STOP MOTION ANIMATION CAMERA MOVEMENTS

Since almost the dawn of the motion picture business, there are somewhat standard camera movement terminology & descriptions used In live action cinematography and carried over into videography. The camera is physically moved while shooting certain scenes .... either hand held camera (cinema verite, documentary style) or camera affixed to tripods with geared heads or mounted to other camera moving devices. Moving the camera is very much an artistic-creative decision. IMO, too much camera movement is a distraction and sometimes used to show-off or impress. No hard and fast rule about moving a camera. There are plethora of books that you can Google about cinema techniques and creative theories.

Camera movements also applicable to Stop Motion, however the difference is, you will be animating the camera movements frame by frame at the same time the puppets are animated. Camera movements can be done by computer motion control or the ol' fashioned way of just manually moving the camera a frame at a time. Anyway .... if you are confused about the terms used to described the camera movements .... look at this and forever be informed and you will impress people
 


PAN -- Left or Right

 


TILT -- Up or Down


 


PEDESTAL -- Up or Down

 


TRUCK --Left or Right

 


DOLLY -- IN (towards) or OUT (away)

 

For STOP MOTION, some devices & tools similar to what you see here below for mounting your camera to and then achieve frame by frame camera movement control ....
 


Bogen - Manfrotto 3275 / 410 Compact Geared Head


 


Bogen-Manfrotto 3021BPRO Black Professional Tripod without Head


 


CAMERA MOVER TRACK
-- For animated Dolly or Truck shots
A do-it-yourself project or find someone to fabricate it for you


For advanced Stop Motionists ...... "sometimes" applicable when doing animated Pan and Tilt movements on miniatures sets .... some info about mounting camera at the
Nodal Point of Camera Lens


The above is presented as information only. You are soley responsible for doing your own research and making your own decisions.



STOP MOTION WORKS