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.

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)

okay, once you get the program downloaded and installed, open it, and click on File, and then "New xps sheet". this is the sheet that you are going to use for your film. when you click on it, you will be presented a window. if you want to do some editing on the images later, for "image folder", click Browse, select desktop, and create a folder. after that is done, if you already have a webcam installed, click on the little orange video camera, marked "open video capture window". then, select stopmotion from the list of options, and you're good to go!

first off, you need to develop the basic walk. note the images.

okay, due to some people asking for it, here's an update, on how to have a fight in stopmotions. okay, for fist-fighting, it is generally just having the offensive minifig to be just one stud away from the defensive minifig, like so, in the pictures. now, to have him throw a punch, lift up his back leg a bit so he can swing on the stud, lift an arm a bit, swing the fig on the stud in each frame, and let him have it!!

okay, so now in your movie Darth Maul is about to duel with a Jedi. he ignites his lightsaber. But wait, it's a beam of red plastic! What do I do now? well, using PhotoImpression 5, it's the most simple part of a film! okay, first off, when you install it and everything's ready, open it up and click the button marked Folder. in the side panel , look for the folder that you made previously in which you put your images from the film from, and select it. Click on "create", and fiddle away!

And that's it! if you have anything specific to ask, just leave a comment below! here's a film that may or may not work. please tell me if it doesn't!