• Joined: December 30, 2013

Topic: Quick sanity check on software workflow

I've been toying with stop motion movies now for about 8 months. It is an activity that my kids and I enjoy quite a bit. I've been using demo versions of istopmotion, various iphone/ipad apps, and even iMovie (that wasn't fun).

I'm ready to plunk down some software, but I want to make sure I have my workflow correct, and I buying decent software:
1. I'm looking to use istopmotion to get the photos into a movie sequence. Are there any gotchas with this software?
2. I'm looking to use garageband to record voices and sound effects
3. I'm looking to use iMovie to take the output from istopmotion and garageband, add titles, and export it as the final movie.

Any suggestions to my thought process here?

Also - what do you guys use to add effects to the movie? My boys have been dying to add lasers, fire, etc. Do you guys add these effects after the photos have been stitched together? Any recommendations for software? I'm on a Mac, so Windows software is out (I don't fancy running a VM for one piece of software). Is Apple's Motion software worth looking into?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

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Re: Quick sanity check on software workflow

You've got the general workflow right. I know almost nothing about apple software, so I can't help you there. From what I've heard istopmotion works fine for just starting out, and you certainly don't want to spend a ton of money on software when your just getting into things, but I've never actually tried it myself. mini/smile

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  • Joined: July 6, 2013

Re: Quick sanity check on software workflow

If you're wanting to do effects, I recommend GIMP. It's a free photo editing program that you can use on Mac. There's some tutorials on the web about how to do lightsaber or laser effects using it, along with other effects.

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  • Joined: October 28, 2013

Re: Quick sanity check on software workflow

I wouldn't get GarageBand, there is a free program called Audacity which has most of the features you will need. And, iMovie would be a waste too in my opinion. I use the free version of VideoPad, it has unlimited video and audio tracks, plus a vast array of effects and transitions, including chroma key. iStopmotion is good, but there is also a free program called SMA that has everything I need, including onion peeler, complete control over most of the camera functions, and other stuff. The only downside is that it can only be used with a webcam. I also highly recommend a free program called VirtualDub. It allows you to change the frame rate of movies, save individual frames of movies as bmp files, and then put bmp files together to make a clip. It also allows you to compress files.
This is just my choice of software, its free and it does its stuff well.

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  • GHB
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  • Joined: March 21, 2012

Re: Quick sanity check on software workflow

I was looking into getting Apple Motion for my videos, but unfortunately I only have iMovie, and Apple Motion is designed for Final Cut Pro, and can do very little when dealing with other platforms. I use iStopMotion 3, and it is a very good program for recording frames, but if all your doing is stitching them together, you should just do that in iMovie. Like brickelodeon said, don't use Garageband for voice recording. Use Audacity, which is chiefly for recording voices and such. iMovie is a great program, and I've used it for 2 years now with my brickfilms. If you really explore around a bit, you can do much more than what you may think at first glance. Also, for adding effects, in your case this would be better done with an image editor program. I use acorn, which can be found on the app store for 50 bucks USD, but there is a free program calle GIMP that many brickfilmers use. With an image editor, you can draw lasers, lightsabers, and you can mask with each individual frame.

Hope this helps!

Last edited by GHB (January 7, 2014 (02:35pm))

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