Come 2021, we’ve grown accustomed to watching video content with CGI animations, visual effects, and high definition production.
These technologies make the viewer’s experience extremely immersive and sophisticated.
While going through lifelike audio-visual experiences is indulging, there’s a certain joy that lies in more raw artistic formats.
Stop motion movies, for instance, are a relatively organic form of animation that can be highly impactful if executed right.
What are stop motion movies?
As the name suggests, stop motion movies don’t involve seamless animation and transitions. Rather, they’re a product of a series of images or frames put together, much like a flipbook.
To create a feeling of movement, the subject is displaced slightly for each shot.
The quick transition from frame to frame gives stop motion movies the raw feel. The result is a fun and retro-looking audio-visual.
Related: 10 Unique Stop Motion Animated Videos You’ll Love
How to create stop motion animations?
Creating stop motion movies is a meticulous and time taking process. The more seamless result you desire the more shots you’ll have to take.
Professionally made stop motion animations may even require capturing a frame after every few millimeters!
Needless to say, the process requires patience and do-overs in abundance.
The making of Chipotle’s Back to the Start advertisement is a great example of how much work goes into creating a professional level stop motion project.
While this is a great artistic level to aspire to, anyone can create fun stop motion movies with some basic skills and equipment.
Here’s a step-by-step process of how you can do that:
Prepping for stop motion movies
Storyboard
Like any other video project, you should begin with building a sturdy foundation in the form of a storyboard.
Sketch out your narrative scene by scene. This will help you plan your shots, angles, character placement, and streamline the overall process.
A storyboard also helps you build an environment for your set and decide which elements to include in each shot.
Moreover, it sets the stylistic theme for your stop motion video.
Related: Video Storyboarding 101 – A Guide for Novices
Subjects and props
First, you need a subject(s) for your project. You can work with 3D models, objects, or even 2D cut-outs.
See if you can get your hands on a 3D printer. It gives you loads of creative room to mold your characters according to your storyline.
It’s important to keep your subjects and your props to scale with the set. A 3D printer can help you keep things proportionate.
If you’re creating 2D models with a foam core, cardboard, or paper, carefully plan and size all the elements to avoid do-overs.
Related: Tips for Character Designing for Explainer Videos
Set
Depending on the nature and magnitude of your project, you will need to create an environment for your stop motion animation.
Set building is a whole art form in itself. The sky is the limit when it comes to how much detail you want to add to your project.
Here’s a two-part video tutorial on how to create a highly detailed stop motion set from scratch.
If you’re on a budget, the set building requires ingenuity. With a little bit of imagination, you can recycle or repurpose otherwise mundane stuff to serve you in set building.
Explore Pinterest and YouTube for DIY inspirations!
Equipment
Camera
A good quality camera is a given for shooting stop motion movies.
Some of the best cameras for this purpose are Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Canon EOS Rebel T6, Canon EOS Rebel T7i, Nikon D500, and Nikon D3300. Read their pros and cons here.
If you lack the skills to operate DSLR cameras, you can always turn to the comfort of your smartphone.
High-quality camera phones like iPhone 10, Google Pixel 5, Galaxy Note 20, Huawei p30, etc. can give equally impactful results.
Related: Blackmagic Pocket 6K vs. Red Komodo: A Comparison
Tripod
Whether you’re using a DSLR or a smartphone, it’s imperative to keep your camera steady while creating stop motion movies.
A tripod is a handy tool as it keeps your camera in place, especially if you want to take multiple shots from the same point.
Camera rig
A camera rig is used to improve the functionality of your camera. It enhances the performances by allowing to shoot from complex angles.
While a tripod helps you shoot from a static angle, camera rigs are designed to help you capture shots while moving.
Camera rigs come in various forms like a shoulder rig, handheld rig, and full-body harness. They can also have space to hold other equipment like microphones, filters, etc.
Lighting
You’ll need some basic lighting equipment for a semi-professional result in your stop motion movies. Usually, an overhead light and at least two lights illuminating the set from the front are needed.
Learn more about how to set up your lighting for videos here.
If you’re working on an amateur stop motion, you can also do with simple lamp lights or even sunlight.
Related:7 Green Screen Mistakes and How to Fix Them
Storage
Since you’ll be taking hundreds of shots (if not more) for your stop motion animation, you need to have enough storage space to save them in one place.
Using multiple storage tools for one project could create a lot of confusion and misplaced files.
A 32GB SD card can roughly store 8000 images. Choose an SD card for your project accordingly.
Back up your files in a hard drive or cloud for extra safety.
Shooting stop motion movies
Once your set, characters, and props are ready, put everything in place. Make sure you set up in an area where you don’t have to regularly move or dismantle everything.
Adjust the lighting to remove any unwanted shadows.
Natural light changes over the day so ensure that it’s not interfering with your setting.
Now start shooting! After this it’s all about taking a photo, moving the subjects a little, taking a photo again.
Keep repeating this process until your subjects complete the course of the narrative.
Editing stop motion animation
Once all of the above is done, you’re ready to upload your shots to software and string them together.
You can do this using stop motion tools like Animoto, Filmora, Dragon Frame, Stop Motion Studio, Stop Motion Pro, and more.
These tools offer quick and intuitive features to put together and edit your shots in no time. Browse around to see which one fits your needs.
If you have some basic skills to use Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom, and Premiere Pro you can get much better and professional-looking results.
Load up your images to Photoshop Lightroom for some basic edits. You can do color correction, remove shadows, or crop out unnecessary elements.
To put together the stop motion animation, you can use Premiere Pro. Make sure you set consistent time duration for frames.
Add music, sound effects, and a voice-over if needed.
Wrapping up
And there you have it! Your stop motion movie is ready. Remember, like with any art form, practice makes perfect stop motion animations.
Don’t shy away from experimenting with different techniques while set building and shooting your images.