How to Make a Stop Motion Film in Windows Movie Maker

Whether you plan to make the next Nightmare Before Christmas, or simply want to spend a few hours making a short little film, all it requires to make a stop motion is a camera, a computer, and plenty of patience. While the process is...

Method 1 of 3:

Preparing Your Movie

Write a script or outline of your movie. Stop-motion is incredibly time-consuming -- you need at least 10 photos per second of footage, so having a plan in place before you begin will save you a lot of headaches. While there is no limit to what you can do with stop-motion, there are some practical concerns that you should be aware of before beginning your story.
1. It is very hard to zoom, pan, or move the camera smoothly in stop motion, so keeping everything in one frame/scene will be much easier to film professionally.
2. Unless you can safely leave your camera in position overnight you will need to be able to shoot all of your footage in one day.
3. The more characters and moving pieces you have, the longer everything will take.^[1]
Plan out your shot composition with a digital camera and tripod. The tripod is essential to keep your camera in the same spot, otherwise your movie will look shaky and jumbled. Set your scene in a place where it cannot be easily disturbed, as it will be nearly impossible to put everything in the right place if something gets knocked out of sorts.
1. A good memory card, one that can hold at least 4-500 photos, is essential unless you want to constantly remove the card and reset the camera in the same position. You can set you picture quality to "Low" if you are worried about space and do not care about having a professional quality film.
2. If you don't have a tripod, tape your camera down so that it doesn't move when you take a picture.
Eliminate any shadows from outside light sources. Making your movie will take a long time, meaning the shadow that starts at the edge of your scene might cover the entire shot by the time you're done. Unless this is the effect you want (to show time passing, for example), you should close the shutters or curtains and light the scene with lamps and ceiling lights. This will ensure even, consistent lighting throughout your movie.
Design, build, or "recruit" your characters. You can animate almost anything using stop-motion, from people and action figures to drawings and old appliances. You simply need something that you can move slowly and will hold it's shape while you take the pictures. Some ideas for stop-motion subjects include:
1. Dolls, action figures, and toys are bendable, expressive, and easy to adjust. You can use them to enact any scene you want, and they are easy to manipulate, stick, and move.
2. Drawings are time-consuming, as you need to draw every frame (10-12 a second) by hand. However, this is how traditional cartoons were done before computers. You can also do a stop motion movie as you draw something, taking a picture as you add the lines, shading, color, etc, to show the drawing as it is brought to life.
3. Household objects can be brought to life quickly and easily. This is often the best place to start, as you have the materials on hand and can quickly get them moving. Paper can toss itself in the trash, pencils can spontaneously dance, and bread can slide itself out of the bag and into the toaster.
Take a few practice photos and view them on the computer. Put your subjects into the frame or start a simple drawing using the lighting and camera position you want for your final movie. Take 5-10 quick shots and then import them into the computer, making sure they are clear, well-lit, and show everything in your scene. You do not want to edit 500 photos or re-shoot them later because you realized too late that the scene was lacking in light.
1. Your goal is to avoid editing any of your individual photos. Take your time with the photography and you will save countless hours later.^[2]

Method 2 of 3:

Shooting the Stills

Know that stop-motion is a collection of still images, played back-to-back, to create the illusion of movement. Stop-motion is similar to the flip books many people make as kids, where a small drawing on the corner of the pages is brought to life by flipping through them rapidly. This makes stop-motion a long process, as you need to take a lot of photos to make the film.
Set your starting scene. Say you are going to have some bread walk itself into the toaster. Your first shot would likely be the bag of bread sitting next to the toaster. Set everything up, lights and props, and get ready to roll.
Take your first shot. Check it quickly to make sure there were no issues, but do not move the camera. If you move it, there is a chance you'll need to restart, as it is nearly impossible to get it back into the same spot it started.
Slightly move your subject, then take another shot. Continuing the bread to toaster movie, you might open the bag a quarter of an inch. Take the shot, keeping the camera in the same place.
1. Some cameras have "auto-shutter" features, which take shots every 5, 10, or 15 seconds. If you only need a few seconds to adjust things this can be a great way to prevent accidental camera movement.^[3]
Continue moving the subject bit by bit and taking pictures. Open the bag a little more, and take a photo. Start to move the bread out the bag, take a photo. Keep moving and snapping, trying to keep your movements brief and making sure the camera stays in place.
1. The smaller the movements between shots, the smoother the animation will look. As a guideline, most early animation, like Disney shorts, took 24 shots per second of movie footage, and they look incredibly smooth as a result. You can get away with between 10-12, however, for home stop-motion.^[4]
Find ways to suspend or hold the objects in place when necessary. Getting the bread out of the bag and scooting it towards the toaster is easy. Getting it in the toaster, however, is a lot harder, since the bread will likely not wait for you halfway up the toaster without something to keep it from falling. Luckily, because you can take as much time in between shots as you want, you don't need any crazy special effects. For most stop-motion movies, some clear fishing line or tape will help you accomplish most of your goals.^[5]
Review your last few shots if you get lost. If you're unsure where the next motion is, check the last few photos you took and compare them to the current image on the camera screen. This is also helpful for larger actions, like suspended or "jumping" figures.

Method 3 of 3:

Putting it Together with Windows Movie Maker

Import your photos into the computer. Once they've downloaded into a dedicated folder, like "My Stop-motion Movie," sort them by date (if they are not already) by clicking "Arrange By: Day" in the upper right corner of the My Computer window. You want them organized so that, if you scrolled through them all, they would show you movie.
1. Almost all cameras will import the photos in order, but some will import them in reverse order -- with the most recent photos first. Check through the shots before continuing to make sure they are in chronological order.
2. Make sure that only the photos for your movie are in this folder.
Import the photos into Windows Movie Maker by clicking and dragging. Open Windows Movie Maker (WMM) and set your screen so you can see you photo folder and WMM at the same time. Click in the photo window and press Ctrl + A to select all of the photos. Then click and drag them into WMM and let them import.
1. Depending on the size and number of the photos, importing may take some time. Don't be worried if the computer freezes up temporarily, as it just needs time to process.
Select all of the photos in WMM to edit them. In the Movie Maker, use Ctrl+A again to select all of your photos. Now, any changes you make will affect every single photo at the same time, so you could make the movie black and white, sepia-toned, or play with the color settings if you desired.
Click on "Video Tools " → "Edit" and set the Duration to .1 seconds. This means that each photo will only be on the screen for a tenth of a second, giving you 10 frames per second of footage. With that, your movie is complete.^[6]
Preview the movie to check the timing. Hit the play button under the preview window to watch your movie in action. If the entire thing seems to slow, adjust your duration to play even faster, trying out .09 or .08 seconds. If it moves too quickly, make the duration a little long, like .11 or .12 seconds.^[7]
Speed up or slow down specific parts by adding and subtracting frames. If there is a part that moves quicker than the rest, or seems jump forward, add a frame or two to slow it down. To do so, simply click on a picture in the spot that seems too slow, and then right-click copy and paste (or Ctrl+C and then Ctrl+V). The identical photo will take up an extra .1 seconds, slowing down the action.
1. If a part is creeping along too slowly, delete an individual photo or two to speed it up. Make a note, however, of the file name in case you decide to add it back in later.
Add any music or audio to the final movie. Once you have the timing right, add in your audio effects, such as dialog or music, as well as any titles or credits that you want in the beginning and end. Your movie is finished.
1. You may still make some changes, adding or deleting frames, to sync up your footage to some music, but it is best to do this last, after you have a movie you enjoy on its own.