The title of Mark Sawicki’s book, Animating with Stop Motion Pro, is both entirely accurate and a complete understatement. Contained within these pages is not only an easy-to-follow yet comprehensive guide to the software, process, and techniques necessary for basic animation, it also serves as an all-encompassing textbook — full of notes, references, and passages to the historical forbearers of the animated film form.
Sawicki’s name comes with credibility, as he has taught visual effects for over 20 years, and has contributed special effects work to several MTV videos, the television series, Star Trek, and films such as Tropic Thunder, Premonition, 40 Year Old Virgin, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
It should be noted that despite Sawicki’s evident prowess and understanding of the tools and techniques, the book is distinctly geared towards novice and intermediate stop motion animators, model makers, animated filmmakers, and students. Luckily, his guidelines and explanations for using the program are so easy to follow that users should quickly establish the basis of understanding necessary to move on to more advanced work, should they be so inclined.
For those not familiar, Stop Motion Pro is a stop-motion software program designed by Ross Garner and Paul Howell to run on the Windows operating systems XP, Vista, or Windows 7. The software requires the possession of a video camera, webcam, or digital still camera, which is hooked up to the computer in order to sequence and animate the captured images. The software is currently selling version 7, and has been in use by professional animators for just over ten years. Most recently, the program was used to animate the short film, Wallace & Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death.
The program is one of the perennial tools for present-day animators, and conveniently expedites the process of editing together the necessary components of animation. Before the digital age, sequences were all filmed in-camera with no ability to see the image and adjust while on-set. With this new type of software, the camera is linked to the computer to produce a “live feed,” of the images it is capturing, thereby allowing the filmmakers to instantly react and adjust to what they see. Features such as “onion skinning,” whereby the previously captured image is overlayed with the current one, allow them to replicate the illusion of motion as precisely as possible.
The most welcome aspect of the book is Sawicki’s utilization of large, glossy pictures to accompany each of his text-based explanations. Nothing is more frustrating than endlessly scrolling through an unfamiliar computer program with a so-called “help” manual that merely describes something other than what you’re seeing. This book solves that problem with easily distinguishable photos of both the types of models and films it references and actual screenshots of what the reader should be seeing on their screen.
Sawicki also makes the wise decision to emphasize history and technique over the software itself. He addresses the necessary technical components in an introduction, and leaves it at that. That’s not to say that this text is over-reliant on theoretical discussion. But Sawicki clearly believes that the software in question is merely a vehicle for creative output and expression. He adopts the role of guide, giving the reader sufficient background and context to understand the purpose of the program, and leaving the content up to them.
The structure of the book indicates Sawicki’s history as a professor, as the chapters are clearly broken up into different animation subjects — from time, to people, to objects, to voices, to puppets, to clay. The book acknowledges a progression in theory and technique between the separate subjects, and it’s easy to imagine each chapter representing a week or so in a college course. They are sequenced so in the book that if one were simply interested in clay animation, they could leap straight to that chapter, but by reading the entire preceding portion, they will have accumulated a greater basis for understanding the techniques therein.
With the extensive leaps in technology over the last decade, the process of stop-motion filmmaking is constantly undergoing revision. In that respect, this book should serve as a wonderful resource for newcomers seeking to understand the process of stop-motion animation, or even experienced animators not up-to-date with the latest software. It’s difficult to imagine a more simple yet comprehensive guide.
Animating with Stop Motion Pro is published by Elsevier, Inc. All rights reserved. It is available at bookstores now in paperback form.
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