8 practical lessons for making stop motion animation

stop motion animation set — (Image credit: Luis Grolez)

To mark Kuwait National Day, Dubai based filmmaker Luis Grolez was approached by Nescafé to produce a series of stop motion ads for the household name.

The ad campaign captured four different environments, a school desk, a kitchen, a living room hall and an engineer’s workspace, all seen from a top down viewpoint. On the tables was a controlled mess of objects, including binder clips, bowls, cookbooks, spoons, mugs, postcards and scale rulers, with the distinctive red Nescafé mug as the one constant that shifted its position from shot to shot.

1. Shooting stop motion like video

Typically, stop motion relies on a DSLR or mirrorless stills camera capturing one frame per shot. For the Nescafé spot, I decided to record continuous video in Blackmagic RAW with the PYXIS 6K and then pull the best frames later in DaVinci Resolve Studio.

It provided me with hundreds of usable frames for each movement, making smaller errors easier to live with. It generally provided much cleaner results, but if a hand slipped, or a reflection appeared, or a tiny vibration shook the rig, I still had the neighbouring frame.

2. The rotation rig behind the hero move

For the campaign I wanted a camera move that you don’t typically find in stop motion. The hero shot needed to travel from a 90 degree top down view into a horizontal angle while the objects continued to move on the table.

I started with the camera locked directly above the set on a telescopic arm, allowing the art department to compose a clean zenith frame with millimetric precision before animation began. To make the rotation work, my grip built an orbital rig using a metal frame and a turntable that allowed the PYXIS 6K to tilt vertically through the movement. We marked the rotation in five degree increments, providing a steady reference point during the stop motion shoot.

At each step, the camera rotated, the objects were repositioned and the sequence restarted. Counterweights kept the rig rigid and vibration free, essential for achieving fluid stop motion. This solution sits between traditional rigs and full motion control robotics; perspective changes without the cost of a robot arm. Anyone looking to replicate this setup should ensure the rig does not flex under load and that the camera axis stays consistent throughout the rotation.

3. Continuity is king!

on set of a stop motion animation film — (Image credit: Luis Grolez)

Continuity on this job depended less on the technology and more on creative discipline. Once the art department built the studio and the client signed off, the set was locked in place. From then on, none of the props were moved unless it was a part of the animation plan. Even the tiniest of change can ruin the sequence.

From that point on, I handled all of the motion myself. I would move a single object by a few millimeters, step back, look at the monitor, give the rig and table a moment to settle and then return for the next small adjustment. These subtle movements, selected frame by frame in post, created the illusion of motion.

Having a single person move the props helped in two ways. It kept the internal logic of the animation consistent, since the same eye and hand made every decision. It also reduced accidents.

4. The greenscreen mistake I won’t repeat

One issue we ran into was green screen coverage. The studio green screen was fine for the initial overhead and horizontal setup, but once we started rotating the orbital rig, the backdrop’s edges began to reveal stands, lights and other parts of the studio that had to disappear in the final shot.

In a live action sequence, you might have to fix a few frames. In stop motion, this issue multiplied across every frame in the sequence. The VFX editor ended up spending time extending the green in post production and cleaning the plate before we could even start compositing the AI generated backgrounds.

Looking back, I would size the green screen based on the full field of view across the whole move, not just the first and last frame. When you are shooting open gate and you know you will travel through an arc, a wraparound screen or cyclorama gives a continuous surface to key from in every position and would help to reduce the amount of cleanup required in post.

5. Framing for every eventuality

This campaign needed both horizontal and vertical versions, as well as a combined master. Shooting open gate on the PYXIS 6K made that pipeline more practical.

Every object was placed with intent on the table top. If I had framed only for 16:9 delivery, and then cropped inside that for vertical delivery, I would have lost important details in the layout. With that extra space above and below, I could then derive vertical and horizontal versions from the same plate without rebuilding the set or changing the blocking.

6. AI plates with a 3D mindset

All the backgrounds on this job were generated entirely in Midjourney. However, because they were still images, they did not automatically track change in perspective introduced by the rotating rig. Each time the angle changed, the editor had to warp and grade the background plate to keep it lined up with the table top and to make sure the horizon and vanishing lines made sense.

That approach worked, but it consumed a lot of time. For shots with big camera moves, use a 3D environment. A CG artist can render a background at matching camera angles, for example every five degrees across the arc, so parallax and depth are baked in. They then can drop in the rendered plate that matches each position instead of manually bending a flat image into shape.

In this case, AI was useful for exploring art direction, but for precise perspective work and larger moves, a 3D scene or shooting on a digital virtual production set is more predictable and scales better.

7. Keeping the mug in play

Across the four environments, we seeded small red details to echo the Nescafé mug. We kept the light simple and consistent, mainly a hard directional light creating long shadows, resembling a morning sunlight and bounce to maintain natural contrast, giving it a cosy feel. This helped when blending the stop motion pieces into each shot.

I paired the camera with DZOFilm Arles Prime lenses, specifically the 35mm. They maintained enough depth separation between the foreground and background objects while still holding the full tabletop in frame. They responded well to the camera’s full frame sensor, handling fine detail in ceramics, glass and paper without breaking apart highlights or textures.

8. Masking in DaVinci Resolve Studio

The heaviest part of the project was the masking. Every tiny movement on the table needed its own mask in DaVinci Resolve Studio. The editor broke the shot into separate masks for each object and then stacked and organised them in layers, much like making a digital collage.

That structure allowed for precise, independent animation, which was especially helpful with shiny surfaces like Nescafé’s ceramic mug. With the camera turning, these checks added up fast, since each angle change meant reviewing the shapes, perspective and how the AI background fit in.

Having editing, compositing and colour in the same application helped keep the process clean and straightforward. A task that feels trivial on one frame becomes significant when it repeats over hundreds of frames. For that reason, I tried to plan masking, green screen coverage and camera paths from the start so the amount of manual work in post was manageable.

For more on stop motion animation, see the stop motion masterpieces you need to watch or how to turn your illustrations into stop motion animation.

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Joe is a regular freelance journalist and editor at Creative Bloq. He writes news, features and buying guides and keeps track of the best equipment and software for creatives, from video editing programs to monitors and accessories. A veteran news writer and photographer, he now works as a project manager at the London and Buenos Aires-based design, production and branding agency Hermana Creatives. There he manages a team of designers, photographers and video editors who specialise in producing visual content and design assets for the hospitality sector. He also dances Argentine tango.

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