Stop Motion Animation

Recommendations on the Best Cameras for Stop Motion to use with stop motion

Read our review of the new Logitech Pro 9000

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Web Cameras

 Web Cameras are the easiest way to get in to stop motion animation. As long as you pay that little bit more for a good quality webcam you can achieve some very good results. Below is a chart showing some recommended webcams.

Home DV Cameras / USB Camcorders

	Traveler DV-5000 Mini Cam   This is a very inexpensive Digital Mini Cam that can be used as  a webcam. This is a feature found on some more expensive Sony and JVC HDD models but it is relatively rare to find in basic models like this one. It essentially gives you a super webcam. The picture quality is excellent, far better than most webcams. It comes with a stand which proves very useful for stop motion animation.

• But Please Note : In Summary   -  Read More Here

  Use the best quality Camera that you can. USB Webcams are good if you use a high quality one. Make sure your Camera has a manual focus capability. This is important to note as many cheaper webcams do not have this function. Its vital for the close up work used frequently in Brickfilms. Good quality notebook webcams are handy if they have a clip on base so that you can attach them to simple Legos props. In the picture below I used a Lego base and a lump of plasticine to weight it down a bit. This camera has digital zoom which is very handy for making your brickfilms. CCD chip based Webcams are better that CMOS chip based ones. Check the technical specifications of your webcam (on the box or on the web) Your camera should be capable of a good resolution setting Good Resolution - 640 x 480 and a capture rate of up to 30 Frames per second (FPS)   You can check to see if your webcam has this capability by looking at the box that came with   the Camera or by checking its technical specifications on the Internet. Recommendation We recommend Logitech webcams but if you don't have one then thats fine as long as it has good resolution capabilities and manual focus     Another trick or tip when making brickfilms use "Blu Tack" or "Omni Tack" Its your friend..it will save your life when making brickfilms :-) Use it to hold down your camera base to avoid knocking it when you are working with you minfigs. It can also be used with the minifigs when when are walking on lego roads which do not have plugs to hold your character in position.

  As Wiki says "The substance was invented in 1971 in England during development of an industrial adhesive by Bostik, a subsidiary of French bread mineral oil company Total" Similar products from other manufacturers include "Buddies" (coloured pink), "Pritt-Tack", "Tac 'N Stick" and "Sticky Tack". "White Tack", made by the German company UHU, is similar but, as the name suggests, is white in colour, so coloured so that it doesn't show through easily on posters as Blu Tack does
  Did you know that it can be used as a pencil eraser!

Quick Webcam Review for stop motion animation!

Budget Webcam - The Microsoft VX-1000 - $17-$25

I have to admit I am always shy of using the low end webcams for stop motion animation. But I have to say I was presently surprised by the Microsoft VX-1000 webcam. More on that later. I purchased it in Europe for 19.99 Euro. But I think you can get them in the US for as low as $17.

The packaging is the usual high quality you would expect from a Microsoft product. It comes with a CD containing the drivers for Windows XP/Vista. The USB cable is about 1 metre long (which is plenty long..Some webcams I have used have really short leads). Build quality is very good. It has a circular base which can open to allow you to clip it on to your computer screen very neatly. For stop motion animation you will either need to use blue tack or build some kind of frame /base for it.

I performed a very simple test animation with LEGO® minifigures with a distinct change in colour between the two characters. The second one had a green background which upset the camera somewhat in that I had to alter the white balance manually to get a more true representation of the colours. The video below shows the quality of the image. Comments on the animation expertise the video quality is surprisingly good for a $17 webcam. I shot at 640x480 30FPS , with 15 FPS for the animation.

Conclusions - Worth the money - Yes !

PROS - Very cheap, good quality for the price, easy to setup, good manual focus for the money, 640x480 @ 30FPS convincing.

CONS - No zoom, tricky to adjust the focus without disturbing the camera when doing stop motion animation.

Microsoft VX-1000 Webcam

Click on images above for more information!