Stop action videos are fun to make.
A stop-action or stop-motion video is a video made by acquiring still frames on a camera and then playing them back in rapid succession. Many types of interesting movies can be made using this technique. Original hand-drawn animation used this style of movie-making to produce TV cartoons. Making your own stop-action video with a DSLR, or digital SLR camera, allows you to make high-resolution movies, albeit without sound. The manual control afforded by using a DSLR makes for consistent videos. Assembling the movie requires only the most basic of movie editing programs on any platform.
Instructions
1. Determine the dynamics of your stop-action video. If you want a video with very smooth motion, plan on making small movements in your scenes and acquiring a large number of images. This also takes a lot of time. A good starting point is to plan for 10 images per second of playback.
2. Set your DSLR camera's white balance according to the scene you will be shooting. If you are shooting outdoors, set the white balance to sunlight mode, or if shooting under cloudy lighting, set the white balance to cloudy mode. Avoid using auto white balance, since this can cause unpredictable shifts in color between frames.
3. Start shooting. Take a picture, then move the camera (or the subject) a little, and take another picture. While doing this, ensure the focus stays on the subject and doesn't shift.
4. Use drive mode on your DSLR if you are shooting a scene with rapid action. This way, you do not have to labor over pressing the shutter button repeatedly; you can simply hold down the shutter button and the camera will acquire images quickly.
5. Move the images to your computer using a memory card reader or a USB cable.
6. Open your video editing program and drag the images into the editor. Set the time for each still frame to 0.1 seconds, which equates to 10 frames per second during playback.
7. Save your movie. This may take a while if you have large files.
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