how can I get/ do a stop motion like animation in mya

#1

I want to know how I can get that stop motion feel/ look to my animations with in maya. if any one know please inform me , thanks for your time

#2

Dunno about Maya, but when goofing around last Winter I came up with a bit of nonsense about stop-motioned snowmen. And what worked fairly well was two things:

[ul]
[li] When you set a keyframe, advance “1/n” second or so and set another identical keyframe. (Adjust the interval to suit, but make it the same throughout.) [*] Use “linear” interpolation between the keyframe positions. [/ul]
[/li]Each time the object moves from one key to next, it moves linearly (clunk! … no “ease-in/out”) and having hit the key, remains motionless for a tiny instant.

When stop-mo people are defining intricate actions, they might “shoot on twos” whereas with broader and less-involved motion they might “shoot on threes” or “fours.” You achieve the same effect by the “length” of each keyframe-pair. Count carefully to keep it consistent.

(It would surprise me not-at-all to find that scripts exist to do this for you, since it would be very easy to describe this procedurally… transforming “ordinary” motion curves to become “stop-action.”)

#3

thanks sundialsvc4. I ll give it a try and keep you posted on the results.

#4

I’m not a stop motion animator, but I think this should give you a good approximation of the feel.

For your stop-motion look, animate your scene on ones and in with all your keys on stepped tangents in your graph editor. You don’t necessarily need to animate straight ahead but after you hit your blocking key poses, straight ahead animation in-betweening should lend itself to a stop motion feel.

Let me know how it works out (rich textures will help the aesthetic greatly as well)

#5

An illustration of that idea would be great.

Also… when you describe “a stop-motion feel,” I presume that you’re not trying to do Coraline, which is so well-done that it really does not have a stop motion feel to it at all. (At least, not to me…) You want to hit "a slight, but very consistent, sense of imperfection."

#6

thanks frogman I also tried your approach and it gave me a nice effect but I still need to mess around more. though it was a nice result its not the one my boss had in mind. no sundance, I wasn’t aiming for Coraline. lol that’s too good for me… any way like you said it doesn’t have that stop motion feel. thanks for the input BTW. how much imperfection should I aim for.

#7

it would be much better to strive for perfect animation, but key it on 2’s in stepped key mode. If you try and put imperfections on 1’s it will just look flickery and wrong. And if you are keying on 1’s then it is going to be fluid to our eyes so those imperfects will be obvious and the ‘stop motion’ feel will be absent. I would not recommend keying on 1’s if you wish to get a stop motion feel.

You could, if you like, be really strict with yourself and do one frame at a time, straight ahead. But i think it would be better to go back and trace those arcs and make the animation really nice!

Some examples of 3D animation keyed on 2’s with stepped tangents for a stop-motion feel:

http://www.nexusproductions.com/showcase/autumn-showreel/ (go to the flash movie called ‘muffin man’ 3 down 1 across)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Pa6BK4tHeg - From the flushed away movie. They use replacement geometry for mouths and key on 1s and 2s for a stop motion feel.

Good luck!

#8

Why do difficult things like changing the interpolation of the keyframes? You could just as easily use a lower framerate. Also, do NOT use motion blur. But dont forget your depth of field, perhaps even exagerate it a little. Keep an eye on your camera angle. I guess slightly higher than usually and aimed a little downward would create the illusion that you`re working with miniatures.

Bas

#9

A little late but I just wrote an article on this topic as I’ve recently done several jobs that required the stop motion treatment: http://bit.ly/aBfEE9

#10

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