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Stand-alone stop-time animation kit?


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Hi, all,

 

My middle schooler has expressed interest (about a thousand times) in experimenting with stop-time animation.  I was thinking of getting her a kit for the next gift-giving occasion.  Does anyone know of any stand-alone options -- i.e., a video camera and playback unit--that doesn't require a PC/Mac?

 

My goal is to have this be a self-contained unit, without the need for a separate computer.  (If this means limited or no editing capability, I'm fine with that.)

 

Any recommendations?

 

Thank you kindly!

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Hi, domestic_engineer, I'm looking for something stand-alone (meaning no extra hardware, so no tablet, PC, or other device.)  I'm starting to suspect that what I'm looking for doesn't exist.

 

Julie of KY -- thanks for this lead! I hadn't heard of it.  It doesn't look like it's stand-alone, though (it comes with software, and the description talks about a USB connection).

 

 

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I don't think you will find anything that can do stop motion without a computer or a tablet/smart phone at minimum. My kids make lots of stop motion with the camera and the windows movie maker program in one of our computers. We also have an app on a tablet that they take this pics with the tablet and put it together that way.

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You need the computing power to stitch it all together to make a movie.   I don't know that the demand is there to include such programming into a standalone camera.  Software will also allow you to add sound, sound effects, or draw/type into your movie or change the frame rate.  There's also the onion layering tool so you can see what your last frame looked like at the same time you see what your current shot will be.  Plus you'll want to export the finished movie off in a nice, compressed file.  

 

If this is something your family wants to pursue, I think you're going to need a computing device associated with it.  (Asking gently ....) What's your concern with it being connected to a computer?  Understanding your aversion could help us brainstorm some ideas.  EDITED TO ADD:  For example, if you are concerned about DC using other apps on an iPad, you can use Guided Access to lock it to that one app only.

 

Edited by domestic_engineer
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My DS went through a couple of summers during middle school where he and a buddy made stop motion films using Stop Motion Explosion.  Because we have a rule about computers only being used in public places and they were taking some shots in non-public places (like bedrooms with doors closed for a dark scene, or in the garage), we set up the software on an old laptop that no longer had wifi (and they didn't have the wifi password).   If they created a movie they wanted to share or upload to youtube, they'd save the file on a USB drive and we'd share or upload from my computer.

 

I don't know if your reason for asking is the same as my concern, but letting my then-middle school boy have unsupervised access to an internet-connected computer was not OK with me at the time.

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