Review by null

Honestech’s Stopmotion Studio is easy to set up and use. You’re going to need just one piece of hardware – a camera! (either a webcam or DSLR). If you already have a webcam set up, it will appear in Stopmotion Studio as a Camera Device in the dropdown menu as an option.

Before you start a stopmotion movie, you need to specify the Capture Size (resolution) and Frame Rate. The highest Capture Size you can select via a dropdown menu is camera dependent. For example, using my webcam, I can select a maximum resolution of 1920 x 1080 (Full HD). The frame rates you can select via another dropdown menu range from 5 to 30. For more fluid motion in your stopmotion movie, select a higher frame rate. But remember, if you pick 30 as the frame rate – that’s 30 frames per second – you’re going to need to re-position and take snapshots of your character(s) 30 times to get a WHOPPING ONE second of movie!nnThe Stopmotion Studio interface is very intuitive. It consists of 3 panels: (1) View Screen (2) Control Panel (3) Storyboard (filmstrip). The View Screen gives you a liveview of your camera. After you capture a snapshot, a thumbnail of it appears in the Storyboard. You can play and edit your movie in the Storyboard as you go along. The Control Panel lets you add a grid to the liveview in the View Screen to help you position your characters precisely where you need them (the grid size can be adjusted). One VERY nifty feature in the Control Panel is called Key Drawing. Key drawing lets you sketch over the View Screen, so you can mark the position(s) of your character(s) in the next frame.

There are also special effects you can play around with, like green screen, which allows you to change the background (your backyard, for example) after production. You can also get really artistic and use the drawing and painting tools to add other elements (like gunsmoke, flare, and laser beam).

—nHonestech’s Stopmotion Studio is so incredibly intuitive that even a novice like myself (who has never done stopmotion movies) has no problem using it. As an adult, I have to admit I had a lot of fun using Stopmotion Studion. Moms and dads, if you’re getting this for your kid(s), you will be able to get them up and running with minimal adult supervision. I’m sure they’ll have loads and loads of fun with this!