Five Golden Rules to Stop Motion Animation 

Stop motion animation is very hard to properly do. Many simple beginners’ mistakes could be quickly fixed to make any stop motion animation look much more professional. 

1.       CONTROL YOUR MOVEMENT. The golden rule of animation is that nothing should move unless you want it to. Most beginners’ mistakes relate back to movement. The camera, the set and shadows from the lights will all shift so you must watch out for that.

2.       FIX DOWN YOUR STUDIO. If any part of your studio is not firmly fixed down you should do so now. Any part of your studio is liable to get bumped during your many hours of animating so make sure it is unmovable. If part of your set get moved half way through shooting, even if its only a centimeter, your audience will immediately be able to tell what frame the set or studio was moved in.

3.       FIX DOWN YOUR TRIPOD. This one should be the most obvious rule, however many people attempting stop motion animation still forget, or choose not to do this. Over many hours of shooting your tripod will get bumped and unless it is tapped down you will lose you spot. Even if you try to reposition your tripod the audience will still be able to tell what frame it moved at.

4.       CONTROL YOUR LIGHT SOURCES. It is hard to have total control over light sources, so try to not work near a window without blinds, because you will not have full control of the natural light that comes in from there. Also, if you set up lighting, do not move your lighting around until you are completely finished with that scene. If you attempt to reposition your lights back in place half way through shooting your audience will be able to tell.

5.       KNOW YOUR CHARACTERS. Set up your story boards, character sheets, master copies, on a nearby desk or table as you will be refer to those sheets every couple of minutes. You want to be able to know your characters well enough that you do not need to refer back to your storyboards for every shot.

Stop motion animation can be a spectacular sight to see, if it is done properly. Keeping these 5 tips in mind will always insure that you are following the basics of stop motion animation!