Stop-Motion on the DVX100

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kcr

New member
I am about to begin a stop-motion project on my DVX100 using the individual frame record function (at .5s intervals). I want this to be of the highest quality possible, since it is for a music video, but I was wondering if it was pointless to shoot something like this on the 24p setting. Would I be better off, for stop-motion animation purposes, using one of the other settings? Any input from people with previous experiences would be much appreciated.

Thanks.
 
Consider getting a stop motion program. On the Mac there's iStopMotion
http://www.istopmotion.com/
I'm sure there are programs for the PC.
This allwos you to record stop motion, playback in realtime and see previous frame overlay.
If you use the time lapse function you'll still need to remove frames.
 
Thanks. I think I will probably buy that program. If I do, do you think I would be better off just using a digital still camera? I mean, would that produce a higher quality end result? I assume that if I use iStopMotion, I will be recording essentially one frame at a time, and not .5 second intervals like I would if I were just shooting on the DVX100 by itself. In which case, shooting on a setting like 24p would be irrelevant. Am I on the right track here?

Thanks for any additional advice. It's a huge help.

If anyone out there has used iStopMotion with a DVX100, I'd be curious to hear your experience as well.
 
You can't shoot interval recording when in 24p mode. You have to select 30p. It makes no difference, because you're going to change the playback rate in post anyway, but hopefully this will circumvent some frustration on your part when trying to get it to go into interval mode; it cannot be in 24p and interval at the same time.
 
You ca get a version of iStopMotion for still camera (or upgrade).

The pro-version can do this at high res but you might start with the simpler version.
A stil lcamera will probably provide cleaner images than video in any case.
And as you mention the fps has more to do with playback that the capture in your case.
 
For some reason, I can't see anything from the DVX100 in iStopMotion. I plugged in my digital still camera (a Canon PowerShot), and that worked. But the problem with that is that you can't see the footage streaming directly into the computer, so you just have to point and guess. On top of that, the flash goes off every time. It doesn't look good.

I opened iMovie with the DVX100 plugged in, and I could see everything it was seeing displayed right on the monitor. So if it works with iMovie, why shouldn't it appear in iStopMotion?

Any ideas? I've basically exhausted the help section of the program, so I'm out of ideas.
 
kcr said:
I plugged in my digital still camera (a Canon PowerShot), and that worked.
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And that's what you should be using. It's a far better combination for a doing stop motion. Once you have captured all the images you just import them into FCP or Premiere as a filmroll and you have a video clip.
 
Did you set it for NTSC-DV capture? Do you have an iSight camera or anything else on the firewire? I've only used with the isight. Haven't tried the DVX100. Make sure DVX is in camera mode and conneced before starting the program.
 
yup. if capturing one frame at a time. pretty much any still cam will have a greater rez than 720x480 (dv rez). so even though you will eventually scale down to this size for dv, you will still get more detail than if you capture via the dvx. i did a claymation type movie using my still shot and it was way sharper than the dvx could have done.
 
I definitely would like to use the still shot camera. But my problem with it is that in order for the computer to recognize it, is has to be in playback mode. Which means that in order to capture shots, the lens is closed while I am setting up the shot. There is no "live feed" like there is with a DV camera. So until I hit the capture button and the lens pops out to take the picture, I'm in the dark as to what the shot will look like. Also, the flash automatically goes off everytime this way, and I can't figure any way to get around that either.

If anybody knows ways around either of these problems, that would be awesome. If not, though, I'm going to have to either keep trying to get the program to read my DVX, or just give up on that and try to find a cheap DV camera to do the trick.
 
kcr said:
Also, the flash automatically goes off everytime this way, and I can't figure any way to get around that either.
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If you can't control the flash then just use some tape and something opaque to cover it.

I've used my Canon G3 with the software that came with the camera for doing interval shots. It allows full control and live feedback. You might try searching the net for more info about using your camera for this type of thing and to see if anyone else is able to control it live.
 
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