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Stop Motion Cinematographer

Cinematography and stop motion animation have been connected since the earliest days of film. From Méliès’ stop-trick cinematography, to the breathtaking visions of today’s cinematic feature films, camera techniques and lighting have been combining to create new worlds and to bring life to inanimate objects. A beautiful filmic medium that gives a look that is both handmade and yet fantastical, stop motion can tell stories in a way that is unique and timeless.

This website explores the cinematography that lies at the heart of these perfectly imperfect worlds. It will look at the history of stop motion, the techniques and artistry that go into creating it, and the stories of the people that give it life.

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@stopmocine
Stop Motion Cinematographer

@stopmocine

  • Happy 50th Birthday @aardmananimations It’s 50 years since Pete Lord and David Sproxton first set up their Bolex camera and began an animation career that would lead to one of the biggest stopmotion studios in the world. From the early days of Morph and Vision On, through Conversation Pieces and the Lip Synch series, to The Wrong Trousers, Chicken Run, Shaun the Sheep, and multiple award winning features, and to future collaborations, the handcrafted and perfectly imperfect world of Aardman has continued to grow, fingerprints and all. Throughout this time Aarman has developed a unique style of cinematography that brings life and depth to their stories. That has brought action and adventure, as well as warmth and emotion to their characters, while constantly inspiring the next generation of cinematographers. Here’s to half a century of looking through the lens at the wonderful world created by Aardman. And thank you to @davidsproxton and @petelordaardman #aardman # film # stopmotion # cinematography #animation The photo is by @richarddphotos and features some of the cinematographers from Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl, alongside Director of Photography @davealexriddett , who has been at Aardman since the early days. @laurahowie, Beth McDonald, @cc_dop @danielrm_dop
  • If you would like to see the submarine set for yourself, it is currently on display @young.vam as part of the “Inside Aardman: Wallace & Gromit and Friends” exhibition celebrating 50 years of clay as aardman @aardmananimations reaches its 50th anniversary this year. It doesn’t have the lighting from the film but it lets you see the scale that everything was being done at and gives a bit of an understanding of the difference lighting makes. You can read the full article about the cinematography on our website: stopmotioncinematographer.com (link in bio) The exhibition is on until 15th Nov 2026 at the Young V&A in Bethnal Green, London. #wallaceandgromit #aardman #behindthescenes #cinematography #stopmotion
  • “I think this shot was a perfect example of everyone working together. It was such a small space that we all needed to work in close coordination. There were so many elements that all had to fit together. The camera and moco had to fit within the set, while the lights all had to be wired in a way that allowed the set to come apart. Every department had to play their part so that in the end it could look as though we really are in Feather’s submarine.” “My crew did such a good job and it made a really lovely sequence to work on.” @laurahowie, Senior Lighting Camera on Aardman Animations ‘Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl’, speaks to stopmotioncinematographer about shooting the interior submarine set for the film. You can read the full article on our website: stopmotioncinematographer.com (link in bio) Photos by @richarddphotos #wallaceandgromit #aardman #behindthescenes #cinematography #stopmotion
  • “There’s a misconception with stop motion that everything takes patience, and is done slowly, but in reality the time is due to the level of detail and the amount of work required. Once you have that shooting unit and you need to get things into it, it’s still a fast setup. The set dressing and the animation will require time so you need to do as much as you can to work fast and prepare in advance.” “The sets are designed and built in the studio and the nice thing about that was that I could go and look at it and see what was needed. Seeing the submarine before it was in the unit meant I could get an idea of the scale and the textures.” “Once the initial decision about positioning is made it is over to the set dressers. @hgreenhousemodelmaker and Rosa Dodd were our set dressers on this sequence, and they did an amazing job. A lot of the work was done off set, but there is still so much detail that needs added.” “Stopmotion is a collaborative process so, while the set dressers worked, I discussed plans with my Spark, @dtlewiswriting and my Motion Control Operator (moco op) @lindamhamblyn_ . We didn’t want to all be working on top of each other, but we can work around each other.” “Once we got the set to a good level, and there were enough of the lights to get the general feel of the sequence, I called for a set visit. This gave Merlin Crossingham, the director, the chance to see how everything was coming together and to make any changes. I used a handheld camera to show what I was thinking of for the move so that we knew we were all on the same track. Merlin was also able to give us some ideas of timings and how much performance there was going to be at the start of the shot before the move starts. Some of this information can be found in the animatic, but some of it is more performance based.” @laurahowie , Senior Lighting Camera on Aardman Animations ‘Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl’, speaks to stopmotioncinematographer about shooting the interior submarine set for the film. You can read the full article on our website: stopmotioncinematographer.com (link in bio) #wallaceandgromit #aardman #behindthescenes #cinematography #stopmotion
  • The Submarine Set: The Lights “There were a lot of dials and light up screens in the submarine. Some of these were lit by Altman Ellipses to the back of the set. They were set at a level that would light up the screens but didn’t have too much effect on the set. This meant I could programme them to be off for any plates with that wall removed. Other dials were lit with small practical lights. These were all wired in by @dtlewiswriting (Dan Lewis).” “The shelves in the submarine are made from perforated steel as they needed to have norbots on them and this would require tiedowns. It also meant that there were lots of holes in them and I could place a COB LED strip along the shelf and illuminate all the machinery below. The wide lens would have prevented me from having any lights below the shelf as they would have been in shot.” “There is a detailed archway that goes around the edge of the submarine and I was able to use this to hide a small amount of LEDs. I got Dan to attach them to aluminium wire that was stuck to the undressed side of the set and would never be seen. This meant I could direct the lights and they would hold their position. I used these to light Feathers as well as to pick out some details on the organ. There is a small osram dragoneye light to the screen right of Feathers that does most of the character light. There are also 3 dragoneyes at the back of the set that are illuminating the curved dome at the back of the submarine. There is another dragoneye that is giving a top down light over the pool table.” @laurahowie (Laura Howie), Senior Lighting Camera on @aardmananimations ‘Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl’, speaks to stopmotioncinematographer about shooting the interior submarine set for the film. You can read the full article on our website: stopmotioncinematographer.com (link in bio) #wallaceandgromit #aardman #behindthescenes #cinematography #stopmotion
  • “There were a lot of things I needed to consider with the lighting for this shot. I needed lighting that could be stable, that could be positioned within the small spaces to pick out detail, that could create the right look for the submarine, for Feathers and for the sequence as a whole, and that could be hidden within a small space and that could have walls removed without having too much of an effect.” “With stop motion interiors you are finding ways of getting light into a very small scale space. This has practical implications for the lighting as you are working with lights that are a much larger scale than the set and you need to find ways of keeping them out of sight. This can be done by hiding them behind parts of the set or moving, and plating, walls. The other option is to physically get the lights into the set. This requires finding smaller lights that are stable enough to shoot frame by frame. It also means working with the set dressers to get the lights into the set while it is still physically possible to get into the space. We do also use small LED practical lights but they don’t always give out enough light so they need to be enhanced with other lights.” @laurahowie (Laura Howie), Senior Lighting Camera on @aardmananimations ‘Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl’, speaks to stopmotioncinematographer about shooting the interior submarine set for the film. You can read the full article on our website: stopmotioncinematographer.com (link in bio) #wallaceandgromit #aardman #behindthescenes #cinematography #stopmotion
  • The Submarine Set: The Motion Control “For the submarine interior I needed to consider the size of the moco kit I wanted built (by @lindamhamblyn_ ) in order to get the right movement and feel for the shot. I knew that the camera was going to have to be on the end of a pole as I wanted it to go within the set. The set was going to be too narrow for anything else around the camera and this meant the tracker was going to be in front of the set, effectively doubling the size of the rig, because we needed to have the distance of travel beyond the set as well as the length of the camera extension within the set. the length of space needed would be at least double the length of the move. I will also be considering how the lights, and the animator, can fit around this kit.” “Linda was able to programme the move while @siwancati (Siwan Cati Hughes, camera assistant) worked with her to get a focus pull that would keep feathers in focus until the moment the Norbots appeared. Linda had built a rig that would allow the camera to travel through the set. She could then programme the move through @dragonframe.software. The camera was on a long extension so she worked with the engineers, @daveroberts109 (Dave Roberts) and @james_baber (James Baber),to make sure there were no vibrations and that the camera would settle in place and be repeatable. @laurahowie (Laura Howie), Senior Lighting Camera on @aardmananimations ‘Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl’, speaks to stopmotioncinematographer about shooting the interior submarine set for the film. You can read the full article on our website: stopmotioncinematographer.com (link in bio) #wallaceandgromit #aardman #behindthescenes #cinematography #stopmotion
  • The Submarine Set: Getting The Camera Through The Set “With the submarine set I knew it was going to be a very small set as it was built for Feathers and the Norbots but, due to the nature of the opening shot, I knew it would also need to be a very enclosed set and that all of the walls were going to be seen. I wanted a wide lens to see all of the submarine, and to feel that we were inside the submarine and travelling through it. I wanted to add drama to the scene with the camera angle. I also wanted a low angle, to give feathers power, and to see the action that was happening on the Snooker table. This meant the camera was starting close to where Feathers was and skimming across the table.” “I knew I could remove part of the set to get the animator access, but I would also need to get the camera through the set. Although we could shoot in several passes if necessary, I couldn’t re-rig the camera between passes so it would need to fit through the enclosed set. If we were shooting at human scale that wouldn’t be a problem but we were shooting with characters that were smaller than the height of the lens alone. The added size of the camera, as well as the motion control rig, would have implications for the framing, unless we could find solutions that would work for this particular shot.” “When we’re tracking across the table, the center of the lens is as high as the Norbots, despite the lens being just mm above the table. We usually shoot with the @canonuk 1DXmark iii, but for this we used the R6 as it has a smaller footprint and by underslinging it we were able to get a lot closer to the table. This shot was also going to require a specially constructed moco rig for the camera move because none of the normal rigs we used were going to fit. It had to be something that we made specifically for this shot.” @laurahowie (Laura Howie), Senior Lighting Camera on @aardmananimations ‘Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl’, speaks to stopmotioncinematographer about lighting the submarine set for the film. You can read the full article on our website: stopmotioncinematographer.com (link in bio) #wallaceandgromit #aardman #behindthescenes #cinematography #stopmotion
  • NEW ARTICLE - Cinematography in small spaces: Lighting the Submarine for Vengeance most Fowl Laura Howie, Senior Lighting Camera on Aardman Animations ‘Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl’, speaks to stopmotioncinematographer about lighting the interior submarine set for the film. From early inspirations, to working with crew, planning the lights and camera moves, to creating drama, this article gives an in depth look at the amount of detail that goes into the cinematography for each shot in stopmotion. “The submarine sequence from Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl was an exciting sequence to work on as there were so many different aspects to it that all needed to be worked out. Cinematography is a balance between the creative and the technical, and I always feel the more interesting jobs tend to be the ones that bring challenges. This sequence had the perfect balance of that. It was a lovely, small, contained sequence and, although there were a few shots in it, it was mostly based around one main shot that was going to reveal the extent of Feathers McGraw’s plan. The camera was to track back and reveal the interior of his secret submarine – and the plans being worked out within it. I had first seen the arrival of Feathers McGraw, one of the most iconic villains ever, when I was still only dreaming of working in film and animation, so it felt an honour to be a part of their return.” You can read the full article here: https://stopmotioncinematographer.com/cinematography-in-small-spaces-lighting-the-submarine-for-vengeance-most-fowl/ (link in bio) #wallaceandgromit #aardman #behindthescenes #cinematography #stopmotion
  • The Great British Bake Off 2025 has reached its conclusion for another year. The 16th series was announced with a teaser trailer that combined stop motion, timelapse, and live action in a multicoloured, multi medium teaser that looked good enough to eat. Cinematographer @danielrm_dop spoke to stopmotioncinematographer.com about the pressure of working on such a well loved show. “I think it added a layer of excitement. It was like being asked to make a film for Britain itself 🙂. It’s fun knowing that what you’re about to make is going to be viewed, and often picked apart, by lots of people. If I was working for a Director I didn’t know so well I may have felt that more as pressure, but I know Isabel so well, we tend to bring the best out in each other and the process is often really enjoyable. We started out our careers making films together, we had one commission by the BBC that was so low budget we couldn’t afford to rent c stands. So once you laugh your way through a project like that, you feel quite comfortable blagging your way through most shoots. Isabel is good at bringing in people who are not only good at what they do but are also lovely to work with too, I find that really helps when the pressure is on to deliver.” “Izzie wanted this world to feel really impactful, everything about it is ridiculous and magical. But then you have to be a little careful not to push things too far. Our camera move on this is quite clean and sturdy. The lighting still had elements that felt naturalistic, although enhanced. Simplifying things on our side also allowed the production design to shout a little louder. It’s all a balance.” The picture is of Myself and Director Isabel Garrett on the set of the bake off commercial. Shot at @claphamrdstudio Read the article here: stopmotioncinematographer.com/baked-to-perfection-the-cinematography-of-the-great-british-bake-off-trailer/ (link in bio) #cineread #infocus #stopmotioncinematographer #danielmorgan #behindthescenes #cinematography #cinematographer #directorofphotography #lighting #stopmotion #animation #britishbakeoff
  • Timelapse is often used for BTS footage in stopmotion as it is also shot frame by frame. For the @britishbakeoff teaser @danielrm_dop was using it as part of the project. Mixing both live action and stop motion techniques, these timelapse shots helped connect the different mediums used in the project. “The timelapse cinnamon buns definitely took a bit of trial and error to get right. We wanted the lighting to take us from the night time meringue clouds into the warmth of the showstopper cake scene, so we designed a lighting cue that moved around the buns as they cooked, shifting from purple and blue tones into a warm but natural oven light look.” “The real challenge was timing the length of that lighting cue to match the actual cooking time of the buns. We knew the buns took about 20 minutes to bake, and that the shot originally wanted to last around three seconds in the edit at 25 frames per second. That meant we needed to capture 75 frames in total, and if we captured each frame at 16 second intervals, the timelapse would cover the full 20 minutes required for the buns to cook. Then you just have to allow for the one second exposure time needed to capture each frame.” “In @dragonframe.software, we built a lighting cue that played out across those 75 frames. We placed six Astera tubes in a U shape around the back of the glass oven, programming a light source to travel across the tubes so it felt as if the light was physically moving.” “It took us three attempts to fine tune the timing and adapt the cue so it felt right in the edit, but it was absolutely worth the effort and the bit of brain power it took to figure it out.” Shot at @claphamrdstudio Read the article here: stopmotioncinematographer.com/baked-to-perfection-the-cinematography-of-the-great-british-bake-off-trailer/ (link in bio) #cineread #infocus #stopmotioncinematographer #danielmorgan #behindthescenes #cinematography #cinematographer #directorofphotography #lighting #stopmotion #animation #britishbakeoff
  • Lens choice and colour can have a significant impact on the cinematography of a project. @danielrm_dop spoke to @stopmocine about the choices he made for the @britishbakeoff teaser. “Mixing mediums often means mixing camera formats, which calls for a bit of planning on lens choices to make sure each medium looks and feels consistent.” “I went for a clean and crisp look to our lenses for a few reasons. I knew we were going to need a periscope for the final shot where we track out of one of Paul Hollywood’s eyes. Izzie (our director) was keen for the lighting to be really rich and colourful and the worlds that Brin was creating had so much detail. I didn’t feel the lenses needed to do too much of the talking in terms of visual style. And because periscopes tend to be quite sharp optically, a clean look throughout made sense.” “We used Leica R lenses on the Arri Alexa 35 for the live action, CP2 lenses on Canon R cameras for the stop motion units, and the Laowa 24mm for the probe work.” “When it came to lighting, we decided on a bold and dynamic colour palette. The pinks and purples were almost neon in tone, our yellows were warm and cosy, and our blues were fresh. We used the same colour scheme for the sky that we used for the background in the final cake showstopper shots which helps to build a uniformed look across the different worlds.” Shot at @claphamrdstudio Read the article here: stopmotioncinematographer.com/baked-to-perfection-the-cinematography-of-the-great-british-bake-off-trailer/ (link in bio) #cineread #infocus #stopmotioncinematographer #danielmorgan #behindthescenes #cinematography #cinematographer #directorofphotography #lighting #stopmotion #animation #britishbakeoff
  • The teaser for the latest series of @britishbakeoff combined a number of different techniques. Stop motion on 3D sets and multiplane, time lapse for the cooking cinnamon buns, and live action shot at 25fps and 1000fps, using a mix of traditional 35mm lenses and a few Periscopes. Cinematographer @danielrm_dop spoke to stopmotioncinematographer.com about the process. “Deciding which technique to use usually comes with a bit of back and forth before the shoot. One of the big things as a DoP, when it comes to mixing mediums, is the schedule and how each element connects.” “For instance, for the 3D stop motion landscape set (with the snail), we knew the landscape would be a large stop motion set, but the clouds were being shot separately on the multiplane unit. In order for me to know how to light the clouds, I first needed to light the 3D landscape so I could match the colours, contrast and key direction on the clouds. Then once those multiplane clouds were lit, we could match that same lighting when we shot them breaking in slow mo on the live action unit.” “It’s all a bit of a domino effect that you really need to get your head around before the shoot and communicate with your Production Manager or AD. Otherwise, you’ll end up slowing things down, which is never a good look when you’ve got a client sitting in a room down the corridor.” “We had 3 units at @claphamrdstudio. A multiplane unit, a live action unit and the stop motion unit. All 3 were going more or less simultaneously.” Read the article here: stopmotioncinematographer.com/baked-to-perfection-the-cinematography-of-the-great-british-bake-off-trailer/ (link in bio) #cineread #infocus #stopmotioncinematographer #danielmorgan #behindthescenes #cinematography #cinematographer #directorofphotography #lighting #stopmotion #animation #britishbakeoff
  • New Article - “Baked to perfection- the cinematography of the Great British Bake Off trailer.” Once there was nothing… and then there was The Great British Bake Off. The Great British Bake Off 2025 has reached its conclusion for another year. 12 contestants have laughed, cried and baked till the bitter end, to reach the final of the nation’s beloved baking show. But this isn’t where it started. First…there was the trailer. A mesmerising mixture of mediums that connects the dawn of the galaxy, to the swirls in a meringue. From glass ovens to a stop motion pastry snail, Cinematographer Daniel Morgan talks to stopmotioncinmatographer.com about how he went about combining such different elements, and creating a stop motion world that felt completely in sync with both the close up of an eye, and the ingredients of a cake. Read the article here: stopmotioncinematographer.com/baked-to-perfection-the-cinematography-of-the-great-british-bake-off-trailer/ Photo by @claphamrdstudio (link in bio) #cineread #infocus #stopmotioncinematographer #danielmorgan #behindthescenes #cinematography #cinematographer #directorofphotography #lighting #stopmotion #animation #britishbakeoff
  • “When I’m working on a sequence I do like to plan ahead and think it all out and make sure that everything is going to work for the whole sequence. This can be quite important because sometimes you might be shooting one half of the action and set, and then not shooting the other half until maybe a year later. By then it could be a different set, with a different lighting setup, and in a different unit. You can’t often turn and look the other way in stop motion as you usually only have half a set. Inevitably things will change as the shoot progresses but plans will give you a good starting point.” “What was really nice with the garden set was that while it was two different sets, we were getting to set them up at the same time. It was early in the shoot and we were able to work on them as we got ready to begin the film. We would be shooting the second shot, of Gromit, first, but the other set would be getting constructed in the next door unit.” Alan Barr, Joe Martin, Jade Bamsey, Read the article here: https://stopmotioncinematographer.com/gromits-garden-key-moments-in-lighting/ (link in bio) #cineread #framebyframe #stopmotioncinematographer #laurahowie #wallaceandgromit #vengeancemostfowl #gromitsgarden #aardman #behindthescenes #cinematography #cinematographer #lightingcamera #lighting #stopmotion #animation
  • “One of the first things I will do when planning the lighting for a sequence is to see if there are any key moments, or beats, at which the light has to be in a specific place. The geography, time of day, and the weather will all have an impact on this but so will the action. For this particular sequence I knew from the animatic (timed out storyboard), that when Norbot arrived he was going to be in a large crate.” “The set was all very planned out and when I was first considering the lighting I was able to look at the technical drawings for the set as well as a foam board model of what it was going to look like. This meant I knew where the box was going to arrive and what Gromit was going to be looking at. I could then work out where I wanted my key light to be. This would need to be behind the house and going straight across the garden. This meant that when setting up the first two shots of the sequence I had to have my key light in a particular place. While gromit could have a lovely backlight as he looked on to the garden, the garden itself would need to have the light shining from directly behind the camera.” Read the article here: https://stopmotioncinematographer.com/gromits-garden-key-moments-in-lighting/ (link in bio) #cineread #framebyframe #stopmotioncinematographer #laurahowie #wallaceandgromit #vengeancemostfowl #gromitsgarden #aardman #behindthescenes #cinematography #cinematographer #lightingcamera #lighting #stopmotion #animation
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