This is part 3 of the Building a set for a stop motion animation. This tutorial begins here: Making a set for stop motion

This isn't a complete tutorial on doing animation. This is just a brief overview of how I did it for this set and animation. I do have lots of tutorials on how to do the actual animating. Just check the links in the left hand column of this page.

If you have watched the video for this project you know that the set up is pretty simple. I am in reality and standing in a room. I switch the switch on the mysterious green device sitting on the table and I am transformed into the animated world. When the switch is switched I fall to the floor.

Then I wake up in the animation.

This picture shows the first shot in the animation. I am laying on the floor then I wake up, stand up, look around then move to the table and switch the switch on the green unit and return back to the real world.

That is a lot of motion for the miniature figure and in order to make it look reasonaby real I shot some footage of myself doing these motions. I lay on the floor, got up, looked around then moved to the green unit and switched the switch.

This way I could carefully watch the video and see how I moved. Then I could move the miniature figure the same way.

I made it easy on myself by loading that video onto my laptop. That way I was right there with the set. I could watch the video of me making the motions and I could freeze it, take a really good look at how I moved. Then I could move the figure the same way.

Here I am making the small change in the figures arm for the next still image to be taken .

I even did some shots of me moving my arms and looking at them. I was wondering what happened to me because I was transformed into a miniature!

If you haven't watched the completed video with animation yet here it is:

StopMotion Explosion: Animate Anything and Make Movies- Epic Films for $2o or less

Stopmotion is an incredibly fun, hands-on way to make amazing films, using simple software, inexpensive equipment, and stuff that's already lying around your house. Stopmotion Explosion will have you making your first stopmotion film within minutes of picking up the book. It's that easy!

Make a Thaumatrope

A thaumatrope is the very first example of the phenomenon of persistence of vision where images merge together. And in a way it is where film and animation started. Two images blur together as you spin it. I have a tutorial on how to make one and I give you four sets of images in a template so you can print them up and make them.
Make a Thaumatrope

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