Last weekend my niece and nephew were here for the weekend. (Oh… their parents too.) 🙂
Within a few minutes of getting here my nephew Joey asked if there was something we could do on my iPhone together. Fortunately I was prepared. I had done a bit of research and found an app that seemed like it would be a home run. That app… MovieMaker.
MovieMaker, formally called WatchItChange, is an app that walks you through the process of creating a stop action movie right on your iPhone. I liked the idea since it not only sounded like it would be fun to do with an eight year-old but it reminded me of many of the shows I watched on Saturday morning when I was his age. You know… the kind of movie/show that used to be called claymation.
I showed it to Joey, he approved and we were off. Here’s a walk through of the process and the movies we ended up creating together.
First off you need a theme. It is best if it is something that can slowly change over time. Next you need a way to set the iPhone up so you can tap the screen to take pictures while not moving it in the process.
We ended up using the iPhone on a stack of books. (This worked okay but, as you will see, the iPhone moved from shot to shot a bit.)
The developer also offers a stand that can be bought on eBay.
Then we got to work.
We took a picture, made a small change in the “still-life”, took another picture, made a small change, took another picture, made another small change etc. We did this dozens and dozens of times.
Each time we were given the chance to accept the image and move on or retake it. If you accidently accepted one that wasn’t good, for example because you snapped the picture before your nephew had a chance to get his hand out of the way, it isn’t a problem since you can come back later and remove pictures after the series is done.
Once you are done you can add a title, opening and closing credits and, if you like, upload the presentation to MavieMaker’s own site. That’s just what we did with both of the movies we made. How did they come out? Take a look for yourselves…
While I clearly have no future as a stopmotion filmmaker we did have a lot of fun using the app. Having the movies we made available to share is a nice bonus too!
The developer even offers a website to which you can post your “productions”.
It is a fun little app and at $.99 it is well worth the money. You can get it HERE.