How to create a stop motion for Instagram

May 24, 2018August 21, 2018

Have you seen a stop motion on Instagram or elsewhere and thought you would like to have a go? Or wondered how they are made? I have made a few lately. Whilst I am still learning I thought I would share all I know so far.

If you are new to the world of stop motions then effectively they are a mini movie made up of still photos. The ‘movement’ of the items in the movie is made manually by yourself in increments and a photo is taken at each stage. They work much like a flip book you may have had as a child. A stop motion is a great way to make items move that wouldn’t normally move and visually represent something in a way that will delight or surprise others.

To make the stop motions below I used my iphone 6, a small grip tripod on a larger camera tripod, and a bluetooth remote. I had a white back drop which is a piece of shelving placed on a table. Props such as flowers, pencils, pencil case, notebook.

The apps I used were Photoshop (not essential) and iMovie on my Mac laptop. There are apps on your phone which you can use but I haven’t used any yet.

I have written this guide to share how to make the simplest and shortest stop motions. The one’s I have made are no longer than 14 seconds.

How to make a stop motion

Concept first

Before starting it is a good idea to come up with a creative idea and maybe storyboard or plan what you are going to make. For the three below I wanted to convey the idea of creating beauty with words so I thought about how to visually represent that. Hence, pencils for the action of writing words and flowers for the beauty created.

Then I needed to think what I wanted them to do. For one stop motion I thought that I would like the pencils to dance a bit and then shoot out the flowers and the flowers to dance. In another I wanted the pen to write something so it made a number with petals. Then in another stop motion I wanted the flowers to appear in a notebook as if from a pencil and then for them to dance.

Here are some stop motions I have made:

Weekends are for playing. This one is for the writers who create beauty. . . #hopewriters #bloomandgrowtogether #dayofsmallthings #awakethelight #tinytinymoments #simplepleasures #abmlifeisbeautiful #beautyinthemundane #flowersofig #lovelysquares #dayslikethese #graceupongrace #stopmotion #WHPoddlysatisfying

A post shared by Abi Partridge (@abipartridge) on Apr 28, 2018 at 1:36pm PDT

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A post shared by Abi Partridge (@abipartridge) on May 15, 2018 at 4:07am PDT

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A post shared by iola (@iolamagazine) on May 8, 2018 at 3:10am PDT

Set up

It is really important that you set up your camera on a tripod so that all your photos are of the same area. I used a camera tripod and as I was using my phone and don’t have an adapter for the larger tripod, I used the mini grip phone tripod to grip around the tripod. You will need to face the camera/phone as face down as you can get it. Here’s my set up in front of a window but not on a bright sunny day – despite the paddling pool in the background!

Photos

Then I took a series of photos moving items a small amount each time. I use a Bluetooth camera remote so I don’t have to touch the phone and risk jogging it. It also makes the process quicker. You can use apple headphones as a shutter release. For example here is a series of the first few shots of the ‘How’ movie. There were 42 stills in the movie in total. (If you are looking for a letter board like mine, here is a link.)

I edited the photos in Photoshop by brightening them (recording the action and batch processing so that it is consistent across the whole movie) but if you have good enough photos, that are lit well then you may not need to do this.

Making the stop motion in iMovie

Here is a mini movie of making the movie!

Make a new movie with no theme, add media – your photos to project media. (my photos are all square because I want a square movie for instagram)

Select all and drag to your movie time line window.

Make sure all the stills are selected and go to the crop button and select fit.

Make sure all the stills are selected and you want to change the duration to something between 0.2 -0.6 seconds.

Press play and watch your movie!

You may notice the flow isn’t quite right (or like I did, a rogue hand is in one of my stills), so you can go back and delete or add more stills or add stills again to repeat a section. You can also add music if you want to, but this is just a basic guide.

Share on Instagram

To share the movie on Instagram, I put the finished movie file into my Dropbox which I can then access on my phone to share on instagram.

This post contains affiliate links.

Six ways creativity is good for your health

May 15, 2018May 15, 2018

I was curious, why did I feel better when I had made time to be creative? When I sat down to actually put pen to paper and write whatever came to mind. When I was creating graphics on the screen, when I was composing a pretty photo. It wasn’t just me who had noticed either. I ran craft workshops in the evenings for a couple of years and people frequently said things like, “I love this – it’s so calming”, “I wouldn’t be creative if you hadn’t made a space” “This should be prescribed by my doctor”

I know that making time to be creative can be a large struggle. We don’t make time for it and sometimes we are even unsure where to begin. It feels like an indulgence or being selfish to take the time. In our pressured, productive world it can feel like a waste of time.

And yet we know and suspect that there is more to creativity than that. When we have spent time being intentionally creative we know that we feel good afterwards. I suspected that it was because that was how we are made. I have the sense that being made in the image of God, we are most like his children when we play and when we create.

Practising regular creativity is a form of self-care that can be a strategy for staying mentally well. It’s not just my opinion, I found some articles that mention the specific ways that creative activities, such as painting, gardening, and creative writing, have long been known to boost happiness and wellbeing.

So how exactly is creativity good for our health? Here are six specific ways:

6 ways creativity is good for your health.

1. Single tasking increases your mental focus

When focused on making something your mind is engaged in that one activity for a prolonged length of time. With the constantly contactable, and connected online world that we scroll through on our screens, our minds suffer from not being able to concentrate on one thing at a time. Rather than making us able to multi-task well it serves to help us do many things badly. Studies have shown that it is better to focus on one thing at a time, it slows the heart beat and eases anxiety.

2. Working with your hands allows your mind to solve problems

Single-tasking also has the benefit of allowing your mind to wander and think on problems that your mind may need to sort through. I’ve known the soothing power of rhythmic stitching or crocheting and being able to do something with your hands can help your mind day-dream or think about things that we may not have made space to do.

3. Can help to decrease illness

Writing, painting and drawing and other creative outlets can give a voice to emotions that we are going through. This helps us to process emotions healthily. Writing about life goals or trauma have both been found to help to decrease illness.

4. Classes or groups may increase the sense of belonging and community

Taking a class to learn new creative skills or joining a group to get creative together, can establish new friendships and the more someone feels part of a group or community, wellbeing increases.

5. Reigniting former passions – increased wellbeing

Rediscovering former creative pursuits that may have lapsed can increase a sense of wellbeing. Taking the time to do something you previously enjoyed can be beneficial and creates a sense of pleasure and fun. Finding the things you are passionate about can give purpose, interest, and meaning to your days.

6. Creative play rewards the brain

Creative play gives a sense of freedom that children enjoy – being creative with no fear of judgement, no comparison, no striving for results all give creativity an essence of fun and freedom that in today’s pressurised world we rarely feel.

Research has shown that free-drawing, doodling, and colouring trigger the brain’s reward centre by increasing blood flow in the prefrontal cortex. Pleasure is gained from being creative – independent from the creative results.

If you would like the “3 steps to fitting in creativity for wellbeing” then click this link for the download.

What is the point of creativity?

May 3, 2018May 31, 2018

What is the point of creativity? Maybe you’ve started out on a creative endeavour. You’ve started to create something you love, and there’s been some momentum. You’ve had some encouragement, you’ve started to dream about where this could go. Bravely you’ve taken steps forward. But then…

All the doubts, the desire for something bigger has taken over. The pressure, the questions, the constant creative circle of create – share – dream – doubt. I know this because I too have been there. Actually, I’m here more often than I am not. I too am in that circle of creating and sharing and I want to encourage you and show up for you and say we are in this together, I am figuring this out too.

In this connected world, there is a lot of noise and challenge for the creative, whilst it’s great; we can share, get feedback, celebrate other’s wins, grow something, connect more widely, it brings with it all the things comparison stirs in us. The beauty of our creativity is that there is so much of it, we are surrounded by people coming fully alive to the creative being they are designed to be and it’s amazing, people are amazing…. and yet…. We look around and then we look at ourselves and pause. I don’t think there is anyone who doesn’t do this. Even that person you think is grounded and talented and has a large audience, they still suffer the same comparison syndrome, they still have to question their motive of why they create.

We ask, what is the point? What do I have to add? What have I achieved? These are tough questions to answer. But may I gently suggest that they are the wrong questions.

Perhaps, you and I, we need to ask, WHY? What if we start at the beginning and ask why? Why do I create? May I suggest some answers that you may think answer why you create, and yet can serve to send you off down a distorted path?

Do you create because you want attention?

Is it because you want attention? Ouch, I’ve felt the warmth of approval of the number of hearts on an Instagram photo. I know. This can not be my why. This is not why I create, because I know I am fickle, and well, if I am fickle, aren’t we all fickle? Attention or fame is not what it is made out to be. How many likes or hearts will satisfy my desire for attention? Is this the reason I create? Pretty soon, the heart of my creativity will die. I will lose myself to creating for the masses. If I create only to capture others likes I will lose my own heart eventually. I will not know what makes me come alive. This is the tension, we want to sustain our creativity, we want to share, we want numbers because we think it means more freedom, but it is a trap. If we can’t stay authentic and true something inside our soul will die.

“The human soul was not made for fame” Al Andrews

Do you create because you want to earn money from it?

I know this, as someone who has worked in the creative industry for over a decade, this will not truly satisfy your creative soul. Most of us need to earn a living and if we can do it by being creative that is a good thing. But believe me when I say soon you will have doubts, don’t think that you won’t have to deal with everything else involved in creating a business. Soon you will start to question am I just creating for the money? Am I losing my creative soul as I create for whoever is paying the bill? There will be more questions and doubts and struggles and ideas of selling out and worth and value and compromise. It will take hard work and many things you may not want to do to satisfy the brief and bring in the income. It can’t be the only reason we create.

Perhaps there is a better “why”

May I suggest that there is a solution to this. This is how I deal with the doubt and the vulnerability hangovers. Asking yourself, reminding yourself of this one question will bring you back to the start. This will be the best, most authentic, one question that will keep you grounded. It will keep you connected to your soul. Your “why you create” could be because you love it and you can’t not create. Because you come alive sensing the joy in your soul knowing that this life-living is the point. This is what you were made to do, this is where you feel most alive, this is what truly satisfies your soul, to notice the beauty, to see the good, to create because this. is. who. you. are. If we start here we can not lose. No one can take this from you. No one can give attention or pay you to do this that will make it worth any more to you.

This is the place of authentic creativity.

You are made in the image of the Creator, and in your imaging of him, you create. This is worthy of God, this is your worth-ship. Following the inner call of your soul, that he placed in you, to create beauty and truth. Your creativity is a gift to God and to the world. Holding in outstretched palms your offering with the statement; look what I made. Look what God made me create. This offering has something of God in it. Look at what it tells you, draws you to, reveals in its beauty, in its life.

“Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on behalf of the actor. It’s a gift to the world and every being in it. Don’t cheat ud of your contribution. Give us what you’ve got.” Steven Pressfield, ‘The War of Art’

The other questions are secondary and if you are called down those other paths you will figure it out one small step, a day at a time. But if you daily start from here, from this place of: “because I am creative” and forget the secondary questions, your soul can breathe. In the end, it is your soul that lasts. All the other things will fade away.

For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world (attention, money, power) but loses his soul?