[JAY P.] Hi this is Jay P Morgan today on the slanted lens we've got a treat for you.
We're going to talk about stop-motion photography and we have the master of
stop-motion photography here with us. This is Trisha Zemp.
She's going to talk to us about the things that she does to make fabulous
stop motion Instagram videos. She does this for everyone from Bath and Body
Works to Etsy. I mean she does it for everybody. So what're you gonna teach us
today?
[TRISHA]Today I'm going to teach you four tips to make your stop motion videos look
really good.
[JAYP.] Well if there's anyone that can do it, it's Tricia. So let's get started and see what we can do.
[MUSIC]
If you're going to succeed in your business you need to get help.
Trisha was an example of that. She came to me and said I don't know what to do
She took my business coaching class. I taught the things she needed to do.
She went from making just a few dollars for her Instagram videos to making a lot of
money.
You can do the same. Join up for our business coaching class. Go to theslantedlens.com.
We will give you the help you need to be successful in this industry.
[MUSIC]
[TRISHA] So our first tip in stop motion is that you want to avoid any sort of camera
movement.
So you put your camera on a tripod and you don't want to touch it. But what I like to
do is I like to use an AC camera adapter. You put-- it's a battery that you put into
your camera and you can also plug it into the wall. So your camera will stay
alive for as long as you're shooting. Which is great because you might find
yourself shooting four 8+ hours for a single stop motion.
Another thing you want to be really careful of is you don't want to manually
trigger your camera.
You want to trigger it off camera. Oh and so you can use a remote or you can
tether to your computer. And I think that's the best way. And you can do it
from Lightroom which is a really great way to tether your camera shoot from
your computer and see the images as you create them. So there's number one. No
camera movement.
[JAY P.] Don't touch the camera. [TRISHA] Do not touch the camera.
[JAY P.] Ever. Do you understand us? [TRISHA] Don't touch the camera.
Ok the second thing we wanted to talk about is frame rate. [JAY P.] I'm really curious
about frame rate because- and I would guess that the animation we see in the
theaters is done at 24 frames 'cause it's very cinematic. [TRISHA] Yes. [JAY P.] but a lot of stuff that's
very interesting on Instagram looks to me like it's a lot less frames than that.
[TRISHA] Yes. So when I shoot for Instagram I like to shoot 10 frames per second. [JAY P.] Wow. [TRISHA] Yeah.
It's short but it gives a really fun bouncy wiggly movement that people love
to see on Instagram.
Another great frame rate for Instagram is 15 frames per second. It kind of
merges the bouncy fun stop motion feel with a cinematic feel and you get this
really nice like marriage of the two. But I prefer doing 10 frames a second
because you're only shooting a hundred and fifty frames because Instagram's video
platform can only take 15 seconds and when you sit down to shoot a hundred 50
frames doesn't seem like that much.
The third thing we're gonna talk about is lighting. For stop-motion you
can light however your preferences in photography.
You can also use any method of lighting. You can use continuous lighting, strobe
lighting, and natural light or window light. But you have to be careful
especially with window light. You're light changes the quality of your light
changes often and it might require a lot of post-production to get everything to
match. [JAY P.]
We don't think the sun's moving very fast very fast but when you're doing
something like this I'll but you can see it move. [TRISHA] Yeah I --. And you could do that on
purpose and that motion which would be really beautiful
yeah. But again you can't really control your exposure through that whole time so it
does get difficult but it is doable if you want to try. But my preference in
doing stop motion is to have continuous lighting. And today we're shooting with
Rosco's Vector LED light pads. and I've been using them for a while and I love
them I think that they're fabulous lights especially for stop-motion because you
can see what your light looks like the whole time that you're shooting. Just be
really careful that you don't create a shadow from you being in the way of the
light. So you need to light in such a way that you
animating and then stepping back and taking a picture doesn't affect your
light source. So the fourth thing we're going to talk about is camera settings.
Right now our camera is shooting at a tenth of a second.
We are at 250 ISO and then our aperture is at 6.3 and when our aperture is between
5 point--. [JAY P.] 5 to 8. [TRISHA] Yeah 5 to 8
then you have optimal corner performance. It means you're not going to get a vignette.
Or you'll at least get the least amount of vignette
chromatic aberrations or any sort of lends aberrations that come with a
different focal length. [JAY P.] That's where your is gonna perform optimally. It's gonna give
you the best focus. It's a one-dimensional experience what we're
doing today.
So it's just what's going to give you the most-- the solid depth of field
across the entire object. Looks good.
So here we are. We're on set and Trisha is going to show us how to animate The
Slanted Lens logo using jelly beans
[TRISHA] Here we go
so for this video we want to create The Slanted Lens logo out of these black
jellybeans and the paper.
We're doing it in reverse so that we don't have to worry about all the nit
picky placement to create it.
So we're going to deconstruct it. And the first thing we want to happen, which is
the last thing we want to see, is this paper-- this paper picture of Jay P. We want it to--
to uncrumple. So we're going to crumple it and then we have "The" over here- and it's
actually made out of jelly beans that we bit in half to create the skinny
type- we want them to become whole jelly beans. And then we want all the jelly
beans to roll off.
We need to have our final frame so we're gonna start by taking our first picture.
And so the first thing we want to happen is this paper is going to uncrumple so
we're going to start by crumpling it up. And then we're going to put it back
where it was.
And then we take another picture.
Then we can kind of toggle back and forth to see how that looks. Oh yeah.
Crushed it. That looks great. So then we're going to crumple it a little bit more.
Okay and then we want this paper to start to disappear like it's coming out
of the white.
So when we're going to get--. We're gonna go here. And then we're actually going to tear
the photo in half to make it smaller. And then we're gonna tear it in half again.
Sometimes it's fun to get it really tiny because it looks so cool growing out of
the white.
So this video I was filming thinking I liked it at ten frames per second but
it's kind of slow. I prefer actually watching it at 15 frames per second.
I think the magic of stop motion is when you have one second of animation and you
can see what you just created. It's just magic to see all that you made.
So now what we're going to do is we're going to make all these jellybeans
pieces become a single jelly bean.
So we're going to kind of move them together. For this video it took hours of
prep just to get the type ready.
The jelly bean type so it-- it definitely takes a lot more time than
even just showing this here.
Ok so now what we're going to do is we're going to disperse all the beans. And
we can make it ten seconds.
So we need 80 more frames.
You kind of need to visualize. If we need to move this--
these beans out to the corners in eighty frames, we probably want to move
them about that much and so we're just going to kind of move everything. And
with a video like this no one is keeping their eye on a specific bean and
so you can kind of move all of them in a general pattern. But if you're working
with one or two things you have to be really careful and very specific about
where you put them.
But in a video like this it's okay if you kind of just jostle them all around.
[MUSIC]
Ok, and then we're done. And I'm just going to take a blank white image.
So that is the logo video. [JAY P.] That is fabulous.
[TRISHA] We were going to do ten but we ended up doing five. [JAY P.] Well and then you can let the logo
sit there for a second. [TRISHA] Yeah the logo does need to sit for at least one second
maybe two.
So really it's like a seven second video. [JAY P.] So there you have it.
Four tips on how to do stop-motion photography. Actually there's probably 6 or 7
tips in there. [TRISHA] There's a lot. [JAY P.] But great information to go out so get out there and try it. Do some
stop motion photography. [TRISHA] And if you post it to Instagram
I-- I would love to see I think Jay P. would love to see. [JAY P.] I would love to see it too. Things you're doing. understand two things you're doing
[JAY P.] Yeah so tag The Slanted Lens tag Trish Zemp and then we'll give you some feedback
on what you shoot because we-- we'd love to see. [JAY P.] Absolutely.
So tag us and don't forget to follow The Slanted Lens. Follow us, like us on
Facebook. You know, tell your grandmother about us all those kinds of things. But
just remember keep those cameras rollin' and keep on clickin'.
Trisha is a fabulous stop motion artist and she's taken everything that she knows kind of a complete look.
at how she does stop motion from beginning to end
put into a download that The Slanted Lens is selling right now at theslantedlens.com.
Get over there and pick up a copy of this. It's an hour plus material about
how to do stop-motion. It'll teach you the things that we didn't get into in the lesson
today that will help you to stop motion. All of Trisha's examples and secrets are
yours if you get to theslantedlens.com and buy a copy today.
But just remember, keep those cameras rollin' and keep on clickin'.
[Trisha] Please. [Jay P.] Please. [TRISHA] No, I'm just kidding. I wanted to have the last word but I was just joking.
[JAY P.] Please.