Stop-motion animation: Movie magic from old-school methods and modern software

A woman poses a small puppet in front of a camera in a stop-motion animation studio.

Stop-motion involves creating a series of still images that can be sequenced into an animated film.

What is stop-motion animation?

Claymation

A fox and trees are rendered as paper cutouts.

Cutout-motion

A plastic toy serves as a stop-motion movie character.

Object motion

Pixilation

A woman poses puppets for filming in a stop-motion animation studio.

Puppet animation

Silhouette animation

The music, sound effects, and voice-over used in stop-motion animation are all recorded separately and then combined with the images to create the final product.

The importance of sound effects in bringing stop-motion to life

Stop-motion animation takes place on a computer screen.

Connected data and cloud production yield a stop-motion opus

Image courtesy of LAIKA

A still from an animated film shows two human-like characters.

Mixed media shop keeps shorts sweet

Image courtesy of Passion Pictures

A still from the stop-motion animated film Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio shows the wooden marionette Pinocchio smiling and touching the nose of the old man woodcarver Geppetto.

Making a real boy takes next-level organization

Image courtesy of Netflix

How is stop-motion animation done?

Stop-motion animation is created by artists arranging puppets, clay figurines, paper cutouts, or other physical objects into a scene and taking a photo. The stop-motion animation artists then manipulate the objects slightly, take another photo, and repeat that process many times, often 30 photos per second of film time.

This large quantity of still images is sequenced in order within specialized stop-motion animation software with capabilities designed for stop-motion animation to create a motion picture. The resulting animation is then edited like any other video, including adding music, voiceover, and sound and visual effects.

What are the six types of stop-motion animation?

There are six major types of stop-motion animation:

Claymation uses modeling clay sculptures that are reshaped frame by frame.
Cutout-motion utilizes flat cutouts of material such as paper or fabric to create each scene.
Object motion utilizes everyday objects such as toys or dolls.
Pixilation applies stop-motion techniques to human actors who pose for long series of photos.
Puppet animation uses puppet characters, slowly manipulated for each photo.
Silhouette animation backlights objects to create shadows that are captured as still images.

What is the difference between 3D animation and stop-motion animation?

The main difference between 3D animation and stop-motion animation is in the medium of what’s being animated.

For 3D animation, artists create 3D models and environments within software and can manipulate them in innumerable ways, potentially making photorealistic images. With stop-motion animation, artists manipulate physical objects and photograph them frame by frame to create a film with sequenced still images.

While the cost of 3D animation is coming down, stop-motion animation can generally be done with a lower budget than 3D animation. Both animation styles can be very time-consuming.

What is the difference between 2D animation and stop-motion animation?

The difference between 2D animation and stop-motion animation is drawings vs. physical objects. Both styles create frame-by-frame animation, which lines up a series of images in sequence to create the illusion of movement.

For 2D animation, artists draw images by hand or in software, and for stop-motion animation, they photograph scenes of manipulated physical objects. Stop-motion software can aid the process, helping organize it and increase efficiency.

The method of cutout animation—where flat cutouts of paper, fabric, or other materials are arranged to create images frame by frame—blurs the line between 2D drawn animation and 2D stop-motion animation.