Final Cut - Stop Motion Video

Taking your photos
You have a couple of options here, depending on your subject matter.

i. Most digital cameras have a "shutter burst" or multi-shot function, where by holding down the shutter button it takes a burst of photos in rapid succession. This is a good option if you are using an animated object (for example a person or a moving object like a car).

ii. Your other option is to set your camera up on a tripod in front of your inanimate object. Take a photo, move your object slightly, take another photo, move your object slightly... repeat.

Remember, that a moving image is generally 25 frames per second. That's 100 pictures for 4 seconds. Or 1500 for 1 minute! For stop motion, we don't have to adhere to this too closely, as it is the stop part which gives it its character. So you might like to opt for half that, so 12 frames per second, for example, is perfect for Stop Motion.

Editing your images
You can edit your photos in photoshop if you want to, but remember you will need to be consistent, it may look odd if you only edit a couple and not the rest. Save as jpgs.

Putting it altogether
Open Final Cut Pro. First things first, click on Final Cut Pro in the menu bar > User preferences > Editing tab > Still/freeze duration. Change the time for how long you want your individual photos to play for. It is in the format of hh:mm:ss:ff so you will change the frames. If you are working to 12 frames per second for example, it would be 00:00:00:02 (as there are 24 or 25 frames per second).




Import all of your photos. File > import > Files. You can select more than one by holding down the shift key. It is a good idea to have them in order already, so that when you start putting them together in your timeline you won't have to search, and you can just simply select them all and drag and drop into your timeline.

You can add effects, the easiest way to do this is to export your animation as a Quicktime, then import it back into Final Cut, then add the effect to the whole clip. Export again as a Quicktime when complete.

You may also like to have music, if it is an mp3 or wav you can simply drag and drop the music file into your timeline.

Compressing HD Video prior to importing into FCP

If you shot your video in High Definition then you will need to compress it using Compressor prior to importing into FCP. It is very easy to do, but time consuming.

TERMS USED BY COMPRESSOR

There are a few terms used by Compressor that you should feel comfortable with 

before you begin using it. 

A batch is the heart of the transcode process. It contains one or more source media 

files, which are the files you want to convert, or transcode, to another format. Each 

source media file creates its own job. This means that a batch can contain multiple jobs, 

with each job based on its own source media file. 

Each job also has at least one target. The targets define what sort of output file should be 

created by the transcoding process. You can have multiple targets assigned to a job, 

which means that you can easily create multiple output files, each with a different format. 

Each target has three parts: 

1. The setting:  The setting part of a target defines the encoder format that is used, as well 

as a number of other aspects, including a variety of filters and geometry attributes. 

2. The destination:  The destination part of a target defines where the output file is saved. 

It also defines the rules that are used to create the output filename. Compressor 

includes a preference setting that allows you to specify a default destination.

3. The output filename:  You can edit the output filename part of the target if for some 

reason you do not want to use the name generated based on the destination. 

Note:  You can transcode a job only after it has at least one setting assigned to it. 

QUICK AND EASY COMPRESSOR WORKFLOW

If you experience trouble you may need to drag and drop one by one. Sometimes the computer cannot handle such a big load and will crash.

Click on the Apple folder > Formats > Quicktime > Apple Prores 422

I would avoid the select all jobs as outlined about, instead I would drag and drop this into each clip. It is time consuming but it prevents your computer from crashing.

You may like to create a specific folder just for your compressed files so that they are easier to find when you are ready to import them into FCP.

• In the Destinations Tab > Custom. Click on the + button top right of the window > Local > your external hard drive and specific folder. 
• Do this individually again to prevent your computer from crashing.

Alternatively you can follow the instructions below as outlined in the manual.

Once you can see your jobs have been completed in the Batch Monitor you can close it and then close Compressor. You can save it as you quit the program if you wish, but it is not absolutely necessary if it has been done correctly. You can then import the Prores files into FCP following the instructions already outline in a previous tutorial.

Final Cut Pro Interface Introduction

Art history films

The Roland Visual Art online video collection is now available at Victoria University. The Roland Visual Arts Collection is a special collection of 184 preserved, rare films on art dating from the mid-twentieth century to the present. Every film sets up creative dialogs that cut across boundaries of epoch, culture, nationality and medium.

View the full Roland Visual Art videos here: http://vu.kanopystreaming.com/s?query=Roland+Visual+Arts+Collection&page=0&filters%5B0%5D=im_vid_4%3A255

Early Video Art

I thought you guys might like to check out some early video artists who's work is YouTube...
Nam June Paik
Vito Acconci
Bruce Nauman
Dennis Oppenheim
VALIE EXPORT

A documentary on early experimentations in video art, titled The New Wave.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6


You might notice that early video art was used a lot for documenting performance art and body art and to comment critically on the media and television culture. Early video artists, such as Nam June Paik in Magnet TV 1965, and Peter Campus, also explored the technical boundaries of the medium.

Fluxus, an avant garde art group in the early to mid 1960s, included early video artists, performance artists and experimental film artists such as Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik and Wolf Vostell.

The library has some fantastic resources including 'Video Art' (Michael Rush, 2003) and 'Video Art, a guided tour' (Catherine Elwes, 2005), as well as some actually video art recordings.

More Collage Inspiration

Artist Barbara Kruger

Artist Stuart Ringholt

Matt Winiewski on This is Colossal

On This is Colossal 

Collages through the ages

Pablo Picasso 'Glass and Bottle of Suze' 1912

Collage
Pronunciation: \kə-ˈläzh, kȯ-, kō-\
Function: noun
Etymology: French, literally, gluing, from coller to glue, from colle glue, from Vulgar Latin *colla,kolla from Greek
Date: 1919

1 a : an artistic composition made of various materials (as paper, cloth, or wood) glued on a surface b : a creative work that resembles such a composition in incorporating various materials or elements
2 : the art of making collages
(http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/collage)


Raoul Hausman 'The Art Critic' 1919-1920

A thoroughly modern medium, collage expressed the characteristics of the 20th Century - immediacy, the mass media and capitalism - through creative process and concept. Collage, coming from the French term coller, meaning glue, paste or stick, is the construction of pictures through the pasting of torn images.


John Heartfield 'Adolf the Superman: Swallows Gold and Sprouts Junk' 1932

According to the International Museum of Collage, Assemblage and Construction, collage as an artform is much more than just simply making pictures. "It's a mode of perception, a multi-dimensional language with aesthetic implications that spans the histories of art, architecture, literature and music."



Kurt Schwitters 'The Proposal' 1942

Collage first emerged as a fine art medium in the form of papier colles, or pasted papers, from Cubists Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso. Since, it has been an important medium throughout Modern art, showing up in Italian Futurism, Constructivism, Dada, Surrealism, Pop Art and Fluxus. Artists who worked in the collage medium included Kurt Schwitters, Max Ernst, Marcel Duchamp and Joseph Cornell; who asserted that art could be made from anything. Abtract Expressionsist artists, such as Robert Motherwell, were attracted to the medium to expand their practice in abstract painting (IMCSC 2005).


David Hockney 'Pearblossom Hwy, 11th-18th April, 1986, #2' 1986

Contemporary artists use collage, and the closely related assemblage and mixed media, to construct a visual representation of their world and experiences, by using found objects and objects closely bound to the everyday; which viewers make an immediate identification to.



Peter Lewis 'The Birth of the Information Age' no date


Peter Lewis 'Tiki Touring' no date

As a medium, collage blurs the boundaries or bridges the dichotomy between high and low art or pop art; text and image; figuration and abstraction; past and present; and two and three dimensions (ibid). According to media theorist Marshall McLuhan. collage effectively breaks down perspectivalism, while at the same time emphasises the disparity of images or objects it juxtaposes.



Martin Smith 'Teevee #13' 1999

A collage is not just a bunch of random things pasted together. It is important to consider conventional design elements and principles such as composition, line, shape, colour, form, texture, etc; and what the images and objects in the collage represent and the meaning they add to the work. So before cutting and pasting, have a clear understanding of the message you want to send to your audience and the theoretical and conceptual underpinnings of the work.

Traditional collage and practice and digital collage practice share the same characteristics, both immediate and seemingly simple, yet potentially tedious and complex.


Natsuki Kimura 'Gone' 2000

Further Reading:
Greenberg, Clement. "Collage (The Pasted Paper Revolution)." Art News 57.5 (September 1958): 46-49, ff.
Rosenberg, Harold. "Collage: Philosophy of Put-Togethers." Art on the Edge. New York: Macmillan, 1975.
Barthes, Roland. "The Rhetoric of the Image." Image-Music-Text. Trans. Stephen Heath. New York: Hill and Wang, 1977.
Waldman, Diane. Collage, Assemblage and the Found Object. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1992.

Wescher, Herta. Collage. Trans Robert E. Wolf. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1968.

Online resources for digital collage artists:
Natsuki Kimura

Other resources:
Collageart.org
Wikipedia Entry