Make Regular video look like stop motion

[Mark Suszko]

Your example didn’t make it thru to be seen. But you can make motion video look like stop-motion by applying a change to he frame rate. There are various means for this, depends what effects you have in your system. Motion has some built-in effects for this, there are others. You can also do it thru the speed ramping controls in Final Cut. Try playing with those to see what you can do.

[Grinner Hester]

I just the the camera roll. If shooting a model, I reach in. adjust as needed then move my hands out… rolloing the entire time. If wanting a stop motion vibe to live action, shooting accordingly is key. You want imperfections in motion so your talent will have to do that per your direction. Again, I just roll then pull the frames I want.

[Mark Suszko]

The impression I got from the question was how to add the look after the fact on normal footage.

[Fred Jodry]

When doing it in studio situations, using a strobe light (lights and mirrors?) with a continuous roll take, then pulling the wanted frames might be the answer. In ambiently lighted situations like outdoors, a “sports” type TV camera or high speed film camera is sometimes used. And a strobe wheel shutter (right name?) in front of the camera is not unheard of.

[Mark Suszko]

You guys are over-thinking this:-) We knew how to do this with simple DVE trails effects back when ZZ Topp made all their videos.:-) Just add the delay with the plug-in from Motion and go.

[Fred Jodry]

I also see “PhantomCineToolkit by GlueTools” if your stop motions can be done in software.

[Grinner Hester]

a simple echo or strobe will never look like stop motion. If it’s already shot, you’ll wanna go in and add position/action imperfections on certain frames to make believable. Much more time consuming than shooting them.

[Fred Jodry]

It depends upon the purpose, Hester. What if what you want to grab is smeared by a take longer than 1/80,000 of a second?

[John Heagy]

Since the example didn’t make it I will assume you want it to look like a stop motion miniature shoot. Besides a sharp motion blurless image, and an a steppy frame rate, the key is to simulate a very shallow depth of field. This can be done by blurring the foreground and background leaving an area of focus in the center. It’s helpful to have a shot with foreground and background objects.

I’ve heard this effect described as “Miniaturization” and the “Toy Soldier” look. It most likely was first noticed shooting with the new crop of high speed cameras and the shallow DOF they can exhibit.

John Heagy

[Grinner Hester]

I dunno.
To make it look like stop motion animtation, you’ll have to go in and tweak.