Stop-motion video

What it covers

• Measuring the song. Its tempo from the drum hits, where the bars, phrases and drops are, and where to cut it so every change lands on or just ahead of the sound.
• One clock. A pose to every eighth note, beats counted on the whole video's frames, and every page starting on a bar line and changing length by whole bars.
• Poses. Which curve to space a move with, a hand's correction, landings that don't creep, and why you never smooth the beat away.
• Hits. Typing quicker than the beat, clicks and pops on snares, landings on downbeats. A transition may drift off the beat; a click never does.
• Skipping beats. When to hold a pose, leave a beat empty, drop the music under a click, or cut a whole bar.
• Sound. Clicks placed to the sample on one track, a thump tuned to the song, and a metronome for checking that never ships.
• Type. Tracking that tightens as type grows (−1%, −2%, −3%), contrast of at least 4.5:1 at every pose, and counters in tabular figures.
• Checking. A still for every beat, clicks measured against the song to the millisecond, and notes taken as timestamps snapped to the beat.

When to skip a beat

• After a click that matters. Drop the music from just before it to the next bar line, so the click is heard alone and the beat comes back with what follows.
• Under every other click. Duck the music to 45% for 160ms, so the click's thump has room and the groove carries on.
• When an action is done. Hold its result alone for a beat, like a tick after a copy, then move on with the next click.
• At the top of a move. A camera that rises and comes down holds two identical poses at the top. A sweep that never stops reads as drift.
• When a note falls between beats. Snap it to the nearest accented beat rather than splitting a pose.
• When the length has to change. Cut a whole bar, never a single beat, or everything after it falls off the song.
• At the end. Hold the last page about two seconds with the music under it, and end on a click of the metronome, not mid-beat.

Poses

Movement, broken into poses that keep time.

• Any move you design, broken into poses that land on the beat.
• Everything on screen changes together, on the click, so nothing drifts off the music.
• Change the tempo and it keeps up.

Typing

Words that come as fast as typing does, and still keep time.

• Any line you type, as quick as typing is, but starting and stopping on the beat.
• The caret blinks with the metronome, not on a clock of its own.

Counting

A number that builds to a moment, and lands on it.

• Any number you count up, landing on a bar line.
• The figure holds still while it changes, and what's behind it cuts on the beat.

Scene transitions

Getting from one scene to the next without losing anyone on the way.

• Any transition you design, adapted to match the BPM.
• A move stops for a beat at its peak, so the eye can find where it's going.

On-page transitions

An action, and the beat the music leaves open for it.

• Every click lands on the beat, and the music steps aside so it's heard.
• What the click opens arrives on the clicks after it, whole on the bar line.

Endings

Knowing when it's over, and letting it land.

• The video ends on the beat, after a short hold, not the moment the action is done.
• Underlines, presses and holds, all timed to the music.

Install