TIPS FOR USING iSTOPMOTION
by Melanie Davenport & Karin Gunn
Open program, select: New Project
Settings: DVD NTSC
Ratio: 720x480
Frame Rate: 10 fps
Enter intended length of film (choose longer than really intended):
Format for time = hh:mm:ss:ff (hour, minute, seconds, frames)
There are 29.97 frames per second of digital video.
Plug in your digital video camera to a power source. Connect camera to computer with firewire or USB cable and turn on to video capture mode. (Set exposure on camera/white balance as needed.)
In iStopmotion, click space bar on keyboard to capture a frame. When items within the picture frame are moved, the transparent overlay will preview the next frame in relation to the previous one. Once the picture is captured, the transparency disappears until items are moved again. In this way, you can see what the next shot will look like in relation to the last, and you can tell if you have captured the image yet. Degree of transparency can be set on Right menu in program.
Other controls:
Clicking z Z deletes previous frame.
Blink mode lets viewer check past two frames in succession.
Click Movie: Orientation to change position of screen.
Frame overlay superimposes lines to show central area and periphery.
Tip: Take at least one second of extra frames at start and finish of each segment, for adding cross-fades later.
Save project in iStopmotion.
To Make Quicktime file for use with iMovie
Click File: Export to QuickTime, choose location on hard drive to save. Check Expert Settings, click OK.
Settings: Internet Streaming On
Compressor: Animation
Frame rate: 29.97 fps
Quality: "best"
Key frames: 24
Once the clip is saved as a QuickTime, it can be imported into iMovie to edit, add titles or captions, and a sound track.
