Stop-Motion Animation Software

BrianW · 09-19-2006, 08:23 PM

Does anyone here know of any software that will allow me to take jpg files from a digital camera and assemble them into a movie? I would like to do stop-motion animation, but digitally. I know the film equipment is available to do this, but c'mon, this is the 21st century!

I thought if anybody would know, this forum would. Thanks.

Matt-Z · 09-19-2006, 09:03 PM

Hey Brian! Yeah, what's up with this? This is a great question. I too have stop motion aspirations. Plus, how about time lapse stuff? I'd love to be able to do just what you're talking about. Hmmm...

Allen Marshall · 09-19-2006, 09:21 PM

I dont know of any stop-motion programs (not saying there aren't any). Here's what I used to do. I used to shoot the shots then import the folder with the pictures into windows movie maker and one by one bring the images to the timeline. In the options under advanced you can pick a picture duration which basically translates to framers per second. I always brought it down to .25 or 4 frames per second and it looked smooth enough for my preference. If you have windows, that might be an interesting option.

Thats an option if you can't find a better way to do it.

ChristopherDAC · 09-20-2006, 10:42 AM

Well, if you convert the pictures to .GIF format, you can make them into a .GIF animation, but I gather that's not quite what you want. Possibly something like the GIMP picture-editing package, or Adobe's current bundle, will make MPEG or at worst MJPEG files from images?

Radioman970 · 09-20-2006, 11:03 AM

I used Sony Vegas to do that and even put in some voice work that was easily sync'd on the time line with the animation. It's a hell of fun thing to do.

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Paul McElligott · 09-20-2006, 11:24 AM

I think a lot of the mid-to-higher end editing and compositing software can do this (I'm pretty sure you can do it in After Effects).

Tim Burton shot Corpse Bride this way, using a modified version of a Canon digital SLR.

Jason Harbaugh · 09-20-2006, 01:14 PM

Sony Vegas does it easily, with little effort from you. It can bring in an image sequence and automatically make each 1 frame and create the video for you. You just need to name the files in sequential order image001, image002, etc.

Pick it up for $99 at www.bhphotovideo.com (version 6)

Although I think most editors can do this, but I doubt you will find any as good as Vegas for a hundred bucks.

Christ Reynolds · 09-20-2006, 02:20 PM

if youre going to buy a piece of software for video, vegas is well worth the $100.

CJ

BrianW · 09-21-2006, 05:28 PM

Thanks, everyone! I didn't think to look at video editing software, and Googling "stop-motion animation software" (no quotes) didn't turn up anything useful.

I'll give Sony Vegas a shot!

Paul McElligott · 09-21-2006, 07:10 PM

The full Sony Vegas is not $100. That's their consumer product based on Vegas. The full Vegas is $500-$1000.