stop motion apps

There's a lot of stopmotion apps available for your phone and ipad, so I thought I'd look into it to try and figure out which are the best.

These reviews are from "brickfilms.com" http://brickfilms.com/resources/software-2/stop-motion-apps/ and "make use of.com" http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/create-stop-motion-animations-5-fun-apps-iphone-android/

iStopmotion

At the premium end of the market is iStopMotion, with advanced controls for exposure and white balance lock, adjustable movie speeds and iCloud integration. It’s a joy to use for serious enthusiasts, but I’d say it’s a little too complicated for kids to use without supervision.
Though the main app is limited to the iPad there is a companion “remote camera” app for the iPhone; this lets you set up the iPhone as a static camera, while making adjustments to the scene and controlling from the iPad.
As well as manually controlling the shutter for stop motion movies, iStopMotion can also be set to an automatic mode enabling you to make beautiful timelapses of scenery or plantlife.

Pixstop

The National Film Board of Canada is proud to bring you PixStop—a versatile, intuitive app that makes it easier than ever to shoot and score your very own stop-motion animation film.
The PixStop app captures as many as 10,000 images to create mini masterpieces up to 13 minutes long.
Requirements: Compatible with iPad.Requires iOS 4.0 or later.

Frameographer

From StudioNeat – makers of the superb Glif iPhone camera stand adapter – Frameographer is outstanding in its simplicity. The interface is beautiful and uncluttered, yet it hides both time lapse and stop motion controls.


While the app lacks a white balance lock, focus and exposure are present; as is onion skinning. You can also add music from your iTunes library before publishing.
Frameographer operates entirely on a single iPhone device though; there is no remote camera so you’ll need to be careful not to move the phone while adjusting controls mid-movie. If you need to set up a specific angle, it makes previewing quite difficult, so bear that in mind.

 

StopMotion Recorder for iPhone

This is the only iPhone app in our round up to feature filters, so if you’re from the Instagram generation then I’m sure you’ll appreciate good old Sepia effect and more. Time lapse is at pre-set intervals up to 20 seconds, but otherwise the app is as functional as the others (and cheaper, too); there’s also a sound activated shutter option.

The app is missing the ability to add keyframes to an existing animation, and the interface is either “childlike” or hideously semi-skeumorphic, depending on your outlook; the font does it no favours. The latest version has some issues with the iPhone 4S apparently, so keep an eye on the
updates if you’d like this one.

 

Stopmotion Café 

Simple, powerful STOP-MOTION and TIME-LAPSE application, completely free! Capture sequences of images and create a movie. Pick the Images touching the screen or with time intervals, edit and create your movie to export to Camera Roll.
Requirements: Compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod touch (4th generation), iPad 2, iPad (3rd generation). Requires iOS 5.0 or later.

 

 

 

Lapse It

Though the name suggests this app only does time lapses, it actually has a stop motion (manual) mode too, so I’ve decided to include it as the best option for Android users, in my opinion. The interface looks superb, and there’s a host of advanced features in there such as rotation. The free version is fully functional but limited to low resolution; good for testing though.

Camera effects are also included for a little variety; and there are lots of output formats to please everyone.

Summary

As far as I can see, Android owners don’t have a huge choice when it comes to professional quality apps: Lapse It seems to be the best option. On the iPhone side, there’s quite a variety of apps depending on your exact needs: I’d say use the pricey iStopMotion if you have an iPad and need that remote shutter functionality; or for a more simplified experience on a single device you can’t go wrong with Frameographer