Make Regular video look like stop motion

[Adam Taylor]

much stopmotion animation is done by shooting “doubles” ie, every frame is shot twice, so in effect your video will be running at 12frames per second (in the UK).

Different frame rates do get used for effects, such as camera pans.
These will usually be shot on “singles” – but remember to also animate the characters on singles as well, otherwise you get a bizarre effect which gives you a smooth camera motion with a very staccato character. If you are really unlucky, it can even look as if the character is moving backwards every other frame if they are animated for doubles but shot for singles.

The other thing to remember, which is often forgotten, is that in stopmotion there is no motion blur. Unless you have an expensive motion control camera than can expose the shot during a move, then everything will be clean and sharp when exposed.

Thats what gives stopmotion its characteristic motion, now apply those parameters to your video and you should be able to get a pretty ok look.
or you could actually shoot it as if it were stopframe…but that will take you ages.

adam

Adam Taylor
Video Editor/Audio Mixer/ Compositor/Motion GFX/Barista
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK

http://www.sculptedbliss.co.uk

[Adam Taylor]

sorry – depth of field is not key to making something look like stopframe although in the right place it could help sell an effect.

Maybe if you want it to look like it was shot on your kitchen table, then you would probably get that effect due to a lack of decent lighting.

I worked on two worldwide syndicated stopframe shows for six years, and i can honestly say, the only time a shallow depth of field was used was when that effect/style was called for in the story.

You hit the nail on the head when you mentioned the lower frame rates and the lack of motion blur. Those are the things that really single out stopframe animation.

I think the effect you are referring to as “Miniaturization” is actually called “Tilt Shift”, fantastic for making images look like a model https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/11/16/beautiful-examples-of-tilt-shift-photography/‘>

Adam Taylor
Video Editor/Audio Mixer/ Compositor/Motion GFX/Barista
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK

http://www.sculptedbliss.co.uk

[John Heagy]

[adam taylor] “sorry – depth of field is not key to making something look like stopframe although in the right place it could help sell an effect.”

No need to apologize… you kind of make my point. Again, without seeing the example, I made an assumption. He wants standard video to look like stop motion. One could say he wants to “sell” video as SM. Since SM is mainly done with models, using shallow DOF will make objects in the video look like models. When doing an all SM show I would assume the goal is to make it look less like SM, and as “real” as possible, minimizing the SM look the production techniques cause. Here he wants to maximize them.

Here’s an example of the “Miniaturization” or “Tilt Shift” effect we did in post. It’s done via Time Lapse so the frame rate is extreme, as is the DOF effect. This may not be what he’s looking for, but it’s interesting how the DOF tricks the brain.

https://www.nflfilmstv.com/NewMedia/Postings/NYC-TL-Toy-16×9.mp4

The link to the Tilt Shift site link didn’t work for me. If others had problems… try this one.
https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/11/16/beautiful-examples-of-tilt-shift-photography/

John Heagy

[Santanu Bhattacharjee]

I use this technique though manually –

1. Set the snap on
2. take the razor and cut the timeline at equal intervals.
3. take the stretch tool. pull the out points of each ends of the segment and join to the head of the next segment.

https://www.santanu.biz

[Adam Taylor]

hey john, i like the tilt shift examples you posted. The brightly saturated colours really help sell the effect as well.

adam

Adam Taylor
Video Editor/Audio Mixer/ Compositor/Motion GFX/Barista
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK

http://www.sculptedbliss.co.uk

[Justin Cobb]

if you are using Final Cut Pro you cango to Effects and go down to Video Filters. Then make your way to Time, and just add a Strobe effect. And then double click on the video in the timeline and go to Filter and look for Strobe Rate. Change it to about 3 or 4 and it will make your video look like a collage of photos. 😛