Have you ever made a flick book?
You know, when you make a series of doodles in the corner of your page, over a series of pages and then you flick through the corners and your doodle looks like it’s moving?
If you have, congratulations! You’ve started on the long, addictive road of stop motion animation!
We thought that, since you’re a creative bunch of chaps, we’d help you make the most out of your creativity and pass on one of our favourite methods of creating a movie: Stop Motion Animation.
Every director has to start somewhere, whether you’re running all over your garden and home, shooting films of your family and friends, or whether you’re sitting in your computer room creating the most explosive action packed animation ever to grace your computer, the moment you flick the power button on your recorder, one thing’s for certain; you’re about to create movie magic.
So, whether you’re stepping out in the sun for a spell, or settling yourself down inside the house, prepare to get your director’s hat on folks, here are a couple of tips on how to make the best stop motion animation movie!
Step 1- Create a Story Board
A story board is a great way to get your movie ideas down on the page before you start creating your characters. To help you organise the scenes, split up the story to ensure that you include a:
- Start
- Middle
- End
You can then bulk them out with speech and directions.
Step 2-Create the Characters
This stage is great fun!
Set out your characters and start creating them. You can use paper or clay such as the amazing animation style of claymation, alternatively, you can use toys such as teddies, dolls, cars etc. Lego is a favourite when it comes to stop motion animation due to how easy and effective it is to get the figures moving.
Step 3- Film Your Creation
Filming each scene takes time, dedication and a lot of laughs.
You can make your characters move faster by emphasising their poses and slower by making very little changes in the way they’re standing e.g if you’re trying to make your characters run fast, don’t use as many frames as you would use if you wanted them to walk slowly.
Step 4- Add the Computer Touch
Uploading your amazing movie to the computer; now let’s tie everything together. You can run each frame together however fast you like, you can even add a little extra animation if you wish and never underestimate the power of background music!
Now you’re ready to share your masterpiece with your friends and family. Stop motion animation has been around for donkey’s years, yet before the introduction of the internet it wasn’t so easy to share. These days, however, any masterpiece from your childhood (or your parents’ childhood) can easily be transferred from cine to DVD, and what better way to get the best possible finish to your home made movie magic than by contacting us on 0800 592433 to help you take your stop motion animation to the next level!
