Animating with Stop Motion Pro

Animating with Stop Motion Pro is comprehensive, hands-on guide to achieving professional results with Stop Motion Pro 7.0 software. Gone are the days of stop motion guesswork and waiting to see the finalized result of your meticulous, labor intensive animations. With the push of a mouse button and the Stop Motion Pro software, animators have ten times the capability of simple camera stop motion capture. Re-visualize stop motion character movements, graph these movements and composite characters into a flawless animations with the techniques and step by step tutorials featured in Animating with Stop Motion Pro. Create professional stop motion animation immediately with detailed exercises at the companion website: www.focalpress.com/cw/sawicki-9780240812199/. Integrate classic stop motion animation techniques with the latest stop motion software features.

The Camera Sees Motion; Animation Yourself with Pixelation; Animating Everyday Objects, George Pal and Replacement Animation; Jiri Trynka, Starivitch and the birth of Puppet Animation; Art Clokey, Wil Vinton and Clay Animation; Willis O'Brien, Ray Harryhausen and the birth of Dynamation; Animator as Actor; Set Construction; Camera and Lighting; Pre and Post Production; High End Techniques.

Mark Sawicki is a camera man, artist, and actor. He has had many roles in the world of film, from teaching visual effects for over 15 years at the UCLA extension, authoring video programs on the art of clay animation, and being an independent stop motion animator on several MTV videos. He won an Emmy Certificate for his contribution to the television series, Star Trek while working as a cameraman for Illusion Arts. He won a Clio for his camera work while at Celestial Mechanics Incorporated. Mark is currently a digital colorist and effects camera supervisor at Custom Film Effects. A few of his recent films include Premonition, The Black Dahlia, 40 Year Old Virgin, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

I don't think I would have stuck with animation if I hadn't had the use of the SMP program that my university uses, for my first animation. The onion skinning and play back features within SMP are so easy to use that I found myself becoming quite ambitious and really getting into the production, without having to get too far into the technical side of animation too early on. I was also able to get a better understanding of what animation really is and what can be achieved. I am now at a stage where I need to use more of the technical side of SMP, and hopefully continue with a smooth learning curve.