How to Make Stop-Motion Photography Videos

Animate still objects with stop-motion videos.

With online video, innovative video techniques provide a way for photographers to distinguish themselves. Stop-motion is a simple video technique that produces an interesting "flip book" effect. While stop-motion animation is now almost completely replaced by computer animation, it's a fun creative process that forces you to plan your story, props and shots carefully. Set up a shoot to capture your story and pour it into a software package for publication.

Things You'll Need

• Camcorder
• Video editing program

Instructions

1. Plan out the scene you want to do in stop-motion in detail. Stop-motion involves taking many still images and piecing them together to make a moving image. Know exactly where the elements in each shot will be and are moving to set up the shot properly.

2. Place your camera on a tripod so that it is completely still and can fit the entire sequence in the frame. Stop motion-requires the camera to be still for greatest effect. The camera's stillness ensures that the background elements do not move.

3. Shoot the scene. Take short bits of footage, or stills with a digital camera, and move the people or objects very slightly in between each shot. The less you move the people or objects between each shot, the more fluid a video you create. Remember that a completely fluid video defeats the purpose of using stop-motion, so make the gaps appropriate to the story you are creating.

4. Use a video editing program to align each still image in order, and extend or shorten their duration to make the video flow. Shorten or lengthen the images to the same display duration so that the frame rate is constant.

Tips & Warnings

• A short clip of stop-motion is more work than a clip of live action.

• Replace sound that occurs during the taping of a stop-motion scene with voice overs or music.

References

• MacWorld.com: Create Stop-motion Animation