Stop motion = Step By Step motion

OR " A fantastic tool to use in a viral marketing"

In this article I will share an information what is "stop motion", what are the main tools to create "stop motion" and have it has been used in commercials, video clips and movies. 

In my opinion stop motion is like a step by step motion, created from a lot of pictures which follows each other and making the story. The pictures follow each other and in every picture there is some little change which is making movement. Step by step movement, like making an animation. The only difference is that you can also make this animation with real things, real people and etc. Together it creates story. 

Wikipedia explains the main idea of “stop motion”. It is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own. The object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence.

“Stop motion” was born on the 19th century and it’s the first special effect used in cinema. Nowadays anyone can create this moving animation effect. What are the main attributes to create a „stop motion” movie/clip/commercial? 

Firstly, you need an idea. As we know it’s actually the hardest step. Afterwards you need a lot of time and patience, because usually it takes more time than expected. Then  you need camera, tripod and program „Windows Movie Maker” which is the easiest  one or „Adobe Premiere Pro”. Ready to start? 

In Internet world we can see more and more videos made in "stop motion" technique. Mostly though it is the amateur level and professional level is seen rarely. Usually, they also exceed the 10-minute length. This is largely explained by the fact that this technique is very time consuming and requires great attention and concentration. But "stop motion"  is an excellent way to draw and retain Internet users' attention, especially for making the campaign viral. 

The most common „stop motion” tricks are object „revival”, give people and object possibility to move, fly and to create unusual situations. 

In my opinion here are the best examples where the "stop motion" technique have been used:

 Sony Bravia commercial

 xBox360 commercial 

As we saw on these examples, the clay figures were used. That is called clay animation or clay-mation technique. Clay figures are used a lot  in "stop motion" because of their ease of repositioning.

This is the most popular "stop motion" video, it was made as a music clip for a song by Oren Lavie:

Her Morning Elegance 

This video was and still is incredible popular. Here you can see have it was done and how many awards they won:

Behind the scenes

Of course this video become so viral, that it has also a parody:

Parody 

As we can see "stop motion" is a fantastic tool to attract viewers attention! And to develop your own creative thinking, take your camera, go outside and create your own "stop motion" video. It's really fun. 

P.S. Here you can find very simple "stop motion" videos which I have created just to understand if it really works. And it does. (It took 3-5 hours to create each of them)

Flying people

"Life" objects

Painting with "stop motion"