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Before you can start your film, you need to set it up. Even a second long test needs to be setup with care. There are a few things you need to keep in mind when getting ready to animate.

1. The filming area

It's important that you have a good space to animate. Big and small scenes take up quite a bit of space: lights, cameras, and props. If you want to get into animation as a hobby, then you should put an area aside for your films. It is best to have a sturdy desk to animate on, it will improve your animations, and help your back. The difference between animating on the floor and a desk is enormous, it is a good investment for your films. Don't underestimate the amount of space you will need, a big desk is suggested, that way, you have a lot of room to use.

2. The equipment

Before even thinking of making a stop motion film, you need a camera, a computer, and lamps. It is assumed that you have a computer seeing as you are able to read this, but you might not own a camera and lamps. Any camera will do, but some are better than others. The three good choices you have are digital cameras, webcams, and camcorders. The most important thing is that THE CAMERA HAS MANUAL FEATURES on everything! Manual focus, exposure, gain, zoom, brightness etc. You need to be able to control all these, if not, you will get inconsistent lighting and focus. The best option that is affordable for a hobbyist would be the Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000. This doesn't work with Mac computers, so be wary of this when you are choosing a camera. However, for a PC, the QuickCam has great resolution, and all manual features. You can build cradles easily for it, and is nice and small.

You also need some lamps to light your set the way you want. Fluorescent lamps give off a nice white light, so these are good to look into. They are more expensive than an incandescent, but the result is better. You'll need at least 2 lamps, but more is better in film making. This is all you will need to start off your animations at the beginning, but later you might want to invest in better cameras, lights, computers etc.

3. Get your supplies

You need to have all the characters, props, and other items ready to be used for your shot. Whether it's built out of Lego, modeled out of clay, or made out of cardboard, everything that you will be using in the current scene needs to be at hand. This will help with a few things. Firstly, you will be able to capture images at a good pace. Instead of having to stop consistently to get a new character or prop, having it ready will allow you to continue animating. Also, by having everything at hand, you will most likely have a slight boost in animation quality. If your character is in the middle of a run, and you need a person to walk into the scene during the run, if you stop and find/ build that person, you may lose track of the animation and possibly have a timing difference in the end. The little things count, and being prepared is one of them.

Have a question? Need help choosing a camera? Send an e-mail to NXTManiac@gmail.com and I’ll answer your question as soon as possible.