should at least sketch where you want your animation to begin and end, and any major scenes in between. Especially if you’re moving more than one object in your animation, you’ll want to keep track of how the scenes progress.Keep the Lighting Uniform
In order to maintain the illusion that the action of your animation is continuous, make sure the lighting is exactly the same throughout the hours (or days) of your shoot. For example, if your stop-motion animation involves action figures in a battle, consistent lighting will ensure that the shadows cast by the figures will fall in the same direction and have the same length—basically, look the same from shot to shot. To facilitate this, stage your animation in a place where you can block any natural light and set up your lighting so it doesn’t need to be moved.Set Up Your Camera—and Then Keep It Still
You’ll want your photos in landscape orientation to coordinate with the orientation of your computer or television screen. Once your camera is set up at the angle you like, it should stay in the same place throughout the shoot. It’s important to keep it steady. Use a tripod for additional stability and tape it down if possible—you’re going to be shooting for a while, so don’t take the chance that an accidental bump will ruin your project setup.Move Your Objects a Tiny Bit at a Time
The less dramatic the movement from photo to photo, the smoother and more realistic the final video will be. Once you understand how the process works, of course, you can make a creative decision about how smooth or choppy you want your action to look, and let that guide your objects’ movements.Reshoot Immediately
If you’re not happy with a photo, trash it and retake it immediately, so the photo remains in the correct sequence—it will be much more difficult to reset the shot at a later stage. Using a camera with a large screen will help you check your shots. The NX300 features a 3.31” (84.0mm) AMOLED™ Tilting Display, which is not only exceptionally large, but allows you to check your shots from any angle.Upload Your Photos
Once your photography is done, upload your photos to your computer’s video editing software. Follow your software’s instructions to set the frame rate to the speed you’d like your animation to play. You may need to experiment with different speeds to get one you like. Once you’re happy with the way your animation plays, you can add music, titles, and so on, and then create and export the video.Once you get comfortable with the stop-motion animation process, you can experiment with different techniques that can distinguish your animation from the stop-motion pack. With the NX300’s optional 45mm 2D/3D lens, you can even shoot your stop-motion animation in full 3D!
(Information found at http://www.samsung.com/ae/discover/shooting-stop-motion-animation-photography-tips on 02.02.2016)
Once I had started thinking about my piece for this unit I wanted to look at doing a video but when I had put my idea into motion I thought it would be more interesting and challenging making it as a stop motion so started looking into that instead. I wanted to make something a little dark and creepy using my daughter as my model. I have always thought it would look creepier using a child instead of an adult as you think children are sweet and innocent. It wasn't until I saw my daughter in her sheep onesie that I thought about using that as her outfit. With the hood up is gave a sense of curiousity as to who was wearing it and it then gave me the idea of having her hair covering her face to keep the curiosity flowing.
I think it was films I have watched in the past which gave me the idea for the storline. I don't really like scary, jumpy, gory films but there is something that makes me want to watch them. I saw a film called Mama which is very dark and it used children as the main characters. I liked the film but it was very strange and twisted. There was a scene in a hallway which was rather scary as you knew something was going to happen but you didn't know what. I have also always loved Donnie Darko. That is a very weird film that messes with your head and the rabbit outfit is just amazing. I think deep down it is that film that has inspired me the most.
Remembering that film helped me to form an idea and plan for making my stop motion with my daughter.
Another film I like is the shining. I love the symmetry in the film and the way it has been composed and filmed. I have a slight obsession with symmetry myself and find that I look for it in just about everything I create.
As a child I suffered a lot with very nasty nightmares which I can remember like they were happening yesterday. In one my mind was like sitting in a cinema, my mind was blank and it was very dark but in the top left hand corner was what looked like a scene out of a film repeating over and over. It was of my school teacher being stabbed. It haunted me for months on end, the same one every night. I also had another distinctive one where I was climbing ladders and crawling through tunnels as fast as I could, I had a small creature with a clown face chasing after me with a knife that had a blade almost as long as it was tall and it was stabbing me in the back with it. The dreams felt that real that i used to arch my back and jolt around in my bed that much that my sister had to wake me up night after night.
I think these experiences have helped me to develop my idea and will continue to help me in the future. In a way its making these to tell myself that its not real and it doesn't happen, a lot of films are non fictional and made up.
I created a little mood board to show the ideas I wanted to include in the stop motion...
Since then I have made my test run. It took about an hour to take the images. It is not easy working with a 5 year old who doesn't quite understand what it is you are asking her to do. I had to take several images of different angles to see how I wanted it to look. I looked at every image as I took it so I could retake it if needed.
Once I had finished I uploaded them all to the computer and flicked through to see which images didn't work so they could be removed. I then set about putting them into the order I wanted them to be in when they were put into After Effects. I then numbered the images so I could repeat a few to make it longer and give it more effect.
After that I opened Adobe After Effects so I could make my Stop Motion. I made sure all of the images were the correct size and played around with the length of the frames. I settled on 5 frames per second as this made it a nice speed that worked well with the entire lot of images. I then moved on to add a few adjustment layers where I used levels and curves to adjust the brightness and change the effect the light gave. Once that was done I was able to render it and make it into a video file.
I hit a lot of complications at this point as it made a huge 24GB file which wasn't able to play. I then had to try saving it to open as a different file which made no difference. I asked the tutor for assistance and she said it was because the indivual image size was too big so we needed to make them smaller. For this we needed Adobe Photoshop so they could all be done in one go. I opened photoshop and clicked File - Scripts - Image Processor, then selected the folder with all of the images in, selected where to save the new resized images and changed the image size to 5. Then I clicked RUN. Photoshop then opened each image individually and resaved it as the smaller size.
I then started again with the After Effects process. One again the video file wouldn't play so we decided it was the computer that wasn't playing ball. I then moved to an iMac and repeated the whole process which was able to do it and save it at a file size that would play.
The file size it save to unfortunately would only play on the iMac. I am still trying to get it to save as a smaller file so I can upload it to YouTube and copy a link onto here.
Next is to make the final piece.....
I thought long and hard about the final piece and what I wanted to do. I decided to make a storyboard for this one so I could show my tutor what I was trying to get across. This helped me to visualise it even more.
I just the same images from the test run one as I was really happy with them in the first place so thought it would work really well. As I said before, it is difficult to work with a 5 year old who has had no training or practice with acting. I completely started from scratch with the images and orded them completely different to the test run. I then added two adjustment layers, levels and curves, and then also decided I was going to use sound in this one as well to give it more of an effect. It took around 6 hours of re ordering and editing to put the final piece together before I even thought about the sound effects. Once I had the video rendered (and to a size that can be played, thanks to my tutor) I started looking online for free sound effects. I found a great website called Freesound. I searched and found 3 pieces I knew suited my video down to the ground. It then took me about an hour to to put them together into the right places on After Effects. When I was happy with the way it was I re rendered the video to include the sound effects. I was overjoyed when it made my classmate jump when she watched it for the first time.
When I showed my tutor she said there was one final touch that needed adding before my video was finished and that was a title and a title page at the beginning of the video. It took me a long time and a lot of ideas from friends before I settled on the name Sweet Dreams... It was a hard one to come up with but it's one that has a lot of meaning to me with the nightmares I used to have as a child. It also has a lot of meaning as it is my daughter being the model and you expect children to be sweet little angels but I am currently going through a slight rough patch with my daughter at the moment so in a way the video relates a lot to her and her current behaviour. Sometimes she can act like she is possessed in some way.
Once the title and and by me had been added I was ready to render it for the final time. It was a complete success and I was able to upload the video to YouTube as soon as it had finished. Here is the link...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7bPZ0pkbng
I am very pleased with my video and in a way proud of myself as well. It was hard work and very strenuous (especially when the file size was too large to be played) but it was well worth it. I have already thought of a lot of ideas to improve it, including adding scenes from the woods and a park. I would love to make more and especially ones which are creepier and in a way jumpy/scary. I just hope my daughter will be willing to help me to make more!
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