The first of our stop motion products was basically designed for school children and beginner animators.   It is easy to use and has a simple layout with no menus.  Although its design is simple, it is not a toy.  Stop MotionMaker has far more features, but is  less expensive than our competitors.

Recommended System Requirements

• Microsoft Windows 98, SE or XP (not limited profile) Note.

This application is currently not suitable for Windows Vista see Stop MotionMaker Advance

• Mirosoft DirectX 8.0 or later
• Celeron 600, Pentium III 550, K6 500 or faster processor
• 512 megabytes of RAM (more is better)
• 24 bit VGA graphics (800x600)
• Compatible USB or IEEE 1394 camera, or television camera and interface (analog capture card)
• Note: Stop MotionMaker runs best on windows XP P4 2.8G 1Gb ram or equivalent.

For your information:   360 full 720x576 bitmap frames can occupy approximately 1Gb of Hard drive space.

Stop MotionMaker TRIAL is limited to 70 frames for each movie made and 20 uses and will only save the work file directory.

BASIC FEATURES

ONIONING

Onioning is a stopmotion term for overlaying the last taken image frame onto the live image.   This enables the next position of the object to be better gauged (See the hand of the robot below).

PLAY LOOP

This enables the currently taken frames to be looped (played) to guage how your animation is progressing before an AVI movie is made.

UNDO

 Simply deletes the last taken file.

MARKERS

These small red squares can be placed on the screen in any position to help in the maping of an animation path.  They will not be included in the saved frame. (See image below).

DELETE

An image within a series of images.  When selected, the currently displayed frame will be deleted and the remaining  frames adjusted (see screen shot below)

ROTOSCOPE

In stop motion,  rotoscoping overlays an image or video frame onto the live capture. It can then be used to make the character or object mimic real moment (see screen shot below).

CHROMAKEY

An advanced function for such a simple and inexpensive application.  This is where an object is placed in front of an evenly lit green or blue screen and an image is electronically placed only were that selected colour is seen (see screen shot below); The quality of the chromakey is very dependent on the quality of the camera image and an evenly lit chromakey background plate.

 MAKE MOVIE

An AVI or compressed video movie can be made from the captured frames at the selected frame rate. Note: The trial must have a video camera connected.  The full version 1.32 has a separate function (BMP to AVI) to make videos without the need for a connected video camera or active capture port.