STOP MOTION ANIMATION - Limitless creativity
Stop Motion Animation is the art and craft of taking a series of images and then splicing them together in a series. Think of it as flipping through a picture book. Have you ever taken a series of pages or cards and drew a different image on each one and then flipped through the card rapidly? It creates a moving picture. This is the theory that all movies are made on too! A movie is just a series of pictures that are played so fast that the eye and mind are tricked into believing it is real.
(Above is a screen shot of a soldier animation I made. It took me about 30 minutes to do the whole thing and it was my first animation. Just to see how it is done. )
Here is the series of pictures I took to make this animation of the soldier. I took a picture, moved the model a little bit then took another picture. I did this until the whole motion of the model bringing up the knife was complete. After this I imported all the pictures into Movie Maker and turned them into an animation. It is really an easy process.
Dragonslayer 7 Meteor - This is the latest installment of the DragonSlayer Series of animations. This is a fun animation that takes place in a blacksmith shop. The whole video is about 2 minutes in length. I show you the making of the set, shooting the animation and you can watch it too! DragonSlayer 7 Meteor
This is the set for the latest adventure in the Dragonslayer series. I show you about making the set and the various parts and the special effects including a breaking wall and a smoke effect - The DragonSlayer Skyrim Animation
Can you Make a fantastic stop motion puppet? You sure can! One of my web visitors made this T-Rex using my techniques for puppet making. So, if you want to give it a try I say go for it! You can see more about this T-Rex and how Camo made it right here: Making a T-Rex for stop motion.
Dragonslayer Temple Animation Watch my latest stop motion animation in the saga of the dragonslayer. In this episode our dragonslayer battles the dragon. I also have lots of great stuff on how to make sets like this: The DragonSlayer 7 Temple Stop Motion Animation
I have a tutorial here that shows you how to do three different special effects for animation. They include flames, a flying missile and a shield that flies through the air like the picture shown at left. How to do special effects for stop motion animation
The dragons temple is the set for the next installment of the stop motion animation. I show you how I built this set including lighting and some really neat backlit stained glass windows. Making the Dragon's Temple
I build a foam dragon and show you the process of making foam figures step by step. How to make the wire armature and how to secure the feet. How to make a foam figure for animation
The Making of the DragonSlayer 7 Journey Stop Motion Animation They This was a moderately complex animation and I shows you how the set was built and how I did the animation. You can also watch the finished animation The Making of the Dragonslayer 7 Journey Stop Motion Animation
You can also watch the 90 second animation.
Use Pipe Cleaners to Make a Stop Motion Animation Pipe cleaners are a terrific way to make an animation. I have a complete tutorial here including everything like the set, the story and more. Pipe cleaner Stop Motion Animation
Use a Diorama New Tutorial on how to use a Diorama to make a stop motion animation. I created a 1 minute long animation with a WW2 Diorama. I show you some tricks and techniques that I used. Use a Diorama to Make a Stop Motion Animation
Use Clay Using a wire armature and playdoh to make an animated lizard. This shows the basic concept of using a wire armature which is used in most stop motion animation characters. The lizard Animation
Use Paper A Paper Knight A video tutorial that shows you how to do an animation using a simple drawing. This stop motion work uses a drawing of a knight. It uses 114 images, took me 90 minutes to do and the animation lasts 28 seconds. See the Tutorial here
The Magic Egg Animation Project I am currently working on this new animation where I built a little booth for the egg to grow in. Chec out the project and see how I did it here - The magic egg animation project
Making a Stop Motion Animation Jig - Here is a video that shows you a jig I made to do a stop motion animation project. A jig is very important, particularly if you need to take a picture every day over the course of months like I did for this project. See the Animation Jig Video
Stop Motion Animation Used to be a rather tedious task that required sophisticated equipment and a lot of time. But todays technology has changed that. If you have a cheap digital camera and a computer with Windows XP you have everything you need to make your own stop motion animations. Of course you also need creativity! I have plenty more animations that you can watch and I have some tutorials that show you exactly how to make your own. With this type of animation the sky is the limit! You can really fire up your imagination and do some amazing things - and all you need is a digital camera and a computer! The Creativity of Stop Motion Animation
Here is another animation I made from a piece of wire. The little wireman pokes his head into the picture in several different places, waves then leaves. Want to try some stop motion animation yourself? I have a tutorial
RESOURCES TO MAKING STOP MOTION ANIMATION
To beginners, making an animated movie can seem like voodoo magic. And in fact, until recently, animation was expensive and time-consuming. But now with the help of Beginner's Guide to Animation, anyone can make animated movies, using a digital camera, basic software, and a computer. The book begins with an illustrated guide to setting up a simple animation studio at home, including a list of essential items. Then, new animators hit the ground running with six innovative, instructive projects designed to develop technical skills and explore the potential of animation. A full collection of scannable templates makes it even easier to get started and to finish up. Tips, tricks, and clear instructions on editing, scoring, even making your own show reels and shorts make this the complete one-volume guide to amazing friends and family-and everyone on YouTube!-with great I-made-it-myself animation.
The Klutz Book of Animation: Make Your Own Stop Motion Movies Welcome to the wide-open world of animation. It used to take an empire the size of the Magic Kingdom to make an animated film. And to get viewers, you'd need access to cineplexes or television networks. In other words, you were either in the industry or in the audience. That was then. Today, creating animation for a potential audience of 600 million requires a laptop, a camera, and an internet connection. That's it. The barriers have come down, the people have taken over, and the results are amazing. The Klutz Book of Animation is a complete how-to treatment of this newly accessible art form. It combines practical instruction and ready-to-shoot scripts. Real-life samples of all the projects are viewable online - the perfect marriage of book and web. Speaking of web, the software you'll need is available as a free download. It's plug and play on any computer (PC or Mac). Attached to the book is a piece of low-tech, non-toxic clay, ready to be molded into a million different heroes starring in a million different films - all of them animatedly yours.
Secrets Of Clay Animation Revealed 3! Secrets of Clay Animation Revealed 3 is a book teaching all methods the experts use to make stop motion films from start to finish. After reading Secrets you will know how to create several types of armatures, learn how puppets are sculpted, make a motion control rig, light your sets, make your own surface gages, use video reference, chroma key, capture programs and more.
This authoritative primer of the craft skills required in model animation teaches the basic building blocks of the creation of character driven animation. Add this and +1 code is just below the Horizontal Rule
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New Tutorial with animation - The DragonSlayer Skyrim 
How to do special effects 
New Tutorial: Making the Dragon's Temple 
New Tutorial: Creating a foam animated figure (dragon)
New Article: Creating a professional level character for animation The series of DragonSlayer animations continues on and now our character has come to the point where he meets the dragon. That means I need a dragon! I have started the process for this and I have some early insights and tips for how something like this is done. 
Building sets for Stop Motion Animation This is part of the set for the Dragonslayer 7 Part 6 "Castle". It's the castle perched on top of its mountain. I show you about how to make a set like this and how to use it. It's an eight foot mountain and castle in my living room! I also have the animation you can watch. 
A look at Ball and Socket Armatures They are a fantastic way to build a character in a stop motion animation. I show you what they are and how they work
Advanced Topics for Stop Motion Animation (And a Video) I created the DragonSlayer 7 Adventure Begins" video and have also creatred this tutorial using that video as an example. I show you some advanced techniques of stop motion. I don't mean these are techniques for pixar or disney. I mean they are just some good techniques you can use to make a better animation. I cover things like lighting, building a set and doing transition shots. 
Making a Miniature Set for a Stop Motion Animation I created a complete one room set with furniture to shoot a video sequence for the DragonSlayer series of Videos. This is a tutorial showing you how I made it and how you can put together a good looking miniature set cheaply and easily. 
The Fast Easy Guide to Make an Animation If you are an absolute beginner to animation and want to know how it is done I have a tutorial here that shows you how to make one and explains all the important things you need to know. You can have your first animation done in half an hour. And you probably have software already on your computer that you can use. 
9 Creative Techniques for stop motion animation. This tutorial comes with a video and an animation. I show you a setup I made with a dry erase board. And I do an animation that shows the 9 creative techniques. 
The sky truly is the limit with this craft! Let me explain. Almost anything at all can be brought to life with this technique. I poured a pile of sand onto a piece of paper and turned it into an animation (The Sand Whirlpool) The picture on the left is of the animation I made. It starts out as a pile of sand it then grows arms and spins like a galaxy. Easy to do and fun. You see, you don't need anything fancy to make an animation. You just need a bit of creativity. 
