Making a stop motion film

I am in the process of making a stop motion film.

if there are any here that have made there own stop motion films please give me addvise as to like how many frames per sec, how many pics average, how do you use cotton correctly, and how to lean modles on there bases

all advise is wellcome (besides telling me to quit while im ahead or get a life)

Matt

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@Mathusala0: While I realise you are looking at making a stop-motion film about 40K, the topic is better suited to be in this forum than in the 40K forum, so I moved it here.

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Dagster

You need a tripod or clamp to keep your camera very steady.
Before starting on anything, storyboard and plan out the shots you want to get - maybe do a few simplified test runs to see how they turn out.

And do a Google search - here is one example of may articles out there - http://photojojo.com/content/tutorials/ ... al-camera/

Good luck!

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Are you going to use a digi-cam or a video camera of some sort?
I do have some practical experience with time laps filming (I'm a hobby Super8 filmer) which in a way is a passive form of stop motion. I've never done "active stop" motion though. If you know someone who still has an super8 camera that still works, it will usually have a single frame timer, which is perfect for stop motion animation.
If you want to know more details about it (frame-rate etc.), I suggest you take a look at this site:

http://www.stopmotionanimation.com/dc/dcboard.php

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Auta i lòme

Hi Mathusoslo,
First, I am not an expert, far from it, I tried this a while back with mixed results.
I used a digital camera (Nikkon Coolpix), tri-pod, incandescent and flourescent light.
My problem with the Coolpix is that my depth of field was limited because I couldn't control the aperture. Therefore the images close and far from the camera were out of focus. The lighting was acceptable and gave a balanced color to the images.
I shot my models moving each at about 1/2 to 1/4 inches per frame. This was OK, but I feel I got a little inconsistent and that led to an uneven movement. It takes MANY frames to make a model travel evenly across the terrain. One segment was approx 6 sec. It had 49 frames and was OK as a finished product.
Steep hills are a serious challenge. I probably should have used some short of adhesive there. You will need to play with the frames/sec rates to acheive a natural movement. It will depend on the speed of movement for each section of footage and the actual movement of the models.
Shoot your animation in segments. You will make it a lot more easier to organize the end product.
I used the Dell Animation Shop 3 to make my clips and then I pasted them into Windows Movie Maker to connect the clips, add music, transitions and titles.
It took many many hours (to figure out the process) and complete a couple of minutes of footage.
I'm not endorsing the above products, it's what I had on the PC.

If I return to do something like this again, I'll use my new Nikkon Digital SLR to take better quality pictures, plan the shooting sequences better and work on moving the models better.
I gained a heathy respect for stop motion animators doing this little project.
I hope that helped a little.
Good luck

This is the coolest way of producing a Battle Report however definitely the hardest! I've seen plenty of these on YouTube so have a browse there. I've never done one so no sorry to say I can't help you, but goodluck and be sure to post your finished movie

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I have super8 camera too. And it does have a still camera shot. However I've never tried making a stop motion movie myself. However i understand the principle behind it. You basically show pictures one after another so that they show a movie like sequence. However the important part is making it fluid in placing the object traveling from one point to the other fast enough for the eye not to focus on the slow pauses in between the shots.
I doubt that this post has helped. Sorry. But those were just my few cents.

Good luck with the movie. Hope to see the finished result.

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Hey there, I used to do it professionally many years ago, before it was replaced by CGI. 24 frames per second is the regular film rate, video is 30 frames per second, but 24 would be fine. Now I've never tried it with these type of figures so I'm not sure of the distances per second you'll want the figures to move. But you will need a gauge, a device which will help you move the figures a set difference each time. You'll really want more than one, for infantry, Calvary and creatures like trolls. by varying the distance each moves they will appear to move at different speeds, i.e. the greater the number of inches per frame, they faster they will move on screen.

The gauge, make a cardboard or plastic ruler which has the exact distance you want, say 2". Cut a semicircle into each end exactly the width of a figure base. So to move a figure with this gauge, you would
A- place gauge next to the model you wan to move so the base fits into the grove.
B- Now you simply hold down the gauge (so it doesn't move) and then move the model forward to the next grove in the gauge.

Now your model will move the exact same distance each time and will have consistent speed on screen.

Now if you want to get fancy, and well why the hell not, you can increase the speed of charging models, let's say a walking model is 2", you then make a charging model 2 1/2" for the last half of the frames and the model will seem to speed up.

To be honest 2" would be too fast, a humanoid model is 2" tall so its stride would be 1/2" or at most 1".

Let me know how this works out.

how patient u r depends on wat fps u should use. I have made quite a few stop motions before.

If u don't mind moving them over and over again about 0.2cm u should aim (if u r a beginner) to use about 10 fps.

Although windows movie maker can only do 8 fps (it's ok for beginners) but later if u really get into it u should be aiming to get to about 15-20 fps for a smoother picture

hope this helps

i advice monkeyjam -- a download for free program it's easy to use
you can do tests with it save your clips as avi
you can chose how many frames you want to hold when playing ( so you need to record less frames) i advice two, more would make the animation less smooth..
you can also keep a frame still for a longer time and more... just try the program it's really good

if you want a good editing program i would advice adobe premiere, you will be able to cut your movie much more precise then with a windows movie maker

--- mac has also a good stop motion program called dragon
--- xp has also tokyo line test or something like that i am not sure
those two programs have onion skin which is very handy because you can see the previous frames on what you r recording at the moment; this is a big help to not move your figures to far at once or when you push something over to put them back at the right place

--- a program with could help for special effects and stuff like that is adobe after effects

and like one of the other ones said 24 frames a second is good

i hope this is a little help ..

also you can use photoshop to get things out of an image by using clone tool or an other way, depends , handy can be is to take a picture of the set without figures before you record the scene

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[quote="Dorthonion"]
Before starting on anything, storyboard and plan out the shots you want to get - maybe do a few simplified test runs to see how they turn out.
---
draw your storyboard out -- make a 16/9 rectangle and draw every important movements out-- when you done that you can capture each drawing and time them ( how long you think each action will take) -- when you play it in a movie then you have a good vision of how long your movie will be and how the action is going to be and if your shots r well chosen or not ..
an animated storyboard ( not full animated) is called an animatic and it's good to make it, it's really helpful
you can also put music and stuff under it
sometimes it's good to have the music before making it --

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goblin: "people associate me with boogers because i am green"

i think just about everything has been said!

follow those simple steps and u will be making quality stop motion in no time

good luck

A long time ago, when I was on another forum, a friend of mine made a stop motion video and it's still on youtube.

Here's the link, I don't know what you guys will think: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_RuzReZfxc

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Again outdated...

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it wasn't at the time I put it on, which wasn't long ago. He's made it private recently

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Story board it all first.

15 -25 frames per second is good I think.

Depends on what you are willing to do.

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