Animation Source Forums

Alright, this is something really cool that used to be used quite often for monster films or a kids show some of you may remember, Gumby. You can easily do this at home, its really neat because of that, provided you have the patience and time to do it. You can take a clay figure and video a frame of it then freeze it, move it slightly in the way you want, take frame, repeat. When your done, watch the video and it will look like the figure moved like a real living thing. If you've seen some of those old black and white giant monster films, like the Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, It Came From Beneath the Sea, and 200 Million Miles to Earth. Ray Harryhausen is a master of this technique and did the monsters in the movies I just mentioned, if you see his name in an old movie, likely it will have some amazing stop motion effects. If you have a camera, some clay, and a lot of time a patience, you should try this at home, it could be really fun.

Oh yes, I just LOVE stop-motion. It gives animation a 3D look without everything being dolled up on a computer. I just think it's magical, if done correctly, how a simple nine-inch puppet or clay model comes alive, and seems to have its own personality. Take Jack Skellington (from The Nightmare Before Christmas) as an example. When I see a screenshot of him, all I see is a simple lifeless model. But if you watch the movie, he comes across as being endearing and full of energy. It is simply wonderful.

I've tried doing stop-motion myself, but I find that I simply do not have the patience, not to mention any inspired ideas. Heck, I don't really have the patience for animation in general.

(On a different note, I feel this would probably be more at home in the Animation/Cartoon section).

I would've put it there but you see this kinda thing is used for both live action and fully animated features and started in live action movies like King Kong and other black and white movies so it could go in ether place. I do like a Nightmare Before Christmas, it was a great example of the power of Stop Motion animation as opposed to computer generated 3D. I feel Stop Motion is suporior due to it looking realer, I just watched It Came From Beneath the Sea and the monster looked very realistic. Sure it takes a lot of time but when done right has an amazing result like you said because the models can look alive.

Man I remember one time last year during a field trap to a museum there was an area on animation. Me and my friends did one where it takes an automatic pic but there are only a few frames. Anyway in my favorite part of that area was a small area where you could make a stop animation movie. ( Only 400 pics long ). Now I had bought some rocks and I made a movie there using all 400 pics. It was awesome. I had them moving around and I even made a few of them drive an agate I got on and off the screen. I found out that if you take the pics very fast you can show your hand moving on the screen at an normal speed. I was so proud of that little movie that I continue to wish I was able to save that movie. But now stop animation is one of my favorite ways to make a movie ^^