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Making stop motion might seem a bit daunting at the beginning. Handling small characters and creating specific movements in a reduced and often cramped space is not the easiest of tasks. But believe me, there’s nothing to fear.
One thing you need to understand is that everything has a solution when working with stop motion.
Have you not taken enough frames per second to make your animation smooth? Has your stop motion character fallen? You don’t know how to get rid of your stop motion flickering between frames?
No worries, all you need to do is relax, take a step back, and have a look at this guide. Worst comes to worst you’d need to start over but I promise it won’t be the end of the world.
I put together this article so that you learn some stop motion tricks that will save you some time and early mistakes while starting to animate your puppets for the first time.
After you read through the steps, you won’t think of it as tricky anymore. I promise.
Stop motion takes some time to be done but its results are extremely rewarding!
Ready to learn how to make a stop motion video? Let’s start from the beginning.
What you'll need:
Essential Kit
–Camera: I use a Canon 70D but you can also use a webcam or your smartphone to play around with the technique. However, if you want to avoid some image quality issues or get into stop motion seriously I would recommend investing in a DSLR camera. Not only you can use it to create stop motion but also to get into photography or even film.
–Tripod: Keeping your camera steady while shooting your frames is essential!
A good tripod is key for that, without it your stop motion video will not make any sense.
The sturdier the tripod the better for stability and control. I use a Manfrotto 290 but there are many other brands out there.
If you are planning on using a smartphone as your camera octopus legs or mini tripods are best for these devices.
–Remote control shutter release and battery adapter power cable:
These are not considered essentials in many of the guides out there but I can assure you they are as important as having a camera and a tripod in place.
Why? The answer is very simple: touch your camera slightly while working on a stop motion frame sequence and all your hard work will be thrown under the bus.
Getting a stop motion scene in place can take some considerable time so having a remote control shutter will help you avoid camera shakes.
The same goes for the battery adapter power cable. You never know how long you might need to animate your stop motion so connecting your camera batteries to the light is a must if you don’t want to run out of batteries while you are in the middle of a scene.
Check my post on “Best budget dslr cameras for stop motion animation” to know more.
–Lighting kit
Natural lighting would be great for a normal photoshoot, however stop motion requires a continuous lighting kit.
Why is this? Well, this is because natural lighting changes every second, and although our eyes are not able to tell the difference sometimes our camera will.
If you use a natural source of lighting you’ll get some flickering in every single frame.
This can be really annoying especially if you want your stop motion animation to look legit.
I recommend a set of focal and clip on lights to start with your animation. This needs to be complemented with some thick curtains or some blackout paper to block all light coming from your window.
Head to “ Stop motion lighting-How to get the best light setup for stop motion animation ” to get some ideas.
-Stop motion Animation software or Editing software
If you are just starting, getting both is not necessary. In fact, before I got my stop motion Animation software, I used my DSLR camera to take my stop motion sequences and I would then edit them using Premiere Pro.
But this process was very intuitive and there was no way I could know if I had done something wrong until I took my material to the editing room which led to several failures and re-shoots.
A stop motion animation software will allow you to check your sequences and frames as you go so getting one of these could be very handy.
There are many different versions, easy and difficult/ free and paid: I collected the best selection in this article: “ Best 7 stop motion animation software in 2020”
You can then use an editing software to add transitions, sounds, and effects to your video. If you don’t have a stop motion animation software you can also use your editing software to edit your sequence of frames.
I’ll explain how to do this at the end of this article so if you’d like to find out keep on reading.
Not essential but good to have
This depends on how far you want to go with your puppet design. Stop motion puppets can be made using the simplest of materials, however, there are different types of puppets you can create.
I cover this in my full guide on “Stop motion puppetry-How to make a stop motion puppet”
These are some of the materials you might need
-Craft supplies
-Armatures
-Clay
-Paint
-White foam or wooden heads, mouths, and eyes.
These include a really awesome non-drying clay that will allow you to animate like a pro and several cheap tips on how to make a quick armature from scratch.
Prop kit
-Backgrounds: get some color paper backgrounds. The easiest colors are black, white (you can paint on them using chalk or normal paint), and green (this one can be modified in post-production)
However, you can also use some professional backdrops that will also be useful for other projects such as product and portrait photography. You can also use these as light diffusers or reflectors.
-Craft supplies: you will know better than me what you will need for your set construction. This all depends on your video or stop motion idea and can vary a lot depending on the project. However, I would recommend getting basic craft supplies like clay, paint, and sculpting tools to make your props. Remember that you could also use them on your stop motion puppets.
Getting started with stop motion animation
1.Create your concept and Storyboard
Needless to say, you first need to come up with an idea before you take the leap and start animating for the first time.
My advice for you would be to keep it simple, even if you’ve already had some experience with stop motion.
There’s a certain appeal to this art form that makes it very special. For me particularly, it’s the way in which you can convey very deep emotions through very simple concepts and characters.
So start thinking about a first concept and write an outline.
Remember: the simpler the idea is, the more time you’ll have to explore the art form and learn how to animate with stop motion properly.
Having just one or two characters and sets to start with is also beneficial, since building your stop motion scenario and creating your own characters would take some much needed time and energy.
I always like to reference “Crazy Glue”(1998), made by the incredible Tatia Rosenthal, in order to show people how by using stop motion a very simple concept can mean so much more.
The premise is very straightforward: Can a crazy glue fix a disintegrating marriage and make a couple stick together?
Have a look to find out.
Once you have a concept in mind start working on a rough storyboard.
Grab a pen and take a note of your storyline, you can then translate that into drawings in order to have a visual guide of the actions you’ll need to animate.
You don’t have to be a professional in order to do it. You can make a storyboard with a few lines and notes. It could even look like this:
The point of having a storyboard in place is to help you not to lose track of the actions taking place in your animation.
Keep in mind you’ll need at least 12 frames per second to make a smooth sequence of movements happen.
Create your puppets.
Here’s a summary:
First of all, you would need to know what your character looks like. The easiest way to know this is to do a little bit of research and come up with an initial drawing. You can also take a note of your character’s height and width.
It would be very handy before moving to the next step: creating your stop motion armature. There’s no need to build any if you are using a material like soft clay or a lego puppet to animate your film.
If you’re going for a stop motion puppet some commonly used materials include aluminum wire, toothpicks or even professional pre-made armatures.
You can then cover your stop motion puppet armature with some other materials like cotton wrapped up in plaster and make its head out of wood, white foam, or even aluminum foil.
In order to give your character different facial expressions, you can create different sets of mouths, eyebrows, and eyes.
I’ve covered this topic in full detail in the following article “Stop motion puppetry- How to make a stop motion puppet ”.
3.Create your stop motion set
Your set will have to be big enough for your camera not to get anything else in the frame, especially if you don’t have a wide range of zoom lenses.
Cardboard boxes are great because you can decorate them from the inside out and you can move the sides of them (in case you need to get closer to a character or want to frame it in a different and closer angle)
You just need to create your props and transform that space into your preferred story setting.
Set your camera and lighting kit
You’ll need to secure your camera so it doesn’t move. Get your DSLR camera or phone into a tripod and use dutch tape to secure then into the ground or to a surface.
After that cover your windows completely so that no natural light gets through them and set your lights in a triangle shape.
Your lights will also need to be steady and you’ll have to remember to avoid getting in their way while you shoot.
Once everything’s in place check how everything looks in your camera preview and make any changes before starting with your stop motion animation.
Just to make your life a bit easier I have written a series of articles that explain these topics individually.
Set your frame rate
This means deciding how many frames or pictures per second you would like to capture.
The normal frame rate for a professional stop motion production would be 24 frames (pictures) per second. However, you can make your stop motion animation work with as little as 8 frames per second. It won’t look as smooth as if you were doing 24 or at least 12 frames per second but you will still create an illusion of movement.
Check out the following video to see with your own eyes.
Start capturing frames
Experiment before going for it. The most important things you need to focus on are movements and frames. Come up with a simple action and explore the relationship between these two before you start filming your little story.
If you’re using a clay character or puppet, one thing I like to do in order to warm up with stop motion is to film a small sequence of my character waving its hand.
You can then practice capturing the same scene with fewer or more frames and have a look at the final result.
If you want your character to wave its hand in a relaxed way you will need to move its arm and hand little by little across your frames. But if you want your character to wave frantically as if it was trying for someone to see him then move its hand from one side to the other, not worrying that much about the frames in between.
Once you have your first trial scenes ready play them back and observe the difference between them!
It will take you a bit of practice to understand the relationship between frames and movement but trust me it will be a lot of fun. You will then be good to go and start animating your first video.
These are some tips you should keep in mind:
Capture at least 1 frame per movement.
Shoot in manual and check that your camera is always in focus as you move your characters.
Use a remote shutter release to take your frames. Do not touch your camera as you shoot since your frames will shake.
Use a battery adapter power cable to prevent your camera from running out of batteries.
A stop motion animation software will be beneficial but not crucial (you can check your progress by replay the frames you took) You can also use a tool called “onion skin” which will show you the last frame you shot as well as a live version of what your camera is seeing. This will guide you through your character movements.
PS: Remember to check and play every scene back before you move on to the next one and change your camera position or angle.
Edit your stop motion film
When you have finished shooting your stop motion film you can then take your frames or finished film into an editing software and add additional effects (like sound or music) or transitions (fades in and out or opening and finishing credits and title)
If you have not used a stop motion software for making your stop motion video, don’t panic!
There’s a simple way to convert your frames into a scene. If you are using Premiere Pro you just need to put your pictures into their timeline, select and right-click on them and then click on the option “Nest”.
You will then need to transform those 8/12 or 24 pictures into 1 second by right-clicking on “Speed” and amending the sequence time frame.
If you notice your animation is not working exactly as you were expecting this might be due to an error during the shoot (i.e not taking enough frames per second).
But not to worry! This is not an exact science so if you notice your stop motion animation is not making sense at this point, you can speed or slow things down by using this option in your editing software.
I hope this guide was useful and helped you understand how to start animating your stop motion film.
Congrats! You are now one step closer to become a stop motion animator yourself!
If you have any more questions feel free to read any of my other articles on stop motion.
Happy animating!
-Ana
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