Creating a stop frame animation

Stop frame (or stop motion) animation is the process of taking a series of still images of items, while making very small movements (typically of an easily moveable object such as a doll or plasticine model) in each frame. When the frames are assembled into a video, the small movements combine to produce an animation.

Multiple images can be combined into an animation

Traditionally, such animations were made by taking hundreds or even thousands of individual photos on a film camera (such as a Cine Super 8 movie camera) and then sending the film off to be developed and playing back the results some weeks later. Despite the inspiring creations by Nick Park at Aardman Animations, including Wallace and Gromit (which are full-length, stop frame animation films), this was a hobby that was a little out of reach for most.

In the modern digital age, we can take multiple images quickly and easily with the luxury of reviewing the results almost instantly. Now anyone can...