The stop-motion video has been around as long as film itself, first used in 1897. Some of us remember the California Raisins, an example of claymation stop action. More recently, the technique has been used in Star Wars, Robocop, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Terminator, and The Nightmare Before Christmas, to name a few. Basically you take a series of photos, rather than 29 frames per second that you get on video.

Stop motion is popular on the web, especially in the “in plain English” videos. I like these a lot, as they’re straightforward explanations that inject some humor. Here’s an example of their work.

These videos are done by Common Craft, a mom and pop shop, who now licenses the production out to another firm. The list price for a video like this is about $15K.

Stop motion can be made using a video camera or commonly a progression of still photographs. A great example is “Her Morning Elegance,” which you’ve all heard.  This was shot over 48 hours with 2096 stills using 1 camera angle.