stop motion video

Hello,

is anybody here who has experience how to make a stop motion video. Right now, I have no clue how to do and where to start. Maybe someone can send me some inputs or links where I can learn what I need to know.

best regards

Evi

Tags: video

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Permalink Reply by Glen Gilchrist on January 9, 2011 at 7:19am

Hi lovely project idea.

You need:

Functioning USB Web Cam

Tripod

Decent lighting

Software: Google for Monkey Jam --> old, but free and dead easy to use.

With that set up, you can be up and running in about 10minutes.

Love to share ideas / videos. What are you thinking of making?

BTW have you seen XtraNormal? Again, google it.

Cheer
Glen Gilchrist

http:\\glengilchrist.co.uk

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Permalink Reply by Evelyn Frank on January 9, 2011 at 8:23am

hello Glen,

thank you for your fast reply...

do you know Flip Ultra Camera? Well I have one and tried to use it for some small really basic videos with my students. I am not very familar with it, but would like to improve my knowledge. Mostly I uploaded images to animoto and let them do the work.

I will look and google for the software you suggested. I am from Germany so please excuse my poor English :).

My students learn touchtyping and using Microsoft office programs. I have in mind to let them show in a movie some healthy practices for to prevent bad sitting positions during computer work and getting health problems with their back in some years maybe :). Perhaps I will use voicethread...

Yesterday I got a link to http://jaycut.com/ It is an online video editing software for free use. I havent tried yet, but doesnt look that bad.

Here is a ressource to online videos you might get ideas from

http://www.neok12.com/. What a pitty that it is all in English, so I cannot use it for my class.

But I saw great stop motion videos last time and was wondering how to do it. I would love to be able to do something like this with my students, just for fun

http://www.medien-bilden.de/video/Stoptricks-und-Greenscreen-an-der...

best regards

Evi

PS: just downloaded Monkey Jam...looks good and I even got a German tutorial...thanks bunches :)

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Permalink Reply by Sergio D. Bosio on January 9, 2011 at 1:07pm

http://sites.google.com/site/celumetraje/stop-motion

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Permalink Reply by Evelyn Frank on January 10, 2011 at 12:52am

Thank you for your kind reply!

I also learnt from your blog that I can put a google translation tool into my own blog. I didnt know this, but I learnt how to use it. That's great.

best regards from Munich

Evi

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Permalink Reply by John J Caprice on January 10, 2011 at 5:15pm

Hi Evelyn,

Way back in the video days, I taught one of my sons how to shoot a claymation video. I am sure that I was more excited then he was. The most important factor is to mount the camera in a stationary mount, a tripod is a good choice. The camera must remain fixed in one position, one angle.

Set up you model, shoot a sec of video, move it slightly, shoot a sec of video...etc.

I foud a website that has a pretty good guide.

http://content.photojojo.com/tutorials/stop-motion-digital-camera/

It looks like a fairly good tutiorial to get started with.

JJC

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Permalink Reply by Evelyn Frank on January 11, 2011 at 12:09pm

your advice is more than welcome. As I told, I have no clue right now, but want to learn and to try with my students. Looks like a good tutorial.

What is a claymation video?

regards

Evi

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Permalink Reply by Anders on January 11, 2011 at 3:39am

Why don´t you try http://animatordv.com/download_free.php

animatorDV + free version and it works pretty well with a webcam.

Or... take stillpictures with a digital camera and import them into moviemaker (Win).

Or... if you have some money to invest... try I Can Animate from kudlian.net

I have tried it with good results, you can show the kids a few steps and they are animating in a few minutes.

Happy animating ;)

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Permalink Reply by Evelyn Frank on January 11, 2011 at 12:19pm

another nice reply. Thank you so much. :)

Evi

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Permalink Reply by Katy Scott on January 11, 2011 at 1:16pm

I just taught a group of high school students to create stop-motion videos, for the first time. I'll explain how we did it. I hope it helps a little.

First, we looked at a few examples (links below). Then, we talked about Frames Per Second -- a live action movie can be as many as 30 fps, while a Disney cartoon is more like 24 fps. Stop-motion films can be anywhere from 6 - 20 fps, depending on how smooth you want them.

After discussing this with students, we talked about how in stop-motion, virtually every frame is a new image, so if you have 6 fps in a 3-minute movie, that's 540 images (a little less if you remain on one image for a while). We re-watched some of the examples to discuss: where the frames were changing/how many fps the films were; how that affected the smoothness; and how many total images were in each video.

My students have to complete a 3-minute stop motion film a month from now. So, to start, I just had them work in pairs to create a 15-second stop-motion video. This way, I figured they'd get an idea of the whole process. For the sample video, they drew a series of images and used the embedded camera in Macbooks and netbooks to take still photographs of the images (some drew on paper, others on a whiteboard, where they erased and added in between photos). They then used movie-making software (iMovie, MovieMaker, OpenShot, PiTiVi) to place all the photos in order and adjust the length each one was shown. After the movie was made, I had students find or create a soundtrack since that's pretty important in stop-motion films.

All of that took about 2 hours, but I was working with a small group of pretty good students. (Though they had no tech or film-making experience.)

Here are some of the sample stop-motion videos I showed them:

Basic series of images: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MekfH-XI8c0
Using a whiteboard: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWFIGj2b99s&feature=related
Stop motion, mixed with live video, in a notebook: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jGcxMHO8OA&feature=related
Stop motion, using computer illustrations: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzPv4a14Jys&feature=related
Live stop motion: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IVgo9WEUEc

It's a really fun project -- good luck!

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Permalink Reply by John J Caprice on January 11, 2011 at 6:03pm

Dear Kathy,

In High School I drew hundreds of stop motion stick figure videos on the corner pages of my textbooks.

Then just flip the pages and watch the stick figure action! This, at the time was not an approved multimedia project, and landed me in detention for a cosiderable period of the school year.....The price of creativity? Perhaps. But, they didn't find my transistor radio in my shirt pocket, cleverly connected to an ear plug (mono, of course) running up my sleeve.

JJC