A Stop-Action Movie in 8 Lessons
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December 28, 2010
Dec
28
Written by:
12/28/2010 11:16 AM
by Guest Blogger D. Salmons
A chance to learn and expand our knowledge base can come along in
many different forms. In fact, a complete learning project, comprised of
multiple lessons and all working towards a single goal, is perhaps one of the
best ways for a student to see how simple parts join together to make a
seemingly complex finished product.
The overall goal of the project is
to let the student create a work that is an expression of his or her imagination. In
doing so, the student will learn to follow simple steps that lead to a logical
conclusion. In addition, many of the lessons will reinforce previous lessons,
ensuring that the basic concepts are understood and implemented.
The Project
If you have spent much time at all
on any of those popular Internet based video sharing sites, chances are you have
seen a few user-generated videos of the stop motion variety. Such videos are
often made of clay, but some of our favorites are those made from children's
building blocks. Such videos often use the blocks to extend the imagination in
ways that entertain and inform.
As a great technology learning project,
we thought it would be fun to design and create our own Lego movie masterpiece.
We will be focusing on the basics of creating the project. If you find it
interesting, you can use these concepts to make your own stop motion masterwork.
To
make it easy to follow, we will break down the process into 8 simple steps. We
will take a look at each step, and try to go into what each step needs to
complete. So, without further ado, let's look at step 1.
Lesson
1 - The Concept
GOALS FOR LESSON 1
- The student creates an original story idea for the movie, which stimulates
creativity and imagination.
- The student creates a preliminary budget that considers resources and time.
The student is forced to weigh both expectations of the project's completion as
well as the items needed.
- Creating a budget teaches the student about overall management of their
times and resources, which could be a valuable life skills lesson.
In
order to make an entertaining short movie, you need to come up with an
entertaining concept. While the technology will make it possible, the concept
will make it plausible.
In creating the concept, stop to consider the
medium in which you are working. Sure, it may be great to recreate the siege of Troy, but modeling that in Lego blocks could be cost-prohibitive. Think of your
budget at all times to make sure that you have a good chance in finishing the
project.
Budgets are often split into two categories, time and
resources. In this case our budget will consist of Lego blocks on hand and the
time it will take to build and manipulate the models. The models are just
another way of referring to the things that we build out of Lego.
With
the budget in mind, let your imagination wander. Sure, it might be hard to
rebuild Troy and all of the attacking ships, but building characters on a single
ship should sound doable. Take the ship concept to space and think of an
adventure in the stars. Or make a story based in your everyday surroundings,
such as home, school, or sports practice.
As long as you keep your
budget in mind (time + resources), you can afford to be creative. Whether it is
a comedy, an action flick, or a space opera, have fun with it. But if this is
your first animated short, be prepared to revisit the concept later in order to
fit the budget better. After all, it is hard to get a good feeling about the
time it takes until you have done it a few times.
Lesson 2 - The
Storyboard
GOALS FOR LESSON 2
- The student envisions the movie from start to finish, sparking creativity
and imagination.
- The student creates a working storyboard that puts the imagined movie into
tangible form.
- The student becomes more adept at expressing ideas and concepts through the
action of creating the storyboard.
At this point you have your concept
in hand, and you are ready to start building and recording. Not so fast there -
we need something to translate from the concept to what we need to do next. This
so-called "translation" piece, if done correctly, will more or less detail
everything we need to build and show us a roadmap to completing our movie.
In its simplest form, a storyboard is a series of rough drawings and
notes that show the major story parts from the view of the camera. This will let
you get together all of your required stage elements as well as account for any
and all characters. Once you get to the recording, you will find the storyboard
to be the steps of the movie, from start to completion.
When you go to create the storyboard, put yourself in the viewer's
seat, and think about what you want to see on the screen. Sketch it out or
otherwise compose it only as neat or detailed as you need to convey the ideal to
others (or maybe just yourself) later. Index cards on a corkboard work great for
a storyboard, but I have known some that used a computer and a presentation
slide program such as Power Point to keep it together in a form that can be
easily rearranged.
You will want to have a storyboard image (or note)
for each major action scene of your movie. For example, if you change scenes or
major camera angles, make a card of the new scene. Also, if any major action
takes place that changes from the rest of the movie, storyboard it. For example,
two characters carrying on a conversation might not need but one card. But when
the swords come out, add another card to show that action.
If you want
to do something special in the movie, such as zooming in on a smashing blow to
the wall, add it in to your storyboard collection. You should find that it is
easy to add, remove, and rearrange movie ideas as they come to you. The
storyboard, although simple in its execution, gives the moviemaker a place to
create before it ever goes to the actual recording. Expect to go over it several
times, and look for an opportunity to insert items of interest.
Lesson 3 - The Software and Hardware
GOALS FOR
LESSON 3
- The student researches the different hardware required to create the
movie.
- The student researches and gathers the required software as needed for their
selected hardware choice.
- By matching the required software with the selected hardware, the student
learns how some items are dependent on a decision (the hardware) and how it
affects the project. This reinforces the student's decision-making ability and
its outcome.
Whew, we came this far in a technology project and only
now are we getting into the technology itself. But that should not come as a
surprise to anyone, since we should be focusing on the vision first, then simply
implementing it.
Now that we are implementing it, we are going to need some software and hardware
to make it all work. First, the hardware - ten years ago this may have been more
challenging, but today most laptops and the best notebooks
come with a built-in camera. For our intended uses, I think that such a setup
(laptop with built-in camera) will work out just fine. But I like Macs, so let's
make it a MacBook with a camera. Of course, an iMac will work fine as well.
Next, we need the software to capture the stop motion images and put
them together into a rough-cut movie. Now, one of my favorites for this purpose,
and it happens to be free, is an app called Frame by Frame, and it runs on a
modern Mac of your choice, equipped with a camera. For Windows users, good choices include Monkeyjam and AnimatorDV Simple+. Stop Motion Pro, previously one of the best free stop-motion programs on the Windows Platform, is now so dated that I would suggest avoiding it on anything past Windows XP.
Now,
we will want to add sound to our project - after all, what's a multimedia
project without sound? For this, consider the free program Audacity. You will
find it available for a variety of operating systems, and it is a very capable
piece of audio editing software. For the sound hardware, if you are using a
modern personal computer, the chances are that audio recording hardware is
already on the machine.
Lesson 4 - The Stage, the Set and the
Models
GOALS FOR LESSON 4
- The students build the base stage from available components.
- The student designs a set that fits within the idea put forth by the
previous lessons of the concept (lesson 1) and the storyboard (lesson 2).
- The student designs and builds the Lego models as required for the concept
story at hand.
Now we are up to discussing the stage and the models. As
noted earlier, the models are what we will build with the Lego blocks and/or
other Lego pieces we incorporate, such as that great Lego Darth Vader character.
But what is the stage? Well, the stage is where all of the action takes
place. If we are using a laptop, then the stage might be a small tray with legs
that positions everything above the keyboard and up to the camera. Now, here is
something to look for in a stage with a laptop - find something high enough to
let you still use the keyboard and trackpad if you are not using a Bluetooth
keyboard and a wireless mouse.
If we are using an iMac or similar
machine, then our stage might be a stack of books or other items that simply
brings the level of the stage up to the camera as required. Since you would
otherwise be blocking the screen, consider two stacks of books and a thin board
to go across them. This works well with both desktops and laptops.
Okay,
now for the set. The set is basically the background that defines the area that
the action is taking place. For instance, if we are doing a short that takes
place on a space cruiser, then the set might be a background of stars and enough
blocks to make parts of the spaceship interior. If the action is taking place in
a classroom, then the set is probably a background that has items drawn on it
from a typical classroom.
Lesson 5 - The Action
GOALS FOR LESSON 5
- Using the components from the previous lessons above, the student begins
acting out the concept story using the set and the models. The storyboard is
used as the working guide for production.
- The student, after getting into production and its requirements, is asked to
reconsider the budget from Lesson 2. This reinforces the budget concept and
helps with successfully reaching the goal.
- The student becomes more proficient in computer skills through the use of
frame capture software
Did someone say action? Well, that is exactly
where we are at by this point. We have our storyboard ready to go, a stage to
hold everything, a set that defines where the action takes place to the viewer,
and our models to do the movement. Now we set up each scene as roughly described
in our storyboard and check the view in our capture software. If everything is a
go - and you know it is by this point with just a little adjustment, the action
commences.
Of course, by action we mean that you take a picture with the
capture software, move the models the equivalence of a frame, and take another
picture. Do this and repeat until you have worked the entire storyboard.
You may be asking yourself how big is a frame? Well, that depends on how
smooth you want the animation to appear in your stop-motion video. In practical
terms, 15 frames per second (fps) looks pretty good played back. But that means
taking 15 pictures for every second of movie time. So, for a 1 minute short, you
will need 60 x 15 = 900 pictures. This is a slow process, no other way to
describe it. In a pinch you can drop down to 10 fps, but even that is 600
captures per minute. Grab your shots, and when you are finished, save everything
and export the video.
Now might be a good time to visit that budget
again. If you have designed a storyboard with 5 minutes of movie time and only a
few hours to do it, go back and change the storyboard to something that you can
afford on your budget.
Lesson 6 - The Sound
GOALS FOR LESSON 6
- The student creates an original soundtrack, using visual clues from the
movie as a guide.
- The student has to imagine what sound effects would fit the movie at that
moment, enforcing creativity and encouraging exploration of sounds.
- The student becomes more proficient in computer skills through the use of
audio software
So far, we have not deviated much in the process from
the way that real cartoons and movies are made. We are getting ready to change
that now, at least in regard to other animations. In a typical big screen
animation project, actors come in and lay down the audio track, then the
animators work to match the audio. We are going to be taking our fresh made stop
action video, and set the sound to match the action.
Now this is where a
good multi-track audio editor comes in handy, such as Audacity. The first thing
we need to do is to create a detailed sound map for our audio. This is actually
an easy process. Basically you will want to watch the video, and note any visual
clues that require sound effects. When you see them, make a note of the video
counter time and the required sound effect. For example, if you have a sword
fight, you may need a clanging sound every 3 seconds for 3 times, and a whoosh
and a scream added in between. 
With your sound map in hand (okay, some
notes with sounds and time stamps listed), go to your editor and add in the
sounds effects at the times required. You may consider if you want any
background music, easily added as another track, and you can even add in special
effects like echoes and more. Also, don't forget to record any voices you need
to add to your movie. Voice acting is not hard, but remember what emotion you
should have for that particular phrase. Audacity allows you to easily record
audio into a project. After you have the sounds in place, save the audacity project (in
case you need to adjust something later) and export the track as a single audio
file. Lesson 7 - The Wrapup
GOALS FOR LESSON 7
- The student completes the movie by taking the products of lessons 5 and 6
above and merges them into one movie file.
- The student considers the opening presentation "look and feel" of the movie
by adding an opening title sequence or screen.
- The student considers and assigns value to their actions in the previous
lessons by adding credit screen to the closing of the movie
- The student becomes more proficient in computer skills through the use of
movie-editing software
At this point you've got two files of interest
- a video file that has no sound, and an audio file. You are going to need to
put these together into a single file. For this, if you are on a Mac, use
iMovie. If you are using another operating system, then use something similar,
such as Windows Movie Editor.
Start the video editor and load the video
file. Next import the audio and add it to the audio track. At this point we can
easily add in a nice opening title and closing credits. Don't forget to credit
the producer, director, animator, voice actor, sound editor, and storywriter -
even if it is all you. Save everything, preview it a few times to make sure
everything is just how it want it, and export the final movie. Congratulations,
you are now a moviemaker, coming in just under budget, hopefully. And if not,
don't feel bad - not many of Hollywood's best can do that either.
Lesson 8 - The Distribution
GOALS FOR LESSON 8
- The student gains insight into sharing their work as they consider the
distribution of their movie project.
- The student gains confidence in their abilities as they promote their work.
- The student becomes more proficient in computer skills through the use of
DVD creation software and/or online interaction.
The question now is,
how are you going to share this work of art, this stop motion cinematography
masterpiece? If it's short enough you can email it to everybody, or better yet
consider putting it online on YouTube or something similar, then email everyone
a link. You can also easily embed it in a web page for your visitors. And you
can always burn it to a DVD for distribution and home viewing.
Now that you have your first stop action movie behind you,
it will be easy to parlay that experience into bigger and better
projects. A good working knowledge of concept creation, storyboard mechanics,
sound editing, and successful project completion can be valuable in any number
of media projects. So, what's stopping you from your first short feature? All
you need is a laptop (or desktop), some free apps, Lego blocks, and a great
imagination - but the last one is the most important.
Conclusion
At this point, the student has successfully completed a project
comprised of 8 interactive lessons. The finished project can be shared with both people around them and friends and family out of
the area by emailing the movie or a link. The student's confidence in producing
media should have greatly increased, and it should not be surprising that the
student will soon look to their next movie project with eagerness.
Guest blogger D. Salmons is a freelance writer and social media consultant for several companies, ranging from individuals to Fortune 500. She is a bit of a geek and enjoys writing about tech and gadgets at Test Freaks, a website that collects information about products, such as best netbooks and other consumer electronics.