We met Melissa Fisher at last year’s CUE conference, where she first learned about (and immediately downloaded) iStopMotion for iPad. She, like us, was extremely excited about the many possibilities the app offered in the classroom. “I returned and showed it to a few students in fifth grade,” Melissa recalls. “It was an exciting thing for them. They then showed up during their recess time to play and create their own project.”

Melissa teaches technology and digital arts to kindergartners through fifth graders, as well as exploratory or elective classes to middle school students. Her school, the Abraham Joshua Heschel Day School in Northridge, California, is fortunate enough to have a number of iPads available to the students, allowing for greater technology integration in the classroom. “This also means that we bounce back and forth from the desktop Macs to the iPads for projects, with the students sometimes bringing their iPads into the lab for guided lessons and additional assistance, bridging the gap between lab and classroom that is often seen at schools.”

This past trimester, Melissa chose to introduce her sixth and seventh graders to the art of stop motion animation using iStopMotion for iPad. (Oh, how I wish MY teachers let US use iStopMotion for iPad in the classroom. Oh wait, iPads didn’t exist…). Using a projection screen to display what was happening on the iPad, she demoed the app to her class, running through the creation of a scene, setting up blocking, showing how to delete frames, and so on. She didn’t go overboard on instructions, however, sensing how intuitive the software is and knowing her students would master it in no time. She left them to get started, saying, “My students couldn't get their hands on their iPads fast enough. For those that weren't quite ready to begin shooting scenes, they couldn't stop talking about getting started. The app was not overly complicated, so what they thought at first might be difficult was suddenly very doable. As a result, their excitement increased.”

“My students learned about the entire production process from concept generation/script writing and storyboarding to character development/creation to blocking, filming with iStopMotion on their iPads and the final edit,” Melissa continued. “The process was a true learning experience for them. They had to try their big ideas and see if they would work and if they could complete them in the time allotted. As a result, my students have thoroughly enjoyed the experience. In fact, I have already been requested to teach the same exploratory next year.”

Melissa summarizes her classroom experience with iStopMotion for iPad saying, “Although my students learned just how difficult and time consuming character creation and stop motion can be, in regards to the technology aspect of our class, iStopMotion for iPad is so user friendly that I believe it greatly aided in my students' success.” Emma, one of Melissa's students who had the privilege of being able to animate in the classroom, enjoyed using iStopMotion for iPad, saying, "I found it really, really easy to use."

Watch the video above – a stop motion animation of (in my personal opinion) one of the greatest music videos of all time – plus see more of what Melissa’s students have created here.

Showing Off Our Educational Prowess
Attending the ISTE conference this year? Boinx will be there with our friends from Freshi Media, demoing the latest version of iStopMotion for iPad. Check us out at booth 4281 in Hall D for more information. Hope to see you there!

We've discussed in the past the majestic beauty of a meal preparing itself, so when we saw Midnight Snack, we knew we couldn't resist taking a big bite. Honestly, what better time for a sandwich to figure out how to make itself than at 12am when you've sleepily stumbled into the kitchen with an empty belly, am I right?!

Midnight Snack is the creation of artist Salman Sajun, who said, "I was itching to shoot something, having recently done my groceries I thought it would be fun to shoot a short stop-motion version of a midnight snack. This is what I came up with." He used iStopMotion for the Mac in conjunction with Canon's EOS Utility to create the effect of the sandwich assembling itself (sorry folks, he did not, in fact, figure out how to program his groceries to transform themselves into the sandwich of his dreams - pun intended).

As for his use of iStopMotion, Salman tells us, "I stumbled on it while searching on the internet for a way to shoot stop motion. It was years ago though, but I remember reading about it on a blog post that lead me to the website. A trial run later I was fairly familiar with it. I like that it's simple to use. The interface is clean and works very well with the built in camera on my MacBook. Exporting was a breeze too, a big plus when capturing so many images."

To Salman, we say, compliments to the chef! Well done on the stop motion animation. Now if you could get back to figuring out how to teach food how to prepare itself, we'd greatly appreciate it. Only kidding....

To see more of what Salman Sajun can create, check out his amazing work here!

Hey! Happy Friday, everyone! It's time to let loose, so throw on your favorite record and jam out. Watch the video above for some inspiration on how to get down. Whether it's head banging, arm flailing or breakdancing, everyone has a preferred dancing method, and the weekend is the perfect time to show off those moves.

In the iStopMotion animation above, the filmmaker created his character "using a copper wire puppet with a wooden head and a mouth of plasticene." He adds, "The backdrop was an old shirt, I sewed the puppets shirt and screen-printed on a logo from a Winnipeg landmark, glued on some denim pants... Oh, and I used lots of hockey tape." As for iStopMotion for Mac, he tells us it was easy, simple to use and intuitive.

Hope everyone has a rockin' weekend!

We're halfway through the week (even more than halfway, depending on what side of the globe you live on!), and to celebrate, we just launched an update to our stop motion animation app of choice (wink, wink), iStopMotion for iPad 2.1. The latest update to the app for the iPad® 2 or higher now offers WebDAV support and push notifications. With WebDAV support, teachers using iStopMotion for iPad to enhance the curriculum can easily set up a local server to collect work created on multiple iPads, allowing students to collaborate on class- or school-wide projects. This eliminates the need for a cloud service such as YouTube or Dropbox, which is especially important since using the cloud is often restricted in many schools. We're excited to see how schools and summer camps and workshops will use iStopMotion for iPad to make learning a more immersive and fun experience!

Additionally, users can now enable the new push notifications feature in both iStopMotion for iPad and the iStopMotion Remote Camera app (available for iPhone 4 and newer, iPod touch 4th generation and newer, iPad 2 and newer, and iPad mini) to receive an alert whenever great new iStopMotion examples are available in the Theater, so they do not need to check periodically themselves. So if you're stuck inside on a rainy day (like we are today), you can check out any of the animations available in the theater to help entertain and inspire.

Not sure how exactly to get started? Check out the Animation Chefs' blog to watch their awesome web series, read and watch tips and tricks on animating, and much more. We posted an oldie-but-goodie video above from them - Episode 5 from the Chefs' series, featuring Justin Bieber and Godzilla. It's awesome and will be sure to inspire! Whether you're looking for an exciting and interactive way to tell stories for educational purposes or just want to have some fun bringing some inanimate objects to life, iStopMotion for iPad is a great way to do it.

iStopMotion for iPad 2.1 and Remote Camera Pricing and Availability
iStopMotion for iPad 2.1 is now available on the iPad App Store for 9.99 USD or as a free update for existing users. iStopMotion Remote Camera is available for free in the App Store.

Animation Chefs make a delicious 2.5 D clay fish animation. With Bubbles!

This past April, a few of our dear friends made the brave trip out to Las Vegas, Nevada for the National Association of Broadcasters Show, otherwise known as NAB. It’s one of the biggest broadcast shows of the year, where industry professionals of all shapes and sizes come out to meet and do business.

The Padcaster was one of our friends to make the journey to the busy conventional halls filled with over 1,500 exhibitors and over 90,000 media and entertainment professionals. If you’re unfamiliar with the Padcaster, it’s a pretty nifty iPad case that transforms the iPad into a moviemaking machine (you can see why we like this). It allows filmmakers to mount the iPad to a monopod or tripod for smooth shooting, as well as to attach accessories like mics and lights to help enhance the shoot. With the Lenscaster, a separate accessory, users can attach their preferred lens to the device, giving them control over the iPad camera’s focus and depth of field.

With the Padcaster in tow, “Padcastin’ Gary” set out to, um, “interview” show exhibitors. These unsuspecting victims were expecting a press interview – what they got was something entirely different. Watch above as they get hilariously spoofed in this NAB wrap-up from the Padcaster, which was shot, edited and uploaded directly from the iPad, all from the NAB show floor.

About 53 seconds into the short film, you’ll notice a certain filmmaking technique Boinx is famous for – timelapse. Padcastin’ Gary zips down the crowded NAB aisles as he shoots a timelapse of all the action (…happening behind his head…) using Boinx’s iStopMotion for iPad. Days one and two start out the same, with Gary (aka Katie Holmes, aka Fred Flintstone, aka Elmer Fudd…you’ve gotta see it to understand) wreaking havoc on NAB exhibitors. By day three, you can see Las Vegas is beginning to catch up on Gary…and gets him completely by day four, and iStopMotion for iPad catches it all.

All that aside, the Padcaster is an awesome tool to use with iStopMotion for iPad. By mounting the Padcaster-held iPad to a tripod, shooting still frames in iStopMotion becomes so much easier. The camera is no longer shaky and animators can achieve great, smooth shots. Plus, lights can really enhance the entire shoot, with consistent lighting throughout the entire film. And if you want to get real fancy, throw in your favorite lens using the Lenscaster. You’ll be on your way to Hollywood in no time!

Happy Friday, everyone! We want to kick off this weekend right – and to do that, we’d like to present: iStopMotion 3.1! The latest upgrade to our stop motion animation program, iStopMotion 3.1 now offers a feature you’ve been asking for – the ability to create stop motion and timelapse videos by capturing frames directly from your computer screen. Pretty neat, right? Pair iStopMotion with any of your favorite illustration programs (like Photoshop or Illustrator) or any other app you desire, and record your creation process. The possibilities really are endless – if you can think it, you can do it! We’ve also added in the ability to export to Apple® ProRes video format if the codec is installed, so you can directly import animations into Final Cut Pro® X without the need to transcode. And, as with all updates, we’ve fixed a few bugs to help give you an overall smoother animating experience.

We asked our newest friend Cody Creed, an art teacher from Manitoba, Canada to test out the new feature. He tells us:

“The iStopMotion screen capture feature is exceptional. It is a real pleasure to watch the application in action. As an artist, I wish to share my process. This feature makes it easy to show how I create images from scratch in a dynamic and interesting way. I also find it works great in spaces. That way you can capture without the visual clutter of two applications at once. It has a great deal of potential, which will be realized when the art community gets their hands on it.”

Creed has been using both the Mac and iPad versions of iStopMotion in the classroom for years and has students animate things like scientific processes and current events. He says the interactivity and ability to see certain processes sped up in a stop motion animation helps students better understand certain concepts. Watch Cody’s video above to see what’s possible with the new screen capture feature.

iStopMotion 3.1 is now available both from the Mac App Store and the Boinx website for 49.99 USD or as a free update for existing v3 customers. iStopMotion 3.1 requires OS X 10.7.4 Lion or newer.

More About iStopMotion
Boinx iStopMotion is the leading solution for stop motion animation and timelapse capture, used by many thousands of parents, kids, teachers, brickfilmers, pro animators and anyone with an interest in this fascinating movie making technique. From tilt shift and color correction to creating high quality HD movies, iStopMotion is a comprehensive application for the Mac that makes it possible for users of all skill levels to create exciting stop motion animations. In 2011, Boinx Software added iStopMotion for iPad to its family of stop motion animation products. Whether you just want to spend a magical weekend with your kids or are a serious animator, now it's time to tell your story, frame by frame with iStopMotion.

Claiming the record for World’s Smallest Stop Motion Film by Guinness World Records, IBM has launched themselves from technology giant to filmmaker phenoms. The viral video was posted on April 30 and has already been viewed over three million times! The official description of the video says, “the ability to move single atoms — the smallest particles of any element in the universe — is crucial to IBM's research in the field of atomic memory. But even nanophysicists need to have a little fun. In that spirit, IBM researchers used a scanning tunneling microscope to move thousands of carbon monoxide molecules (two atoms stacked on top of each other), all in pursuit of making a movie so small it can be seen only when you magnify it 100 million times. A movie made with atoms.” Watch how this amazing stop motion movie was created and prepare to be blown away.

Stop motion animation is being used more and more for educational purposes because of the easy to use tools available (like, ahem, iStopMotion!) and quick comprehension for young students. Just as IBM transformed their lab in the video above, science classrooms are being turned into film studios. Stop motion is no longer just an artistic medium, but a powerful learning tool when put in the hands of students. Check out some other ways that stop motion, and iStopMotion in particular has been impacting the world of education (like this! And this!) and click here to read more about IBM’s continual contributions to the world of atomic memory.

20-year-old iStopMotion prodigy Charlie Collier collaborated with Lincoln Durham on the new music video for Durham's song "Ballad of a Prodigal Son", a rather dark story. Read more about the project.