Stop Motion Help

Over the Summer I plan on making a short stop motion video that will be 2-3 minutes long but I don't even know where to start. I need your help! I know I need to do various tests and stuff like that but what do I do?

Many thanks, Sithassassin

First of all, download Monkeyjam. It's a great stopmotion program. Second of all, look here for some great tutorials. Then get on your way!

I downloaded it and then took about 40 pics for a test but I can't get the pics to show up on Monkeyjam, what do I do?

File>Import>Images.

Then put the images you want in the left side. Then press Add Files>Import Images.

I prefer to take the pictures, import them into paint to add effects, then change the length of them in movie maker. It is really easy, but I've never used monkeyjam so I guess my method could take longer.

Thunder-blade wrote:File>Import>Images.

Then put the images you want in the left side. Then press Add Files>Import Images.

Done, now what do I do to get it to "play"?

Click F7.

Then it should render a preview and stuff..

If you plan to make it with a decent plot, try and storyboard the film before you start.

Tack lots of photos LOTS. Every time you move some thing a small bit tack a photo.

Make sure you use a tripod or steady your cam by building sort of a lego structure that holds it to the baseplate. Then thae the pictures, and remember that nothing ever goes exactly right.

Definately like Gerrad said to use a tripod and I would suggest to have proper lighting and a decent background. Not one like your room or something .

Filming in your room is fine, just as long as you have extra lamps and stuff.

Try to keep your room as dark as possible (with the exception of the desk lamps you use to light your set of course) that way there are no light flickers.

Thunder-blade wrote:Filming in your room is fine, just as long as you have extra lamps and stuff.

Try to keep your room as dark as possible (with the exception of the desk lamps you use to light your set of course) that way there are no light flickers.

I mean if you film on the floor and the whole background is your room.

Watch your lighting. Use desk lamps, not the camera flash. Use tape on the bottom of the Baseplate to secure it to the table. I'd think about writing a script.

Try and use "white" lights. Not the conventional "yellow" ones...

Well, I use Corel VideoStudio X2 for editing and Particle Illusion SE for Special Effects. BOth wonderful programs.

Pdragon27 wrote:Try and use "white" lights. Not the conventional "yellow" ones...

And if you don't have white lights, just put white paper over it.

I got two done but not on Moneyjam, the preview thing wouldn't work. So I actually made them in Mircosoft Powerpoint. There pretty good but I can figure out how to get them here.

Powerpoint?? That's not gonna work...

I'd use *ugh* WMM if you can't get MonkeyJam to work.

Powerpoint is only good for a frame every 5 seconds if i recall correctly. Standard stop motion is 24 frames a second.

Plus, there is now way to convert it to a video file...

The slideshow looks good but yeah I cant put it into a video file.

@halen: I new to the whole stop motion thing so I have no idea what that means.

Well, in the stop-motion world, you measure time in FPS (Frames per second). Halen may have overdone it a bit...I haven't seen many with 24fps, and that's basically only possible with good programms that cost money. On average I'd say it's 15FPS. And use Windows movie maker Sith, just import the pictures, and you can add music. Then to....y'know what? Do what I did. Watch this:



This was the video I watched before brickfilming for the first time. Hope it helps.

Yeah, 24 fps maybe a little overkill hehe. I just know that is what's in my animation text book for college.
High fps should make the video look more like a movie then just a bunch of pictures.

Check out this wiki: stop motion

Thunder-blade wrote:I'd use *ugh* WMM if you can't get MonkeyJam to work.

Sunvabitch.

Windows Movie Maker, while lacking a lot of the tools I'd like it to have, does not fail. It handles rapid transitions fine (as you would think between the frames of a stop motion), and while it does have a propensity for crashing, as long as you don't Frak with the titles and other effects, it looks professional.