- Research
- Storyboarding
- Getting Equipped
Research
Choosing what kind of animation to do- Bearing in mind that its our first attempt at stop motion, and that I'm not particularly computer savvy myself, I decided to start by checking out a few SIMPLE stop motion movies to give me some inspiration. This was one of my favourites.
I particularly liked this one because the creator has used simple props such as Plasticine, which is easily moulded into different shapes and they have also used the household environment as the scene.
Because I'm not particularly artistic, and because the technological part of the production will probably be a challenge for me, I would like to use simple Plasticine shapes and a household set for my production. The creator of this stop-motion also makes particularly good use of the sound too further impress the effect of the animation. Stopmotioncentral.com also suggest the use of clay, or claymation. 'The
good
thing
about
clay
animation
is
that
you
are
only
limited
by
your
imagination.
Clay
is a
very
versatile
medium.
It
can
be
moulded
and
shaped
in
to
anything
your
imagination
can
come
up
with'.
Getting some tips to get started- Before taking the plunge, it's also a good idea gather some tips from some off the many fantastic websites which specifically focus on stop motion animation. Here are some of the top tips I came across:
- Create a storyboard- get an idea of what your story is going to be. Make sure it has a start, middle and end, and that it tells some kind of story.
- Decide on characters- Decide what characters are going to be in your movie and decide what materials they are going to be made from. Whatever materials you use, keep it simple, there's less chance of bit falling off and getting lost.
- Scene- Create a scene or backdrop. Old cardboard boxes can make a good set, decorated with cut-outs from magazines.
- Lighting- household lighting is fine, you can use a few simple table lamps. To avoid shadows or soften the lighting make sure its cross lit by place lamps at either side of the set
- Make a list of all the materials you will need and get them all ready before you start. Each time you leave your production and come back to it you risk losing place of where all your pieces are, or somebody may have disturbed you set.
Storyboarding
Storyboarding is a great way of planning out your stop motion production and saving time and energy in the editing process. It will give you something to reference while creating the movie, leaving you to focus on the technical side and it will also help you to decide what materials you will need. Here is the storyboard Ive created for our production.
Getting Equipped
Because we have decided on a relatively simple claymation the only materials I needed to source was the Plasticine, the camera and stop motion app. The plasticine we bought was newplast and was available online for around £2.20 or at Hobby Craft for £2.99 were we bought it.
There are a wide variety Stop Motion animation apps and programmes available ranging in price and quality. luckily my co-producer is own an I-phone and Macbook so we are planning to use the free app
Stop Motion Studio by Cateateravailable on itunes: https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/stop-motion-studio/id441651297?mt=8
Stop Motion Studio is a four star customer rated app that uses ultra HD resolution. We can create the animation using Sam's phone as the camera and then easily export it to the Macbook for editing.
Here are a few of those websites I used to get some tips on getting started:
http://www.edenproject.com/blog/index.php/2013/02/how-to-animate-stop-motion-tips-from-aardman/
http://www.stopmotioncentral.com/bestcameras.html
http://digital-photography-school.com/5-tips-for-making-a-stop-motion-video/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mtu2dffLRTk
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