Stop motion might bring to mind painstakingly produced studio projects like Coraline or Fantastic Mr Fox, but the truth is, you don’t need a crew or a camera rig that requires a mortgage to get started. In fact, you don’t even need a camera.
Joe Robson is an experienced camera technician who has worked on a number of TV sets. But in his spare time he shares short clay animations and set designs with his followers.
He describes how he first got into stop motion:
“To be honest, I used to mess around with Lego. When I was younger I used to just take short videos of little sets and stories. Brickfilms are films made entirely out of Lego and tend to use stop motion; they’re actually a pretty big niche, they look amazing, and that was kind of my gateway.
“That eventually led to buying a block of blue plasticine from an art shop that was closing down. It was a bit of an impulse purchase, but it was pretty cheap, and it kickstarted my creativity.”
Lego is an example of how something perceived as an ordinary object or activity can in reality be the building blocks for creativity. It also relates to one of stop motion’s great qualities: resourcefulness.
The practice, at its fundamentals, is so simple that you could likely do it anytime, anywhere with anything.
This results in an art form that is incredibly accessible:
“You can completely do it in your own time. You don’t need a crew or even a proper camera. I used to lean my phone against a bookcase and use an app. There are loads of free ones now — even iMovie has a stop-motion mode.”
In a world that sometimes feels obsessed with polished outcomes, stop motion offers a space where the rough edges and DIY add to the charm:
“I was happy with how Clay was looking, but for me it just felt a bit cartoonish, and I wanted that real-world feel, so I started mixing in other stuff.
“I was cutting up foam boards, using scraps I found in the garage, getting my hands on and breaking apart anything I could find. And in the end, it gave everything this kind of homemade aesthetic that actually worked. I didn’t set out with a ‘style’, but it just kind of happened.”
Style-through-resourcefulness is at the heart of many stop-motion projects, even some of the larger productions. Using what’s cheap or lying around isn’t a limitation; it’s a creative prompt. The wonky props, visible fingerprints, and slightly uneven movements all become part of the film’s identity.
“Making anything is better than making nothing,”
You end up chasing perfection, but then nothing gets done. You just have to start.”
Of course, for anyone who wants to level up, there are tools out there that can take things further. “The best thing I ever bought was Dragonframe; it’s industry standard, around £200, and it’s a game changer. It’s got onion skinning and camera control; it even tells you if you accidentally nudge something. Honestly, it’s brilliant.”
But fancy software aside, maybe we could all learn from stop motion; expensive does not always mean better.
Stop motion isn’t just about making things move; it’s about slowing down, paying attention, and learning to work with what you have. It teaches patience, problem-solving, and how to see creative potential in the everyday. Valuable skills for an artist in any field, even if you’re not aiming to become the next Aardman animator.