Stop Motion Cooking: How To Cut Anything (Even Batteries)

Stop motion cooking is an incredibly popular sub-genre of stop motion animation. One of the classic shots you see in these films are objects being cut to become ingredients.

There are many ways you can do this, and I believe there is a technique or method for every skill level - in this class I explore three of these. 

This class is great for beginners (with some knowledge), hobbyists or animators already working in stop motion. The class doesn't teach stop motion set-up, so whatever level you are at there is an expectation of knowing how to set up your camera, lights and other equipment before taking this class.

The main learning you will experience is in the methods of how to approach different cuts with stop motion animation. You can apply this learning to your own preferred method of creation. 

BONUS: I will also be teaching a really easy motion blur technique too.

In this course you will learn:

• How to animate a basic stop motion cut
• How to animate an intermediate stop motion cut
• How to animate an advanced stop motion cut
• How to use Photoshop to composite (for the advanced cut)
• Adding motion blur to a knife swish, with tin foil
• Plus other tips and advice

You will be creating:

• A stop motion cut of your own, it could be anything, the only limits are your own imagination and the objects you can find. 

You will need:

• A DSLR (that is Dragonframe compatible) or a smartphone. A full list of Dragonframe compatible cameras can be found here: https://www.dragonframe.com/camera-support/

• A form of stop motion capture software. I will be using Dragonframe 4 (30-day FREE trial is fine) or you can use the Stop Motion Studio (a free app you can download on your smartphone)

• Object(s) to animate. This can be anything you have lying around at home 
• Some clay or plasticine
• A pair of scissors
• A knife or other cutting implement
• Some sticky tack
• Some tin foil
• Video editing software like Premiere Pro 
• Photo editing software like Photoshop 

In case you haven't met me in a class yet: I'm Tortor, a stop motion animator with over 14-years experience. I began as a self taught hobbyist, went on to study at degree level, and have since worked on a feature film and in the television industry as well as setting up my own company. Stop motion is my passion, and well I guess teaching is too - I love to share what I know and help people like you develop your skills. 

Learn even more with my tutorials on YouTube and if you have any questions, about anything in this class, or anything else, please do direct them my way. You can find me @animatortor or @tortorsmith on pretty much any platform. 

Find other great Skillshare classes on animation.