Best Way To Shoot Stop Motion On Hd100?
 

I have to shoot some stop motion and was wondering if anyone knows how best to accomplish frame by frame shooting with the HD100? I believe DV Rack is only available for PC's and I have a non-Intel Mac powerbook.

I use this software with dv camera :
http://www.istopmotion.com

But the pro/HD version is overpriced, and i don't know if it can handle hdv.

I've been longing to do stopmotion as well. In HD. That software seems WAY to costly to do simple stopmotion. Theres got to be an effective way of doing this that isnt $350+....

Yes there is. It's called a digital still camera. You'll get HD resolution, and you'll be able to do 1 frame at a time.

-gb-

I've done that before and achieved superior results. I'm just wondering how it would be possible economically using an HD100 (just like the original poster).

A very cheap and dubious solution I once used on a project in film school, albeit with an Arriflex M 16mm, was to shoot in short bursts and trim the clips down to single frames in my NLE.

DV Rack does stop motion. And from what I can tell it also does stop motion for HDV. However, contacting them or users should give you information on the exact format and cameras supported.

The problem with DV Rack is it isn't supported with non-intel macs.

I use my Nikon D70 for stop motion because I can do very long exposures per frame. The Nikon Capture software lets you set the interval, iris, shutter, etc., and capture directly to a Mac/PC laptop.

Thirded for using a DSLR.

1) It's smaller, so you can fit into those tiny miniature sets.
2) Better lenses. Primes instead of zooms. You can even use macro lenses that get you right into the tiniest details of your miniatures.
3) Better picture control. Instead of having to deal with the shutter speeds the video camera gives you and have to use noisy gain for light sensitivity and compromise on iris for exposure, set your DSLR at 100 ISO for clean pictures, set aperture for depth of field and use shutter for exposure.

Use the right tool for the job instead of trying to deal with tools intended for other applications. IIRC, Corpse Bride was shot on a Canon 20D. I also saw an interesting bit on the special effects for "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" where they did the minecart scenes by rolling a small SLR film camera through a miniature mine tunnel.

forthed ?! for DSLR
actually one of mine is on the front page here:
http://alwayshd.com/
(empire state building time lapse)
The other option using your camera, which is practical for shorter time between exposures is simply shooting normaly in 24p, then speeding up the footage by an even integer. What is nice at night is to shoot at the slowest exposure, then toss all the duplicated frames (eg at 1/6sec then speed up 400%)
I notice our Philip Bloom has a few timelapse examples on this site too....

Tim,

How do you deal with matching stuff with the HD100 footage if you used special files like your bleachbypass.

PS, I sent you an email. Been trying to figure out how to upload the footage for you. Duke

Okay I've tried the D70 route with Nikon Capture 4 then imported a test sequence in FCP but each shot lasts for 10 seconds, which is obviously too long. How do I shorten all 120 shots to the right length without changing each ones duration one at a time? There must be an easier way than this!

There's a setting in FCP that determines the length of imported picture files. I can't remember where exactly it is as I'm not at my FCP computer at the moment, but it's definitely there.

DSLR workflow:
Don't use FCP! Use Aftereffects, and import them together as a series. Each picture is one frame.

I don't have After Effects.

Hey man, did you a quick google, here's what you need to do:

http://www.animationsforvideo.com/html/imptsfcp.htm

Don't use AE or FCP for still image sequence import
 

There is a very very simple & fast way to open an image sequence and resave it as a quicktime in its native jpeg or tiff format, readable by FCP. No messing around!

Just use Quicktime Pro Player!

-Select "Open Image Sequence" from the file menu and point to the first shot in your sequence. You can use whatever frame rate you want. (23.976 for 24P)

-Then Save As and you can make it a "reference movie." This will only take moments... no recompression.

It will still be 6megapixels or whatever per frame and won't play in real time yet, but you can drop it in your timeline as a single piece of quicktime media and frame it the way you want, zoom in over time, colour correct, etc.... THEN RENDER into your sequence codec. (HDV, AIC, Uncompressed, whatever.)

I've played with the curves function in Nikon Capture for far longer than I've even had a HD100, so I do have some custom scene files saved somewhere for it as well.

However.....
I seldom actually shoot with any of my scene files (JVC or Nikon) other than my "wide-latitude" setting. I tweak it per the scene as needed and try to capture a "digital negative" for post CC. I use the same technique with Digital SLR and then simply match them in post.

I've uploaded a quick sample from a film I shot last year. This started as 6Mpegapixel 3:2 Jpegs, zoomed in FCP and cropped to 720P. Exposure time per frame was 2 seconds (I think.) I've heavily compressed it for upload.

Wait, are we talking stop motion or time lapse here? Those terms have two different meanings for me, stop motion being an animation technique (where you only take an exposure when you have the next frame of animation set up) and time lapse being a live action technique characterized by ultra-slow (but regular) frame rates.

"For this shot, you have to keep kissing this hot chick for a couple minutes."
"Oh, the sacrifices I make for my art."

How'd you handle the wardrobe changes? Did you manage to squeeze them into those moments the chairs are empty or is there a cut in there somewhere?

Either way, time-lapse or stop-motion animation he'd still be better off with a DSLR. Particularly one with an interval timer built in (D200). You've just got so much more control over the exposure and a far greater resolution.

With that technique they could have stopped for dinner or come back the next day.

Liam.

The workflow for importing frames would be exactly the same for either technique, and I still recommend DSLR for either one.

I manually used an IR remote for that setup BTW, no laptop.
Wardrobe changes were no big deal - only a few minutes each. Controlled lighting and patience were all that was necessary.

Tim, how do I save more than one file at a time rather than choosing each individual shot when I have hundreds of them in one folder?