Final Cut Express Stop Motion TUT

Just wondering if anyone can direct me to a good "how to" video on creating a stop motion video using Final Cut Express? Thanks so much.

~JohHmHum

Go to the final cut menu, user preferences. Sets default still frame to 1 frame from 10 seconds. then import the pictures you have taken for stop motion and import them. Put them right on the timeline and edit at will.

Thanks for the help PowerBookG4! I am going set my default still frame to 1 sec. It was getting enoying to change it manually every time. But rather then taking a bunch of stills what I did was just take a 10 min video of me moving my object just a bit at a time. I wanted to make stills from that video at points where my hand is not in the frame.

What I am really looking for a tutorial on how to make stills from video and have the stills saved in a numbered format so I can drag them all in the time line after scrubbing the video and keying up the stills. Then of course deleting the video afterwords. Currently I have to pull the still every from the viewer to my browser ever time I make a freeze frame (SHIFT-N). The problem is that every freeze frame I make has the same name and naming each one every time is some what of a hassle.

I know there is a better way. Thanks again for any help.

Each still frame should not have the same name, they all should be named after the frame you are currently on. So what I would do is just hit Shift N or Modify>Make Freeze Frame then from the viewer drag it to the bin and then when you're done put it in the timeline. If that doesn't work for you let me know.

Another quick note, you're going to want to set your default still frame to less than 1 second. One frame would be best, but if you didn't take that many movements, you'll likely want to do it at 2 frames... having it set to 30 frames will make it feel like an eternity between movements.

For stop motion production, I'd recommend you check out iStopMotion by Boinx (a Mac software company also from Munich )

It's designed specifically for Stop motion photography and you could then export it to Final Cut and post-produce your video there.

My 6 year nephew was over and bored, so I gave him my MacBook, set up iStopMotion and he made this:
YouTube - Matchbox Crash

You can take frames remotely with the Apple remote, which is really useful.