Stopmotion animation

now, most people think that this is incredibly hard, and should be left to the adults. in fact, nothing could be easier than stopmotion! to find more, read on.

Step 1: The stuff you need...

now, for starters, if you are going to be the next Nick Park (the animator of Wallace and Gromit), you need some practice, among other things...
1. A computer with a decent amount of memory (hey, if you're going to be making lots and lots of films, you're going to need lots and lots of memory, because images aren't small, you know!)

2. A decent web cam, with manual focus and really good zoom, if possible.

3. lots of time and patience (it takes at least two hours to make a 13 second clip)

some decent script-writing and filming programs, in which the links are below:Monkeyjam
CeltX

4. Lots and Lots of Lego!!! (in case you haven't guessed by now, this is a lego - class stopmotion tutorial!)

5. Did I mention patience!?

6. a photo shop program (I use Photoimpression 5)

Comments

[bricabracwizard]

This is the best stop motion instructable I have seen, excellent work! Just a quickie, in the walk sequence you've put up there usually the left arm goes forward with the right leg.

[iproberry1]

This is...

AMAZING

[legofreak0110]

Cool check out my youtube. Legoboy123456789

[paperairplanecreator]

a good program to use for sop motion windows movie maker. learn more abour that on youtube.

[thing 2]

If you are just messing around with stopmotion then yes, but if you are serious then you want to be animating at 15 frames per second which monkeyjam allows you to do.

[bob the slob]

voemaster, it takes HOURS to do a decent movie. i do it alot my self.

[voemaster]

ok i'll try going alot slower in my movies then

 

[voemaster]

good job  hey how long does it take to make a video

[Ballistaman]

Holy crap! How do you keep the camera so still?! Mine moves even if itson a tripod! Also how many pics do you take for such a smooth animation?3 of my friends do random stopmotion at lunch....

[RC-0720]

well, since I just use a webcam, I just either tape it down, in which case I tape it onto a platform and tape that platform to the set, or use a jury rig, in which case I sort of build an all-encompassing box around the camera, except around the lens, then put it on a track, to use it for dolly shots.

[ManicJack]

hey mate how did you make them luminus? i have photoshop but i dont know how to do that

[RC-0720]

well, first u activate the "line" tool, u click and drag it over the lightsaber-to-be, making certain that it is translucent, thick, and the main outer color of ur choice (eg the outer blade, with the color), then a smaller, shorter line inside, that is white, but slightly transparent, so that it can appear to be the center.

[wilcurt]

I started making these kind of things over 4 years ago. I will try to get one on soon.....................................................

[Kiteman]

You really need to include a video of one of your films.

[RC-0720]

as I said before, I will get to it when I have time! i'm really busy with schoolwork over here.

[Kiteman]

It doesn't have to be a new film, just a clip from something past, such as the one those stills are from. As nugatron says, even a brief clip would be good.

[RC-0720]

I've put up a decent clip up. enjoy!

[Kiteman]

That's really good - well done. If you want more views of it, though, you should upload it to YouTube or Metacafe and then embed the video back here - one-click play with no downloading gets more views.

[nagutron]

I'd love to see more details of how the fighting was done, and the finished film, even if it's just 13 seconds long!

[RC-0720]

well, technically, those images were either from past films of mine, and images I just made for this instructable. but when I have time, i'll post up a decent movie!

[stranoster]

If you're looking for a really simple start to stopmotion which only uses windows movie maker my videoible might give you another simple, though not the best, starting point.

After that shameless self promotion, gotta say, great introduction to stopmotion here, with a simple to use program as it's core. Nice work.