Stop Motion? "It’s possible."
As already mentioned in the introduction to this book, Stop Motion
animation is a technique based on photographs. We say that the
videos from these types of animation are usually pretty fun.
Okay, now the big question, “Can I do Stop Motion
with Tupi?
The short answer is yes, however, the component dedicated to this
subject still needs much work. For now, the interface allows
simple animations, but our future goals are more ambitious.
For now, let’s see how to create a short video using this
technique:
- Get a digital camera. Since this kind of
animation is based on photographs, the camera is vital.
- Build a script for your story, following
the tips mentioned in the "First!
chapter"
- Get the resources you need for your
story; objects, people, etc.
- Set up your camera at a fixed point (eg a
table or a tripod) pointing towards the place where your scene
will take place and make sure that the camera cannot move
sideways. Arrange your resources at the scene, in their
starting positions for the beginning of the animation.
- Begin taking photos, pausing to move the
objects or people in the scene (according to movements that you
defined in your script) in between each photo. Remember that
every movement must be small, since the final smoothness of
your animation depends on this.
- Once you’ve captured every movement that
you require for your scenes, connect your camera to your
computer and upload all the photos into a folder on the
PC.
- Open Tupi and create a new project.
- Now select the Import menu located
at the top and choose the Bitmap Array. A dialog box
opens, asking you to select the directory where you saved the
pictures for your animation.
Fig #65. Option to import a
Bitmap Array
- Pressing the OK button, the
program will load each of your images in a separate frame and
in alphabetical order.
Fig #66. Dialog for selecting
the director that contains the images
- If your images are very large, the
program will be forced to resize them, and if there are many
and are all larger than 1 MB, it is likely that your machine
will run out of memory and the program may crash.
Fig #67. Informational message
when inserting images
- When the process of importing images is
complete, you can take a look at your project in the
Animation tab (the second from the left in the
workspace).
- From this point, you have two options:
you can export your project as a video file, or you can do some
editing on the images if you want using the drawing tools.
- If you like what you saw and want to
convert to video, return to the Animation tab and click
the Export button located on the bottom panel.
- Follow the usual steps to export as
described in "Let’s create a video
file" and you’re done. Your Stop Motion project is
ready to be famous!