You may not realize it, but your favorite scene or movie could be created using Stop Motion technique. As defined by Wikipedia, “Stop motion (also known as stop-action or frame-by frame) is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own. The object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence.”

Movies and tv shows such as The Star Wars Trilogy, Indiana Jones Series, The Nightmare before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach, Coraline, Wallace and Gromit, Gumby, and Robot Chicken have used the stop motion technique to create the entire show/movie or part of it.

Stop motion animation started with a movie created by Albert E. Smith and J. Stuart Blackton for The Humpty Dumpty Circus in 1898 and has continuously evolved into different variations such as Stereospopic, Go Motion and Computer Generated Imagery (CGI).

Stereoscopic stop-motion technique is able to capture 3D visual information to create the illusion of depth. An example of this technique is the Coraline movie by Tim Burton. This is the first all stop motion 3D movie.

Go Motion technique is a combination of computer programmed motion and traditional hand manipulation. This technique can be seen in movies like The Empire Strike Back and Jurassic Park.

CGI has taken over stop motion as serious special effects in movies, however, Robot Chicken and many Tim Burton films still use the traditional hand manipulated stop motion technique due to the unique look and feel it creates.

Over the past few years, Common Craft have created online “in Plain English” videos using the stop motion technique and paper cut-outs. They have made over 30 videos and their videos have been viewed over 10 million times. Their creative technique along with their product “explanation” they have created an amazing online following and some of their client list includes Ford Sync, LinkedIn and Google Reader.

The process is quite simple, but it takes a lot of time, planning and patience. If you wanted to move an object across the screen (like a pencil) you would take photo of the pencil then move the pencil to the right ever so slightly and then take another photo. Repeat this process until you have a complete video. For every second of video, you would require to take about 10 photos or more.

I thought that I would attempt to make a stop motion video. The only equipment I needed was a tripod, digital camera, large enough memory card to hold plenty of photos, proper lighting, whiteboard, whiteboard markers, coloured paper, tape and markers. The software I used was iPhoto and iMovie. For tips on how to create a stop motion video I referred to the website PhotoJoJo.

It took me 9 hours to complete my entire video from creating the objects and adding in titles and music. The video below was my third attempt to create a stop motion video. I learned a few tricks during my first two attempts. The first one was if you think you’ve taken enough photos, take more. It is easier to remove photos than add them afterward. The second one was check your photos every so often. Its amazing what you might miss when taking photos. You may think that an object has been removed from the frame, but it hasn’t and you want to limit the amount of photos you might have to edit afterward.

You can find the short stop motion animation video called 365 in 54 on SilenceIT’s YouTube channel.