Doing so preserves the illusion that the objects in the scene are moving at real speed. The White Balance setting works the same way, with the option to lock or unlock the color temperature of the recorded shots. Alternately, switch to Fixed exposure to maintain the same exposure level throughout the video. The Exposure setting can be set to Continuous, which adjusts the brightness of the scene for every shot based on where you set the exposure reticle.įor example, if a dark object crosses the frame, the background will get brighter so the object is more visible. When you start a new project in iStopMotion, you’re immediately asked to set those. In addition to having consistent lighting, you want to reduce variation in the focus, exposure, and white balance that the camera picks up. With that setup, the iPhone can be locked down on a tripod and not susceptible to tiny nudges when you capture each shot, which would be exaggerated in the animation. The software runs only on the iPad (or iPad mini), but it has a secret weapon: a separate iStopCamera app can run on an iPhone or iPod touch and be controlled from the iPad. Several stop motion apps are available for iOS, but the one I prefer is iStopMotion for iPad from Boinx Software. So find a location where you can control every aspect of the light. When your movie is played back, shadows will jump and speed across the scene in a distracting way. While you’re adjusting the elements of a scene, the sun continues to travel without regard for your mini-masterpiece. Sunlight streaming through a window can be stunning when shooting normal video or still photos, but it’s unreliable for stop motion. (To learn more and see stop motion in action, watch the free video What is stop motion, and how does it work?)įor that reason, one of the top considerations before filming is finding a location that offers consistent lighting. It involves setting up a scene, taking a still photograph, and then adjusting the scene in a small way so that after you put all the photos together, the objects in the scene appear to move. Stop motion animation is incredibly time-consuming. You can make your own stop motion movie using an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.Īnd patience-you’ll need a lot of patience.īonus: It’s a great activity for kids on rainy afternoons or long airplane rides! What most appeals to me about stop motion, however, is that you don’t need a Hollywood budget or expensive equipment to do it. Jason and the Argonauts wouldn’t be as memorable without Ray Harryhausen’s creatures, and who could forget the original King Kong or even fully animated movies like The Nightmare Before Christmas? Once done, the handy Send To iMovie (or Final Cut Pro) option allows for easy export to YouTube, MobileMe, iPhone, and other presets from those applications.Stop motion animation was key to many of the first special effects in movies. User adjustable grids and title/action safe overlays also aid production. Markers allow you to plot out your events on the timeline, and the movie overlay and soundtrack functions allow animating to audio for lip synch and/or rotoscope work. The onion-skinning feature makes seeing what you’re doing (even replacing a middle frame) much easier. There are plenty of keyboard shortcuts to keep your workflow humming, and you can even use the Apple Remote for various capture and playback tasks. Once you are set up and working, the software is quick and easy (at least with video sources). Also not supported are FireWire based DVCPRO HD cameras nor popular AVCHD cameras. This means you can’t get live video feedback on screen as you move your props around, which hugely slows down your animation process. Note, however, that under OS X 10.6.5 and 10.6.6 support for most Canon DSLRs was lost for iStopMotion Pro, although the company says it is working on a fix. Disappointingly, while many Nikon and Canon DSLRs are supported, the modern Live View feature that works over USB is not supported with iStopMotion Pro. Boinx’s Website has a long list of cameras that have been tested, but not all of them work. Video capable cameras attached over SDI (Serial Digital Interface), HD-SDI, or HDMI connections are also supported if you have an appropriate video capture card. You can use a variety of cameras with iStopMotion Pro-it supports FireWire DV/HDV cameras, as well as many webcams, point and shoots, and DSLRs. I’d rather use better tools later in the process that I can edit and tweak rather than lock in a look at acquisition. A serious limitation, however, is that these filters have to be, and can only be, applied at the moment of capture-no changing your mind later. As you animate, there is a very rudimentary on-capture color correction tool available that applies only to the frame you are about to capture (but not prior frames), as well as a Tilt Shift filter that can be used on the current frame to give larger sets a miniaturized look.
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