You can use the MEMENTO to create simple stop motion animations. By taking a series of still pictures and stitching them together, you can create an animation!

Persistence of Vision

The key principal to understand for any kind of animation, including stop motion, is persistence of vision. Our brains are very good at filling in the blanks and imagining continuous motion when we see a series of still images displayed in quick succession.

This is how motion pictures work, as well as mechanical illusions, such as zoetropes and flipbooks. Traditional animation methods such as hand drawn animation, and puppet- or clay-based stop motion animation work the same way. Create a single frame by drawing a pose, or posing a figure, and then shoot a frame of the image onto film, or, more likely these days, a digital photograph. Then, create a new pose, shoot a second frame, and repeat this on and on.

When you then rapidly review those images you photographed, suddenly your subject starts moving and comes to life!

CircuitPython

Be sure you've installed CircuitPython on your MEMENTO before proceeding.

Onion Skinning

One feature of the MEMENTO camera that's helpful for stop motion is the onion skinning, a.k.a. ghosting feature. This is an overlay you'll see on the screen of your previously shot frame while you're composing your current frame. It lets you see where your character was so you can gauge how far to move it.

In the Fancy Camera application on the MEMENTO, press the right button to highlight the mode item and then press up to change from JPEG, GIF, or GBOY to STOP mode.

At first the viewer will appear as usual, but after you shoot one frame you'll then see a semi-transparent overlay of the previously saved image on top of the live view.

Wave

Try creating a hand waving animation with a mannequin or other figure. You can try moving straight ahead with the poses, referencing the previous pose overlay to see where you were.

You can take multiple photos at one pose to hold the pose and to slow down the action.

After shooting your frames, bring the files into your computer and convert them into an animation using your favorite editing software, such as Photoshop, or a GIF creation web page. This page shows you how to do this step-by-step using ezgif.com/maker