Animate It

While it does involve a lot of work, stop-motion animation is something most people can try out even with limited resources. A specialized app does make things a lot easier, however, which is why you may want to take a look at Animate It.

This program is designed to be used by anyone who is interested in stop-frame animation, even young students. It is easy to use, and it includes comprehensive documentation.

While certainly not a bad thing, it is not mandatory to go through the user manual before starting a project. The app’s functions are more or less self-explanatory, so you should be able to grasp the basics quickly enough.

After connecting a recording device, you can set up the scene, grab one or more models and get to work on capturing frames. By moving the models slightly between the captures, you can create smooth animations and then export them to a video file.

Animate It supports onion skinning, a technique that makes it much easier to ensure the created animations are fluent, as it allows you to view how much a model has been moved between frames.

It is possible to record your animations against a green screen or blue screen, and then replace the background with a video or image of your choice.

Once all the material has been prepared, you can place the clips in the right order, remove unnecessary ones, insert animations and set the desired frame rate.

Moreover, the application enables you to create drawings that will be displayed on top of the captured content, and it provides you with a decent set of drawing tools.

Overall, Animate It is a great application for those who are interested in stop-motion animation but don’t know how to get started. It simplifies the whole process, and includes a detailed user manual, making it suitable even for novice users.