Stop motion or stop frame animations is a popular technique where cartoons, drawings or static objects, are brought to life on the screen.

Basically, it involves taking numerous pictures of your characters or objects, moving them a little during each photo snap. The end result is to merge all the photos into a sequence that would make the characters or objects appear to be moving on their own.

These are how commercial videos, cartoons, television shows and music videos are created, even though you may not realize it – you were watching stop motion all the time! Stop motion may be thought of as a specific style similar to clay animation but it is ultimately used to create videos in a multitude of styles.

Stay tuned to learn how to make your own stop motion video in Windows Movie Maker following the simple steps in this guide.


Best Windows Movie Maker Alternative to Make Stop Motion Videos

There are a number of alternatives to Windows Movie Maker that are much better at creating stop motion animations. Those of you who are experienced in making these types of videos would know that the alternate applications also offer more features.

Wondershare Filmora is the most highly recommended alternative to Windows Movie Maker, allowing you to combine video clips and photos to create spectacular creations. Filmora has built-in filters and special effects to enhance your movie, which can be directly exported to social media websites.

Professional-looking and unique videos can be easily created on this software alternative with its fuss-free interface and its wide range of pre-made special effects. All you need to do is import all the images you would be using, into Filmora, set the duration time for each slide, and royalty-free background sounds, captions and titles, and WondershareFilmora will do the rest.

There are other more powerful software applications available but Filmora is easier to navigate and less expensive than its competitors. It is a perfect alternative to Windows Movie Maker, and you would be able to quickly master it in no time.

How to Make Stop Motion Videos with Movie Maker Alternative

The following guide is outlined for Mac users, but it is pretty much the same for Windows, maybe a slight variation in the Windows interface itself.

Step1. You would first have to download and install the software. When you Open Filmora Video Editor, ensure that you check the 16:9 ratio box before clicking on Create New Movie.

Step2. When the application opens, click on Import Media shown on the left screen, next to the preview box. Import all the images or phots you would be using to create your movie.

For more efficiency, ensure that your label allows you to upload your images or photos in the same sequence that you would like your movie to shown. Press on Command + Awhich would select all the images you uploaded into the Filmora library, and then drag and drop them onto thetimeline below:

Filmora sets a 5-second time duration for each image by default, but for stop motion videos, this duration is too long. The next step will teach you how to adjust the time duration.

Step3. Double-click on any image in the timeline and change the duration time to 0.1 second then check the box that says Apply Duration to All. This would change the duration for each image from 5 seconds to 0.1 second.

Click OK when done.

Your pictures would not be compressed into a stop motion movie. You can preview your video by clicking on play in the preview screen and adjust the duration speed until you are satisfied.

You can also click on the Text and Music icons in the left column to add titles and background music to the video, but in essence, this is all you need to do to create a stop motion film using WindowshareFilmora, the best alternative to Windows Movie Maker.

If you want to apply any title effects to your video, simply open the titles folder, select the title that you want, right-click on it and then click on apply. A simpler option would be to drag and drop the tittle effects to the timeline and it would be automatically be applied. Music tracks can be applied using the same technique.


How to Make a Stop Motion in Windows Movie Maker 2018

Windows Movie Maker would already be installed on your computer so simply click the Windows Start button, type movie maker in the search box and click on the software when it comes up.

Please note that the images you wish to use for your stop motion video, should be stored in the same folder and labelled in a sequential order.

Step1. OpenWindows Movie Maker. You would notice the preview window is on the right, opposite to Filmora. Click on the right-side which says Click here to Browse for Videos and Photos and then import all the images you would be using, into Windows Movie Maker.

Step2. To select all the images that you want to import, select the first image, hold downShift, move the arrows if necessary and scroll all the way to the bottom and then select the last image and then hit open.

Once all your images are loaded, use the same technique above to select all the images, go to the editing tools panelandchange the duration time to 0.1 second.

This time duration would be set for all the images, however, if you wish to have an image play longer, you can select that individual image or multiple images and set the duration time you want.

Step3. Adding Narration or voiceover is optional but there is a built-in feature which allows you to do this. Click on the Home button, then click on the Record Narration icon and you can start your own voiceover.

You can play your video in the preview window to the left and once you are satisfied with everything, go to the File menu, click on the Save Project as button and save your final video.

Step4. Another optional feature is to add Titles or Captions to your video. Simply select the image you want to add titles on, click on the Home button again, and thenclick Titleswhich would allow you to add your text.

For titles to appear at the beginning of your video, select the first image, click on the Title icon and type in your title. The same procedure can be done if you want to add the title to the end of the video, except you would have to select the last image.

Now you are a stop motion film producer!

How to Make a Stop Motion Using Windows Movie Maker
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Hey, My name is Paul – nice to e-meet you 🙂 I’m a freelance video editor who has over 4 years experiences of making all types of videos. I founded this website to provide step-by-step and easy-to-follow instructions to first-time editors or beginners like you who want to start their journey in video editing.

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