Dropbear's Stop Motion Tips

Greetings and welcome to the second broadcast from Dropbear! ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ

Stop motion animation is just as much as a technical art form as it is creative and there are some really simple things you can do to immensely improve the quality of your animations.

Tip #1 Use controlled, constant lighting

One of the most common mistakes I see when people are starting out in stop motion, is animating without controlling the light. Any lighting changes from an external source such as outside your windows will cause exposure shifts in your shots and therefore create flicker in your final animation.

So make sure you black out your space by closing the blinds of your windows to stop the natural light entering your work space and use a constant light source such as a lamp or photographic studio lights.

Tip #2 Stabilise your camera

Your camera needs to be rock solid. If your camera moves, even the smallest amount during your shoot, the framing will change over time and mess up your animation. Use shot bags on your tripod legs, or as an alternative you can hot -glue your tripod legs to the floor. This works for both wooden and tiled floors and won’t damage the floor.

Tip #3 Work backwards

If you have a complex setup that you want your animation to resolve at, work backwards. It’s much easier to set up your final shot of your sequence and work backwards instead of trying to move things into place from the beginning. Once you’ve finished, all you need to do is reverse your sequence in post.

In the above animation the words 99% SUGAR FREE needed to blast out of the rocket like smoke. To achieve this I created the numbers and letters out of hobby fill (the stuff that's inside soft toys) on a piece of perspex. This was shot against a blue screen and animated in reverse going into the rocket. In post it was reversed and composited into the shot of the rocket taking off.

Last call for Xmas Print deliveries

Christmas is a jolly time to remind your loved ones that you’re thinking of them. If you need some last minute gifts, I have a range of prints and new artwork still available for sale via the Dropbear Emporium. To make sure they arrive in time for Christmas all orders need to be placed before 13th December for postage within Australia and 9th December USA, UK and major European destinations.

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Till next time.

Bye for now

Dropbear ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ

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59 Luscombe Street, Brunswick East, VIC 3057
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