Shooting Frame by Frame1 - Frame-by-Frame Stop Motion: The Guide to Non-Traditional Animation Techniques - page 25

One step I practice and encourage all alternative stop-motion animators to
consider is shooting some test footage before the actual production begins.
If you are pixilating someone, then try the action yourself in front of the
camera and get a sense of the pace, action, and timing. Try your actor out
in a test and give the person a chance to practice this arduous technique,
so you can see how he or she acts and how you want the ultimate action to
look. This is the time to have a bit more confidence with your shots because
you cannot make mistakes in a test. Allow yourself the spontaneity that
can often birth new and exciting ideas to apply to your film. If you have
no one to help you test a pixilated idea, then set your camera to run on a
time-lapse interval and test a particular movement on your own. If you plan
to shoot a time-lapse event, then take your time-lapse camera and shoot
a test of the event and see if you need to consider an adjustment to your
exposure or interval between exposures. Cutouts or sand on glass have
their own properties, and a trial run will inform your initial animation shots
and improve your technique right out of the gate. There is often a tendency
to jump right into production shooting, with no time allowed for testing.
I cannot tell you how many times I have heard animators complain about
their initial shots, because they were learning everything on the first shots
and made adjustments in later shots. The desire to reshoot first shots is
strong but often schedules do not allow this. Testing can resolve this issue.
There really is no reason not to test and experiment before you commit to
your final film.
Testing requires equipment, and this is one more issue that needs to be
addressed before final production begins. Pixilation and time-lapse animation
utilize equipment that is familiar to live-action filmmakers. Cameras,
computers, tripods, lights, and grip equipment, like flags, C-stands stands,
sandbags, and gaffer's tape, can all be used with these alternative stop-
motion techniques. The downshooter requires an animation stand and this
crosses over into the more traditional animation realm. All alternative stop-
motion techniques have a camera as the primary piece of equipment. After
all, we are stopping the camera frame by frame and manipulating the images
in front of the camera, whether on a tripod or a downshooter, very much like
the first “trick films.”
Equipment and Setting Up
For decades, the movie film camera was the primary capture system . Kodak,
Bell & Howell, and Mitchell cameras were steady and reliable animation
cameras. Other cameras were used, but the key element that made a good
stop-motion film camera was known as pin registration . Basically, this means
that the camera has the ability to place the individual frame to be exposed in
the exact same position in front of the film gate as the previous frame through
placement pins. This eliminates the weave and bobbing up and down that
can occur when films are projected.