Resources | Stop Motion Animation - Adafruit Learning System

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• Stop Motion Animation Basics
• Animate a Shot
• Full Body Posing
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3 Beginner Project guide

Resources

Here are some resources for going into greater depth in stop motion animation, armature/puppet making, set building, and more:

Guides

• StopMotionAnimation.com Handbook
• Stop Motion Animator's Handbook

Books

• Aardman Book of 3-D Animation
• Stop Motion: Craft Skills for Model Animation
• LEGO Animation Book

Puppets/Armatures/Pose Figures

You can use all kinds of things to build stop motion characters -- clay, foam and wire, LEGOs, action figures, you name it! If you want to do more dynamic or fluid animation, you'll want a character with a high degree of freedom on more joints than your average action figure.

• ModiBot can be purchased or 3D printed

• StickyBones are highly poseable figures with magnetic feet and palms for extremely dynamic positions that hold their poses well (can be pre-ordered now, shipping in December)

• Stop Motion Store sells metal jointed and flexible wire-based armatures meant to be built inside of puppets

Software

• Stop Motion Studio and Pro for iOS, mac os, Android, and Windows
• iStopMotion for iPad or mac os
• Dragonframe for Windows, mac os, or Ubuntu Linux (this is pro grade software, but they offer a discounted price for students, so may be worth trying the 30 day free trial if you get really into stop motion!)

Behind the Scenes

Some of the best stop motion animation being created is from Laika Studios. Here's a wonderful look behind the scenes on one of their full-scale features, ParaNorman.

Temporarily unable to load embedded content:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Jg2QP3N6Qc

Films

Here are some places to watch examples of stop motion animation, including commercial work, TV and feature films, and fan-made LEGO brick films:

• Aardman Short Films
• Brickfilms
• Bricks in Motion
• StopMotionAnimation.com

This guide only scratches the surface of the rich, limitless world of stop motion animation. We hope it inspires you to take your first steps and start animating!

Page last edited March 08, 2024

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