Stop Motion? "It’s possible."

As already mentioned in the introduction to this book, Stop Motion animation is a technique based on photographs. We say that the videos from these types of animation are usually pretty fun. Okay, now the big question, “Can I do Stop Motion with Tupi?
The short answer is yes, however, the component dedicated to this subject still needs much work. For now, the interface allows simple animations, but our future goals are more ambitious.
For now, let’s see how to create a short video using this technique:

1. Get a digital camera. Since this kind of animation is based on photographs, the camera is vital.
2. Build a script for your story, following the tips mentioned in the "First! chapter"
3. Get the resources you need for your story; objects, people, etc.
4. Set up your camera at a fixed point (eg a table or a tripod) pointing towards the place where your scene will take place and make sure that the camera cannot move sideways. Arrange your resources at the scene, in their starting positions for the beginning of the animation.
5. Begin taking photos, pausing to move the objects or people in the scene (according to movements that you defined in your script) in between each photo. Remember that every movement must be small, since the final smoothness of your animation depends on this.
6. Once you’ve captured every movement that you require for your scenes, connect your camera to your computer and upload all the photos into a folder on the PC.
7. Open Tupi and create a new project.
8. Now select the Import menu located at the top and choose the Bitmap Array. A dialog box opens, asking you to select the directory where you saved the pictures for your animation.

   Fig #65. Option to import a Bitmap Array

9. Pressing the OK button, the program will load each of your images in a separate frame and in alphabetical order.

   Fig #66. Dialog for selecting the director that contains the images

10. If your images are very large, the program will be forced to resize them, and if there are many and are all larger than 1 MB, it is likely that your machine will run out of memory and the program may crash.

    Fig #67. Informational message when inserting images

11. When the process of importing images is complete, you can take a look at your project in the Animation tab (the second from the left in the workspace).
12. From this point, you have two options: you can export your project as a video file, or you can do some editing on the images if you want using the drawing tools.
13. If you like what you saw and want to convert to video, return to the Animation tab and click the Export button located on the bottom panel.
14. Follow the usual steps to export as described in "Let’s create a video file" and you’re done. Your Stop Motion project is ready to be famous!