Stop-Motion Animation Software

BrianW · 09-19-2006, 09:23 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, 10:03 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, 10:21 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, 11:42 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, 12:03 PM

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, 12:24 PM

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, 02:14 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, 03:20 PM

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

CJ

BrianW · 09-21-2006, 06:28 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, 08:10 PM

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

Jason Harbaugh · 09-21-2006, 08:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul McElligott

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

No it is the professional full version of Vegas 6 for $99, not Vegas Movie Studio which is the consumer version. It doesn't come with DVD Architect though. It went on sale just at BandH right before v7 was released last week.

Here's the link to the sale item: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/cont...goryNavigation

It is an incredible bargain. Hell it is cheaper to buy that, then buy the upgrade to version 7, than just purchase version 7 on its own.

BrianW · 09-21-2006, 09:57 PM

I ordered Sony Vegas 6.0, but I see that it requires Windows XP to run, which I don't have. So at some point, I'll have to purchase Windows XP to run it. Still, it looks like it's worth it, not just for stop-motion animation, but as a worthwhile tool to finally get my home videos digitized, produced, and archived. Thanks for the tip.

But in the mean time, I found THIS.

It's an open-source stop-motion program (called, what else, Stopmotion) for Linux. It's definitely a toy rather than a tool, but it looks like fun. And it's something I can get running while I'm arranging to build or acquire a WinXP box for the real deal, Vegas 6.0.

Quote:

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...

Matt, if you want, I'll be happy to get the Linux program up and running in the next week and report back. I don't know if you have ever run Linux, but if Stopmotion turns out to be a lot of fun, you may want to look into getting a Linux box up and running. And, hey, you can't beat free fun!

Thanks, again, for everyone's help.