Stop Motion Sunday

Sullivan had a video on his blog over the weekend (which I'm too lazy to go look up): a stop-motion movie about some mean girl Barbies which was created with a Nikon D60 and some software to stitch all the stills together. Inspired, I set out to see if I could make my own.

I did!

My original goal was to write my own software to stitch the hundreds of JPGs together (easy), using my own (to be invented) tweening algorithm to smooth out the between-frame transitions (hubris). Instead, I used a trial version of Adobe Premier.

As far as story goes... there really isn't one. I just grabbed some stuff off a shelf and made it go. The first 2/3s is the last "shoot" I did, in daylight; the last 1/3 was done the night before, in the room's compact fluorescent lighting. I just stuck them together to reach the length of the song I wanted to use.

Technically, it has a lot of problems. But I know what they are: inconsistent lighting, rough camera motion, inattention to detail, etc.. So, in theory, I could do better next time - don't rely on daylight, set the camera's white balance before starting, don't try subtle camera motion with the tripod or its swivel ball head, slow down a lot for slow shots, sweep the floor for low shots, etc.. And maybe I'll try again someday.

But, what I really learned was this: now that I'm 40, I shouldn't spend all day rolling and crawling around on the floor, pushing toy cars and Star Wars figurines like an 8 year old. My legs and back are sore as fuck today.

3 thoughts on “Stop Motion Sunday

  1. Cris

    I’m really impressed, in spite of your self-criticism. (That’s the trouble with one’s own art. You only see your mistakes.)

    Any idea what software the video on Sullivan used?

    Also, sorry about your poor decapitated Skywalker.

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