Authors:
dr hab. Joanna Gerigk – and author of theatrical texts and adaptations. Lecturer at National Academy of Theatre Arts in Wroclaw. Researcher of composed theatre.
mgr Wojciech Oset – actor and improviser. Conducts research on the application of technology in the contemporary arts.
Stop-motion animation is one of the most accessible—and at the same time magical—forms of filmmaking. It requires patience and planning, but it gives you a huge amount of control over the image and what you want to express.
Everything begins with an idea—stop motion allows you to realize even the most abstract and metaphorical stories. The story doesn’t have to be long—for a start, it’s worth trying a shorter format (e.g., 30 seconds) to understand the process and prepare for longer work.
A good starting point can be a text—it might be a fragment of a play, a favorite short story, or even… a dream 😊 This helps you find a dramaturgical path more quickly and translate into visual language what we usually use every day—words.
It’s also worth looking for inspiration among artists who create stop-motion animation on a larger scale!
Before starting the actual work on the film, it’s a good idea to prepare a storyboard—quick sketches of individual shots. This helps you structure the stages of the story, identify its main theme, and determine what materials you’ll need for production.
It’s also useful to create test shots—check how movement works and see how many frames you need for a specific action.
To make a film, you need a camera or a phone, simple lighting (e.g., desk lamps), and a tripod—it’s crucial that the camera does not move.
A few important technical notes:
FPS (frames per second) influences the film’s style
12 fps – a more “jerky” style, characterized by simplicity
24 fps – smooth motion, but requires more precision
The smaller the movement between frames, the better the animation.
Lighting should remain consistent—this helps avoid flickering.
It’s worth learning the onion skin technique, which overlays the previous frame onto the current one—it helps you control movement.
Stop-motion animation is not just about moving objects—it’s about thinking in terms of motion, time, and matter.
Rhythm is the way time flows in your animation.
Timing: how many frames a movement lasts
Spacing: how large the shifts between frames are
Repetition: visual rhythms (e.g., cycles, pulsation)
Rhythm is what ultimately shapes the character of your figures and, consequently, the entire story. In animation, how something moves is often more important than what is moving.
Every movement is an interpretative decision—a minimal gesture (e.g., a slight tilt) can mean more than a large action, just like a pause. The materials used in stop-motion are its actors, and animation (movement) becomes the carrier of emotion. The type of material also carries meaning—the properties of clay differ significantly from paper or stones. An object always means something, even if it’s not immediately obvious.
Don’t fight the material—collaborate with it!
Stop motion is especially powerful when telling stories about change—the transformation of matter from one form to another, or the blurring of boundaries between objects. This is something other film forms cannot achieve in such a tangible way.
Good luck!
The process of working on a stop-motion film is discussed by Joanna Gerigk, who teaches the course “Stop-Motion Animation” in the first year of Puppet Theatre Directing.
The recording features future directing artists: Zuzanna Klorek, Elio Słomiński, Franciszek Słoniowski and Zuzanna Ślusarczyk.
