Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)This is a fun little program, that's easy enough to use for kids, but has a lot of flexibility for more serious users. I've mostly played around with this making little animated movies with my kids like the one I've included here, which was made entirely in iStopMotion2, but you can export the files to edit further and add sound effects and such in other programs like iMovie and Final Cut Pro.
The basic idea is that you take a picture, then move the object to be animated slightly, then take another picture, then move again. You can decide how many frames per second you want to shoot. Obviously, more frames per second can produce less jerky animation, but it also requires much more patience and control. I like to stick to about 15 frames per second.
For photo inputs you can either use a live source or you can import stills from any camera. With a live source you can either shoot stills one at a time or shoot continuously, at intervals you select. For example you could have your camera shoot every 3 seconds, which would give you time to make a quick adjustment to your clay figure and then move your hand out of the way. If you mess up, you could just stop and delete the messed up frames.
A live camera source is easiest, since the program can show you an "onion skin," or a transparent layer from the last frame in the animation that serves as a reference point to figure out how far to adjust the next. It should be noted that not all camcorders can be hooked up as a live source to Macs - and this isn't really the fault of this program it has to do with the way the Mac is set up. Of course you can use the built in webcam on most Macs as a live source, but that's not always very convenient since you'd have to point the screen at the object you're animating and then you'd be interacting with the keyboard and would want to be sure to get your hands out of the way before taking a still. Any other webcam that you can use for live video chat on your Mac will work with this program, and you can also hook it up to any webcam that is compatible with your Mac or any Firewire based camcorder. As of now the program doesn't have any way of supporting live inputs from most HD camcorders, since they usually connect to the computer with USB ports and not firewire. At least, I'm not able to hook up my Canon VIXIA HFS10 and record "live" from it. Instead, I'm using an older miniDV camera I'd had around and stopped using when I picked up the newer one.
You can import a soundtrack, or add one later from within an editing program. You can add backgrounds and foregrounds, and while the ones included with the software are really more for kids, you can import anything you like. To add backgrounds, of course, you need to do something like greenscreening, so that you can cut out the background you actually filmed in. There is a "key" function with the program that allows you to select a shade and eliminate it, but I've found it's not as effective as the keying function you'd get in Final Cut Pro or other more dedicated compositing programs. Still, it's good enough for most kids projects, and that's the kind of project you'd really want to complete entirely within this program. For more serious work you'd be better off capturing the basic stop motion here and then exporting it for edit, effects, and soundtrack elsewhere.
Another very valuable feature is that you can set this up for time lapse photography, which would help to create very interesting animations for a science project, for example. One very cool feature is the "Rotoscope/Lip-Sync" function. What that allows you to do is, say, shoot a video of someone speaking a line that you want to include in your stopmotion video, and then import that video so you can see it side by side with your animation. You can then animate the mouth to match closely to the movements of the speaker in the video. You could also use this to match, say, the movements of a doll to the movements of a dancer, or match the walk of a clay figure to the movements of a real person walking. It's very useful.
About this video: it was very easy to set up and the whole thing took maybe 10 minutes to complete. Obviously you can do much more sophisticated animation with this software than I've done here, and if you look it up online you'll find some very cool examples of what can be done. I did this just to show what you can accomplish in a very short time, with very little forethought or planning. Not a brilliant idea, but I was writing this review and thought a quick animation would be valuable as an example. I didn't have any clay or toys with me, which is what my kids and I have mostly used at home, but then I noticed a poor little styrofoam cup and realized I could document its destruction. Enjoy!
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Istopmotion 2Turn Your Mac Into an Animation Studio!Create amazing stop-motion animations and time-lapse movies using your digital video camera web camera digital still camera or Macs built-in camera.Animate your story using your digital-video or web camera. iStopMotion 2 even supports your Macs built-in camera.Create characters and sets from clay or use almost anything you have around the house...toys action figures even your own drawings.Hours of Fun at Home - Let your kids tap their creative potential and be amazed at what they create. iStopMotion 2 is so easy to use your kids might master it before you do. iStopMotion 2 is a great way to tell a story where a bit of clay or a toy can be the star of your animated masterpiece. Join the growing online community who share their creations online.Use With iLife - iStopMotion 2 exports files that are drag-and-drop compatible with iMovie so you can add titles transitions music and sound. You can even use GarageBand to produce your own animated music video!Loved by Educators - iStopMotion is used worldwide by educators from all disciplines as a tool to help develop creativity in students of all ages. It can be used to hone problem-solving and communication skills so fundamental to all areas of study. The time-lapse feature is ideal for science class. Speed up slow processes like a blooming flower or melting ice.Key FeaturesStop-motion animation made easy.Supports Mac-compatible cameras.Virtual Stage provides fun backgrounds.Unique onion skinning for smooth animation.Create amazing time-lapse movies.Print your creations as flip books.System Requirements:Power PC G5 or Intel Core Duo512MB of RAM or more1 GB hard disk spaceGraphics card with 128MBMac OS X 10.4 Tiger or laterCompatible cameraFormat: MAC 10.0 OR LATER Genre:ENTERTAINMENT UPC:740569000461 Manufacturer No:1045
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