Animators who want to breathe life into static objects on screen can utilize the technique of Stop Motion. Accomplish this by incrementally changing the position of the object while recording a frame per increment. The movement is seen when every frame is played in sequence.

This 52things video will help you learn more about stop motion and how it works:

Stop motion provides an appealing and simple method that any video editor could blend it into their videos regardless of what type of videos they are making.

What is the best stop motion software on the market? Find out below from free ones such as qStopMotion to the ones used by the experts like Dragonframe. Let’s take a look!

Recommended: Movavi Video Editor

Windows Computer system recommendation: Windows 10, 8.1, 8 I7 or I5 CPU 8 GB RAM 200 GB hard drive. When using a DSLR, preferably a SSD. Mac recommendation. More Great Stop Motion Software for Windows, Android and Mac Os For windows version some of the stop motion software is “qStopMotion”, “IKITMovie”, “SharpAnimator”, and “Purple Elephant”. For Mac Os some of the stop motion software is “JellyCam”, “Smoovie”, “Dragonframe”, “Time Lapse Assembler” and “zonMotion”. This is a brief tutorial on how to delete or remove frames in Stop Motion Studio Pro for Mac. ‎Read reviews, compare customer ratings, see screenshots, and learn more about Stop Motion Studio Pro. Download Stop Motion Studio Pro and enjoy it on your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. ‎Get Stop Motion Studio, the world’s easiest app to get you into stop motion moviemaking today!

The stop-motion techniques used for producing animation will be dependent on your purpose and level of skill. If you are a stop-motion newbie or simply want to add a clip of stop-motion to your video project, the best way is to take a number of individual images at specific intervals. After that, import the images into one file in a photo slide maker or video editing software. Similar to a regular video clip, edit the stop motion. (Note: Rather than shooting every image in real time, in stop-motion photography, you take a single photo, then the subject is moved and another shot is taken, then moving the subject again etc.)

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Movavi Video Editor is the best software for this kind of video editing. Produce professional-looking movies and slideshows on your PC with this all-inclusive video making software, even if you are a newbie.

Besides the video making tool in Movavi Video Editor, which includes a really handy Slideshow Wizard mode that lets you load a full folder of photos and efficiently produce a stop-motion video from many images.

You have the option to add background music from the royalty-free music included or add music of your own. Additionally, you can add titles and captions, adjust each image’s duration time etc.

Learn more in the step-by-step video tutorial below on ways to use Movavi Video Editor to create a Stop Motion video:

Special stop-motion software is vital if you would like to create a full professional stop motion movie similar to King Kong. You will find a list below of the best stop-motion software available.

Best Stop Motion Software for Windows PC: Stop Motion Pro

Stop Motion Pro Eclipse was made for expert and beginner animators and is ideal for those who want to make an animation with the best available tools.

This program is full of features and includes high-resolution stop motion, which allows you to get the animation right, and there is a short learning curve and no overwhelming tech stuff.

Quickly linked to your webcam or camera, it is possible to use Stop Motion Pro to record and paste pictures and show captivating stories via your animated figures.

Utilize markers to track and plan the movement of your characters. The tool plays as fast as 30 fps and lets you record audio while the animation is playing back. Also included is lip-sync support.

Dozens of cameras are compatible with the software and it includes tools for advanced project management that come in handy for managing animation projects that are long-term.

Five languages are supported in Stop Motion Pro’s UI: English, Spanish, French, Chinese and German.

Best Professional Stop Motion Software: Dragonframe

One of the leading frame-grabbing software is Dragonframe, which is ideal for stop motion animation as well as time-lapse photography. With a supported digital camera’s live view, animators get video assist tools with Dragonframe and this turns into the main hub for capturing and organizing your camera’s high-resolution frames.

Dragonframe is a great frame-grabber that includes tools like step-to-live, auto-toggling, drawing with a virtual grease pencil and onion skinning. Dragonframe has created innovations in stop-motion software by pushing the performance beyond frame grabbing to offer a complete range of production features.

Dragonframe’s software provides the following five workspace tools:

• Video assist, editing and frame-grabbing animation features
• Cinematography features for the Director of Photography
• DDMX-512 for full lighting automation
• Built-in audio and dialogue track reading features
• Multi-axis move editor to program complicated camera motions quickly

If you are working on a commercial with a small crew, an independent filmmaker editing your project in your garage, or a big studio creating a feature film, Dragonframe possesses all the tools you require to produce spectacular stop-motion animation.

Dragonframe was used to create productions like Shaun the Sheep Movie, The Little Prince, the 2012 movie Frankenweenie etc.

Best Free Stop Motion Software: qStopMotion

If you want to create stop-motion animated movies, qStopMotion is an ideal free platform. Once you have your perfect idea and storyline, qStopMotion will help you create an ideal stop-motion animation movie.

qStopMotion has a free version for Windows operating systems. The newest version of qStopMotion has a number of improvements, which include a negative grabber and a superior camera control system etc. These tools help you to create stop motions from pictures imported from your computer or straight from your camera. They can then be exported in animation style to a variety of video formats.

At present, qStopMotion supports AVI and MPEG formats that are used to produce stop motion movies.

The amazing thing about qStopMotion is that it has combined all the features and tool that will minimize your reliance on outside tools since it has changed them all with Qt features.

qStopMotion’s interface is user-friendly and has only the basic options required.

Best Stop Motion Software for Mac: iStopMotion

Bonix’s iStopMotion software is a very powerful and user-friendly app that is useful in producing time-lapse movies or stop motion animation on your iPhone or Mac.

This is a perfect solution for experienced animators who want to record animation directly to their computer without having to rely on film, and the Bonix software is even more useful due to the cool and very useful features, which include:

• Live Video Overlay: Handles the amount of the last frame versus the amount of the live camera is visible. Ideal for lining up your subsequent picture.
• Onion skinning: Provides you with the power to look back at as much as five prior frames, each one superimposed over the next. It is possible to shift your items and then view as it happens the length of time you moved them compared to the latest images.
• “Blinking” flashes the newest, live picture as well as the earlier recorded picture at user-set timeframes. Once again, this makes it possible to envision the way the scene will appear when animated and provides you with a simple reference point to make any changes if required.

iStopMotion has even more amazing features. You have the choice to edit a recorded frame with outside software like Photoshop. For example, if you caught a bit of hand in the shot by accident, edit the mistake with Photoshop, then go back to iStopMotion updating the bad clip with the updated one and you don’t have to stop the recording!

You also have control of your camera with iStopMotion, including the picture color balance, focus as well as hue and saturation.

Best Stop Motion App for iPhone and Android: Stop Motion Studio

Produce animation quickly and easily using the photo and video tool Stop Motion Studio. The app is available for Windows, Android, macOS, iPhone and iPad. The creators state that it is the easiest app in the world for stop-motion moviemaking. Find out for yourself by downloading and installing the app and using it for yourself.

Record new pictures or choose the photos from libraries using the app. The free version comes with basic tools like grid, overlay, frame positioning, fade and frame-by-frame preview.

You will have to buy the app if you want to use a remote camera, green screen and other movie effect features.

It is easy to get started and there is help along the way. It provides you with inspiration, allowing you to find even more ideas in your library of videos. When your project is finally done, share them on social platforms like YouTube, etc.

Best Free Stop Motion Software for Linux: Heron Animation

Heron Animation is a free program that allows you to shoot a series of images from a connected webcam and gather every shot in actual time moving animation.

The tool markets itself as an ideal one for newbies and experienced animators and is written using web technologies. This kind of balance is very difficult to achieve.

You will have to decide if it’s the best free stop motion software. This app is still relatively new and even though it doesn’t seem to be open-source, you can download and use it for free and it comes with some really good features like:

• Connect to a webcam
• Delete and move the frames
• Duplicate frames
• Export video as.MP4,.MOV,.AVI
• Loop playback
• Onion skin w/ difference mode
• Playback animation at any FPS
• Short play (play only the few last frames)

This app includes many keyboard shortcuts. Monitoring and controlling recordings is much easier using a Bluetooth keyboard and you diligently reposition your images.

Onion skinning, for those unfamiliar with the term, is where the prior image is overlain, which allows you to more accurately position your pictures. This is a common feature in stop-motion apps like the popular qStopMotion.

Best Stop Motion Tool for kids: IKITMovie

The iKITMovie stop-motion animation will work with computers that run Windows 10 and Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7/8.

This is the ideal tool for those who like Claymation or LEGO. Unlike the majority of stop-motion tools, users of all ages from older kids to teenagers will find this tool useful.

Stop Motion Studio For Mac

More than 2,200 free features are included in IKITMovie like background music and sound effects to customize your projects.

Greenscreen is also included in this tool, which lets users swap out the background with moving images or stills. Animators love this popular animation technique.

Stop motion animation newbies should watch the tutorial video, which shows step-by-step the most effective way to use the program.

IKITMovie is ideal for teachers and students.

Hey, My name is Paul – nice to e-meet you 🙂 I’m a freelance video editor who has over 4 years experiences of making all types of videos. I founded this website to provide step-by-step and easy-to-follow instructions to first-time editors or beginners like you who want to start their journey in video editing.

It’s a wrap! Now you have a memory card full of pictures, but what next? The next step is to transfer the individual images to the computer and turn them into a movie.

Unlike a normal movie, after shooting you don’t have a few video clips on your computer, but hundreds or even thousands of photos. Now you have to assemble these photos into a movie. There are several possibilities, here I will explain the procedure with different programs for Apple macOS and Microsoft Windows.

Overview

Jump directly to the program you want to use:

• iMovie (Mac)
• Windows Movie Maker (Windows)
• Stop Motion Studio (Mac & Windows)
• Stop Motion Studio für iOS (iPhone) – Expert Guide

Merge Images with Apple iMovie

With iMovie, Apple delivers an excellent video editing program for free with every Mac, and it’s also easy to create stop motion movies. Since iMovie is preinstalled on every Mac, you can start right away.

After starting iMovie, you must first create a new project. Click on the big plus icon Create in the top bar and create a new movie without a theme. Name the project according to the scheme “My Stop Motion Project Name – Scene X” to keep the overview.
Next you have to drag and drop the created images into the iMovie window in the timeline. The images are then automatically imported (this may take a while, but you can still continue working). Mark all photos (keyboard shortcut cmd + A).

Since iMovie automatically adds a zoom effect to still images, you must now change the cropping option to Customize under Customize (see screenshot). When that’s done, you’ll still have to change the duration of the pictures. To do this, click on the i icon above the preview window and change the value of the duration to 0.1 seconds, which corresponds to a frame rate of 10 fps. If you want a higher frame rate, you can run the movie faster in post production, but I’ll explain that in the next chapter.

If you are satisfied with the settings, export the scene by clicking on Deploy. Choose a location and click Next. The program calculates in the background the film from the individual pictures, the progress you can see on the circle in the upper right corner. When you’ve converted all the scenes and images, you can start the next step!

Merge images with Microsoft Windows Movie Maker

The default video editing program on Windows is Windows Movie Maker.
Note: Movie Maker is no longer available on Windows 10. You can still use it with previous versions of Windows.

If you started Movie Maker, you must first import your pictures. Click on the large button on the right and select all the photos you need for this scene. When you click Open, the photos are loaded into the timeline.
By default, each still image will be displayed for 7 seconds, but for your stop motion movie you’ll need a much shorter duration. To change the duration, first select all images by pressing CTRL + A.

Then click on Edit in the upper bar and set the desired value for “Duration”. Note that here you must enter the duration of each image and not the frame rate. You can convert between these values by dividing 1 by the other value. Or you look in this practical table after;)

Experiment with this value a little and watch the preview until you’re satisfied with the result. If everything is ok, you can click on the menu item Home to save movie and save the movie in FullHD resolution.

Merge images with Stop Motion Studio

Stop Motion Studio is an app that you can download via the Microsoft Store for Windows or the Mac App Store for macOS. There is a free version and the Stop Motion Studio Pro version. In the free version, you can try all the features, but to export the movie you have to buy the Pro version.

Video Studio Pro Mac

With this program you have several options, depending on the way you work and the camera you have. You can easily import your captured images, set the frame rate and export the movie. You can also capture the pictures directly with Stop Motion Studio and benefit from many advanced features like Onion Skinning.

Stop Motion Studio Pro also supports adding audio, adjusting exposure, and adding title cards.

Stop Motion Animation Kit

Stop Motion Studio Pro Mac Crack

HUE Animation Studio for Mac or Windows contains everything you need to film your first stop motion movie!