Overview

The goal is to create a program or suite of programs to facilitate the creation of stop-motion movies. Initially, we only intend to provide software to capture individual frames (possibly exporting to various video format files) and create/edit exposure sheets (xsheets) for audio/lip sync. We do not intend to provide a general video editing packing like Adobe Premiere or other similar programs. We intend to provide software to capture stop-motion scenes that can then be imported to a video editing program to be compiled into a movie.

Current Features

• Cross-platform: works on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS (hopefully, any platform support Java and the Java Media Framework is supported) -- only tested on Windows XP so far.
• Supports standard video capture devices including webcams, video capture cards, and DV Firewire cameras. See Software/Hardware Requirements below for details on other software that may be required.
• Live view with previous frame overlay (onion skinning) with adjustable alpha
• Grid overlay
• Quick preview of captured frames
• Export to AVI and QUICKTIME video formats using various installed Codecs
• Capture of 1, 2, 3, or 4 frames at once

New Features in Version 0.2

• Added plugin support for capture devices. Plugins are currently available for JMF (Java Media Framework) devices and QuickTime capture devices (this should allow capture on Mac OS X!).

Future Features

• Editing and creation of x-sheets (exposure sheets)
• Analysis of recorded audio for lip/audio syncing to animation
• Support for capture from digital still cameras with video capture through-the-viewfinder (webcam/spycam or other) and import of captured high-resolution images as well as cameras that allow direct capture of viewfinder and high-resolution images (such as various Canon cameras)
• Rotoscoping (i.e. overlay of frames from video files with adjustable alpha)
• Markers you can drag and place over the live preview to mark locations in the frame to keep track of motion

Screen Shots

Click to view full-size image

Downloads

Windows

Version 0.2b (latest, stopmojo_0_2b_setup.exe, 20MB)

Complete self-extracting Windows installer including JRE (Java Runtime Environment 1.5.0) and JMF (Java Media Framework 2.1.1e). Just download and execute to install.

Version 0.2b (latest, stopmojo_0_2b_min_setup.exe, 440KB)

Self-extracting Windows installer (does not include Java or the JMF). Use this one if you already have Java and the JMF installed or are updating from a previous version. Just download and execute to install.

Generic (Windows, Linux, Mac OS)

Version 0.2 (stopmojo_0_2.zip, 166KB)

Generic JAR file and license files. Assumes you already have the JRE and JMF (Java Media Framework) installed. Download and extract to a folder. Execute with "java -jar stopmojo_capture.jar".

Source

stopmojo_src_0_2.zip (263KB)

Complete source code.

Software/Hardware Requirements

Windows

Java Runtime Environment (required)

Version 1.4.2 or later (current and recommended is 1.5.0). Download here and run to install.

Java Media Framework (required)

Version 2.1.1e or later (current). Download here and run to install.

QuickTime/QuickTime for Java (not required)

Version 6.5 or later (current). If you want to use the QuickTime Capture plugin, you need to install QuickTime for Java. If you don't have QuickTime installed, download the installer and choose the 'Custom' installation and click on 'QuickTime for Java'. If you already have it installed, run the QuickTime updater from the Start menu (Start->All Programs->QuickTime->QuickTime Updater) and click on the 'Custom' button and select 'QuickTime for Java'.

VDIG Drivers (not required)

QuickTime requires VDIG drivers for each capture device you want to use. Apparently, very few products ship with VDIG drivers, but there are two drivers that allow access to Windows WDM devices/drivers:

• WinVDIG (FREE!!!) -- Available for free from www.vdig.com, just download and install. Works fine for me!

• Abstract Plane vdig -- Available for download (free trial) here. I haven't tried this one.

DV Camera Support (not required)

To capture from a DV video camera over Firewire, you have a few options:

• Use the QuickTime Capture plugin with one of the VDIG drivers above.

• Use the JMF Capture plugin with the free Panasonic DV codec (click here for download and install instructions, or download locally here).

• Use the JMF Capture plugin with OrangeWare's WebCamDV (free trial available).

Note: JMF will not detect new capture devices automatically once it is installed. You need to run the JMF Registry program (Start->All Programs->Java Media Framework 2.1.1e->JMF Registry), click on the 'Capture Devices' tab, click on 'Detect Capture Devices' and then click 'Commit'.

Mac OS X (untestd)

Java Runtime Environment (required)

Version 1.4.2 or later (not sure what is current). Available from Apple's update service.

Java Media Framework (required)

Generic Version 2.1.1e or later (current). Download here. Expand the archive (by double clicking, I think) and manually move jmf.jar to the /Library/Java/Extensions/ folder.

QuickTime/QuickTime for Java (required)

I assume this would already be installed, but if not you should be able to get it here.

Linux (untested)

Java Runtime Environment (required)

Version 1.4.2 or later (current and recommended is 1.5.0). Download here and run to install.

Java Media Framework (required)

Version 2.1.1e or later (current). Download here and run to install.

QuickTime for Java

Apple does not support QuickTime on Linux.

Contributing

If you would like to contribute, we can use the help. We created this as an open source project because we think it would be nice to have some high-quality free cross-platform software to help create stop-motion movies. We've looked around and there are quite a number of programs available, from fairly expensive to fairly inexpensive on various platforms (click here for nice review of the top stop-mo software offerings), but none that can be easily extended or modified as needed.

Since we are primarily programmers, we can really use contributions of testing, artwork and documentation (although code contributions are welcome as well). We could really use contributions of ideas, feedback, bug reports, artwork (icons!) and documentation (help, how-to's, etc.) as well as ideas on how to improve the software. Got a great idea on how we can improve the software? Let us know by contacting us directly or posting on our forums.

Donations

We could also use loans or donations of equipment including video capture devices for testing and computers, especially a Mac running a current version Mac OS X.

Contact Us

License

Simple

The only restriction is that if you modify the software, you must make the modifiations available for use by others under the same terms.

Legalese

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this software; see the file COPYING. If not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA

As a special exception, Derone Bryson and the StopMojo Project gives permission for additional uses of the text contained in its release of StopMojo.

The exception is that, Derone Bryson and the the StopMojo Project hereby grants permission for non-GPL compatible modules (jar files, libraries, codecs, etc.) to be used and distributed together with StopMojo. This permission is above and beyond the permissions granted by the GPL license StopMojo is covered by.

This exception does not however invalidate any other reasons why the executable file might be covered by the GNU General Public License.

This exception applies only to the code released by Derone Bryson and/or the StopMojo Project under the name StopMojo. If you copy code from other Free Software Foundation releases into a copy of StopMojo, as the General Public License permits, the exception does not apply to the code that you add in this way. To avoid misleading anyone as to the status of such modified files, you must delete this exception notice from them.

If you write modifications of your own for StopMojo, it is your choice whether to permit this exception to apply to your modifications. If you do not wish that, delete this exception notice.