A Beginner’s Guide to Making Stop- Motion Films

Animation is for everyone. You don’t need to be a master artist or a computer genius

to be an animator. If you’ve ever wanted to tell a story through artistic visuals but

don’t have the drawing skills or fancy tech, this beginner’s guide to making stop-motion films is for you.

Develop a Storyboard

Stop-motion is the art of taking an object, manipulating it within the camera frame,

and taking a sequence of photos, then making those objects come alive through

editing. Even if you plan on making a short video, you’ll need to take many pictures

and keep track of your progress. A storyboard puts your visuals and movements into

a sequence of panels so you can refer back to your ideas throughout the shooting

process. You don’t need to be an amazing artist to do this; in fact, you’re more than

welcome to draw stick figures.

Establish the Right Environment

The most important tip in this beginner’s guide is to avoid natural lighting when

making a stop-motion film. If you don’t, subtle light changes you didn’t notice during

the shooting process will become painfully apparent when you combine all the

photos. You also don’t want the frames to shift due to minute camera movements.

To avoid these issues, take your pictures in an area that doesn’t receive natural light

and lock down the camera to keep it steady. You can also use a remote shutter

release button so you don’t have to touch the camera to take photos.

Set Up Your Main Characters

Once your settings and camera are established, it’s time to set up your main

characters. However, “main characters” is a loose term in this sense. Depending on

your idea for the film, your main character could be a ball and the story could just be

the ball rolling across the screen. And while many stop-motion animation studios

make their own detailed figures out of various materials, like wire, clay, paint, and

cloth, you don’t have to. Thanks to the long and amazing history of action figures,

you can now buy high-quality, detailed, poseable figurines that are ready for action.

Start Taking Pictures

The smoother you want your animation to look, the higher your frames per second

(fps) needs to be. The fps can vary, with professional animation studios typically

using 40 to 120 fps. Beginners, though, can use about 10 fps and still get a nice

result. To make a 30-second video with 10 fps, you need to take 300 pictures,

moving the object slightly between each photo.

Upload and Edit Your Photos

Many editing software options are easy to learn and allow you to upload your photos,

add sound effects, and set the desired frame rate. Remember, your frame rate is

how quickly the program will play the photos—the higher your frame rate, the shorter

your video will become. Then, the rest is entirely up to you! You can add music or

record voiceover or sounds, and once that is done, you’ll have your very own stop-motion film.