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There are many forms of video, if you take moment to look back you’ll note silent, black and white as well as stop motion video.

There are some stop motion feature length films and the the amount of time and effort needed to create these is remarkable. If you have seen Coraline , it is an example of stop motion 3D. There are other films that are listed under this category that take much effort from the creators.

Stop motion video can also be done not using 3D. Take this for example.
This stop-motion video was created by our very own Maciek Kozlowski.

Reverse Robot from Videotelephony Inc on Vimeo.

Stop motion is a concept that takes stills and animates the, by placing the stills one after the other like a movie, when editing. It is also possible to set a camera to capture a frame every few seconds while something is moving as well. There is an Iphone app that allows for this as well!

Think about it as if you were standing in a circle and took a snapshot of each step you took. This would be what stop motion would look like… With definite gaps. Stop motion can also be done with cartoons and the like.

You can try it out yourself if you’d like.
Take anything, something as simple as a pen and start with it facing left. Photography it. Now turn it so it faces right ( take a photo) then left ( take a phone) and right again, remembering to of course… Take a photo! You could do this with anything. You can do stop motion with people, animals (harder to control) or even a rolling apple!

Take this piece for example.
Entitled Trim.

Trim from Peter Simon (Petey Boy) on Vimeo.

It is gem, showing the magic of hair!

Each time you take a snapshot you are essentially creating a still image which you will then use as stop motion.

This is a technique that has been used for quite sometime with roots dating back to 1897 where the Humpty Dumpty Circus http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/records-3000/first-animated-film/ used the frame by frame technique.

Stop motion is something you can try that uses both picture and video. It could be the way that you do your next video as well. If you have questions about it or think it might be right for you, drop us a line!

This link also hold 50 of excellent stop motion videos!
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/12/31/50-incredible-stop-motion-videos/