Stop Motion – What is it? We have all seen the amazing works of movies like Wallace and Gromit and even had the opportunity to see the behind the scenes of how they make this claymation world. But in many cases it becomes unattainable and hard to imagine how one might begin to attempt such a project without the team and gear available to a large studio.
And then I had the chance to see a great blog post called: Stop Motion Basics. It is part of a series called 52 Things: Rob & Jonas. In this guide they made stop motion accessible and achievable at the basic level. Thus I was inspired as my first intern challenge to create my very first Stop Motion video. Check it out!
I decided on a general idea for the video and proceeded by following Rob’s steps. I installed the app and sat my phone on a shelf looking at my desk. Then I set up a consistent light source.
During shooting, I had to keep in mind that I would reverse most of my clips to get the effect that I wanted. I found it was best to set the camera on a timer, one that was just longer than I needed. Otherwise I found myself rushing to setup the next shot and I would miss details. I used the app to remove any unwanted frames and increase the speed. Then I exported it. I also shot some videos of me crumpling and cutting paper to use for audio.
I threw everything into premiere and lined them up until I was satisfied. I cropped out the edges where there was tape and some visible clippings that I had forgotten to move and added in the audio sound effects. In total, it took me three hours to produce this eight second clip.
The next time I make a stop motion video, I’ll be focusing on the momentum of the objects in the frame and how far they should move each frame, relative to how I want them to look at full speed.
Take a moment to check out the video that inspired my intern challenge: Rob’s video on his channel 52 Things: Rob & Jonas. He made a comprehensive guide on the process.
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