How it’s Made: Stop Motion Animation a Behind-the-Scenes Look

Stop motion animation is an extremely technical process in which artificial movements are produced through a series of drawings or movements captured one-by-one on film. Often produced in studios using highly complex scene layouts in which very minute or small changes in the position of an object or figure are recorded in a frame-by-frame procedure to produce the illusion of object movement, hence the name stop motion animation. You’ll learn a lot as we explore how it’s made. Stop motion, despite being one of the earliest forms of animation, continues to amaze audiences to this day and we’re showing you how.

Behind-the-Scenes Stop Motion

Stop motion animation can have several powerful effects on the viewer. Not only does it engage and attract the audience’s eye, it was also extremely popular for many years until various types of digital animation would come in to take center stage.

But what happens on the set when stop motion is being produced and, more importantly — how is stop motion made?

A behind-the-scenes look at stop motion films such as The Nightmare Before Christmas, Frankenweenie, and distant relatives like Claymation sheds some light on how stop motion animations are produced.

In the simplest form, nearly anyone could technically film a stop motion film.

Here’s how:

• Pictures are taken of the subject in various stages or iterations of movement.
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• The more pictures that are taken and the smaller the iteration between each photo, the more realistic or fluid the stop motion footage will appear.
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• All photos are then uploaded to the appropriate movie making software for manipulation.
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• The photos are aligned and put into the appropriate order for final viewing.
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• Upon completion of the footage, the addition of music, soundtracks, or other simulated effects will be synced with the footage.
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• Voice overs are added to bring the stop motion film to life.

Want to learn more about stop motion and how it’s made? Give Beverly Boy Productions a call at 888-462-7808!

Tools for the Job

Producing a stop motion animation requires some basic tools even in the simplest production form.

While even someone with camera, tripod, and essential editing software could potentially produce a stop motion animation, this type of is the most common materials and tools used on producing stop motion films range from:

• Multiple camera to catch various angles. 
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• A tripod or multiple tripods to capture multiple views.
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• A computer that is capable of hosting large image files and various types of animation and editing software.
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• Editing software programs such as Windows Movie Maker, iMovie, MonkeyJam, or various others.
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• Various materials used to create scenes and characters such as clay, legos, paint, pencils, bottle tops, plastic, household utensils, paper, etc.

Types of Stop Motion Animation

Now that you’ve got an idea of how it’s made, stop motion animation features include several different forms or types of the animation that artists use. To help you understand each type of stop motion animation we’ve put together a list of the primarily forms most used today:

• Claymation – this is the use of three-dimensional clay characters and objects or scenes that are crafted out of clay against a background for filming.
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• Pixelation – this is the use of animated human images that are captured frame-by-frame for filming.
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• Found Objects – this style of stop motion involves the use of various objects found around the home, office, or local store to produce scenes and characters for the stop motion production.
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• Cut Out – the use of individually cut-out, two-dimensional characters and scene items that are made out of paper and illustrations to produce the stop motion animated film.

Team Up with Team Beverly Boy

Now that you know how it’s made, stop motion animations probably sound like fun, don’t they? Want to learn more about how it’s made?

Stop motion animation specialists, Beverly Boy Productions can connect you with our local stop motion animation studios that are ready to produce your next film — just give us a call at 888-462-7808!