Stop Motion Tutorial: Timing is Everything!

The key principle to animation is timing. Have you ever taking a huge amount of time to animate something, only to play it back and have it fly by too fast? Or possibly even too slow? The solution is to carefully plan out how long an action should take, even if the action is exaggerated and the movement is stylized. This tutorial explores methods for planning out the timing of a stop motion scene.
Please see my other tutorials on how to animate to music, dancing, make a puppet, cut-outs, lip sync, and other stop motion subjects: • Stop Motion Tutorials
Music by
Mixaund: www.free-stock-music.com/artist.mixaund.html
PeriTune - Royalty Free Music Material peritune.com/
Stopwatch Photo by Stanislav Remnev on Unsplash
Software: Dragonframe and Stop Motion Studio. iStopmotion (Mac and mobile) is a good frame-capturing app for the price. I understand iKITmovie is a good free option for Windows. If you have a favorite stop motion app, please tell us about it in the comments. Edited using Adobe Premiere.
Camera: I'm using a DSLR. But if you're not there yet, a good option is a camcorder that can run a live video signal to your computer. But these days a mobile device with a camera running a stop motion app is all you need. The principles discussed in this video will also apply to animation recorded with a mobile device.
Shopping for Puppet-Making:
Clay (Van Aken, Sculpy III), armature wire, cotton batting to build up puppet: Arts/craft store like Hobby Lobby or amazon.com.
Armature kit: stopmotionstore.com
Puppet clothes (Barbie/Ken clothes: dept store, ebay, amazon.com
16-gauge aluminum armature wire (from an art store or Amazon, not the hardware store)
Pre-wrap (Sporting good or drug store)
Cotton batting or foam (quilting supplies from craft or sewing store)
For the head, aluminum foil or wood ball (craft store)
Just about everything here can be found on Amazon if you don't have all these kinds of stores in your area. You can also get animation supplies from stopmotionstore.com.

[@nolem5417]

Your tutorials have helped me to understand animation in general for years. Thank you Michael!

[@ArttuTheCat]

That's the same app i'm using to study for an Stop Motion animation. Now, that i Came up with my own characters, i need to figure out some stories. And this tutorial video is brilliant. Right now, in this year's october, i'm going back to school to study the art of drawing the comic books. Thank you and i hope i your new videos sometimes. 😺😸🐈✌️👍⌨️🖥️💾🕹️

[@TheAlienDonkey]

Again... these videos are lifelines for us!! Thank you for your excellent work and for sharing your knowledge and talents! 🙏

[@PenteadosBarbie_3]

Thank you soo much! I was really needing this tutorial. This is exactly my graver problem while doing stop motion - the timing. Your videos are always very enlightening!

[@CajunCraftastrophe]

Fantastic video, Michael. I always learn so much from your tutorials. I have a channel where I motion track digital faces to real world puppets - whichnis fun. However, I occasionally do some stop motion and want to incorporate more of that as the channel grows. Your videos help to give me the skills and confidence that I need to accomplish that. Thanks!

[@tonialarco1580]

I love how nice and easy to understand are this tutorials

[@JorgeOmarEC]

Thanks for the lesson, it's helpful, really helpful, watching an explanation that makes understandable the timing.

[@hoserlu]

Another great tutorial from Michael. Thank you for doing these!

[@Hellhamster]

That is one of the biggest challenges for me, get all the movements on time, every single one

[@whatsleft100]

The ruler !! Made so much sense and everything you say is so practical,thank you

[@ilovekingkong9178]

can you do a vid on how to do a diy phone stand for stop motion

[@dotmbarricade3424]

Great tutorial dude

[@nicholasastor7294]

Giving the people what they need. LEGEND

[@markkevin7245]

Thank you for this great bit of knowledge

[@BrianAchart]

Great tutorial, thank you!

[@RandomActsofAnimation]

Very helpful. Thank you for making these tutorials 😊

[@tevekkulmemmedov6921]

Thank you for great explanation

[@moomoome42]

Fantastic as always!

[@ilovekingkong9178]

nice

[@jamieandel364]

Just starting out. This is a great video. Thank you!!!!

[@rhysseddon7279]

Thank you so much, very helpful

[@pietromarconi]

love you man

[@Prishacraftstudio]

You are great Ustad ji❤❤❤❤❤❤ i love your teaching-style

[@far-fictionanimationrealit5526]

Thank you

[@angelochafin]

Amazing! Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!

[@cookiekrumbsanimations4963]

Really nice tutorial

[@jozafax]

Great video!

[@jebinjames9593]

Very helpful 🙏🏽.

[@kinoman980]

Genius

[@simonpower6591]

Please please please oh pretty please make as much content as you can, for some who fell out of touch with model making after studying it in college, content like this always brings me back and reminds me how much I love to study this craft. I've always been a jack of all trades but one I thought I would like to try and master would be stop motion. Thanks you for a really enjoyable lesson and you have a new subscriber for sure.

[@plastilinajacks5823]

lysande!

[@Zain_production]

can you make s dinosaur attack animation i need to that on my animation

[@rhysseddon7279]

I was wondering if you could do a tutorial animating to video reference please

[@MichaelParks]

My tutorial on animating dancing gets into using video reference: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jp3JXo2LochjjLs

[@rhysseddon7279]

@@MichaelParks thanks

[@tevekkulmemmedov6921]

Hi, thank you for tutorial, do you have video tutorial about exposure sheet?

[@MichaelParks]

My tutorials about lip sync and sticker mouths get into exposure sheets.

[@tevekkulmemmedov6921]

@@MichaelParks Is the data used in exposure sheet taken from reference video?

[@MichaelParks]

@@tevekkulmemmedov6921 If there is reference video for a scene, then yes, it is used to prepare exposure sheets. But it's not always possible or even useful to shoot reference, like if it's in an extremely cartoony style or it's action that just can't be acted out, in which case you need to figure it out in another way, like with a stopwatch.

[@DoughTYy]

EU QUERIA EM PORTUGUEEEESSSS

[@eleanordunkin5484]

Do you bake the puppets' heads or leave the clay mouldable?

[@MichaelParks]

The guy in this tutorial has a head of soft clay, which I prefer to do for a greater range of facial expressions. But I have done baked heads with replacement parts when the animation needs to be done faster.

[@eleanordunkin5484]

@@MichaelParks thank you so much!

[@paolab.Vangelo]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/nqWalpKup7dor9E Quelli in stop motion