iStopMotion script?

[davidfreels]

I use iStopMotion (http://www.iStopMotion.com) animation software by Boinx. You can do some cool stuff with it, but I have an upcoming project that would probably go 2/3d's faster if I had an iStopMotion script I could use with Clicker.

As the name implies, iStopMotion is a stop-motion video recorder that allows for the construction of stop-motion animation; however, it's somewhat labor intensive as the user has to employ a triangulation technique where (1) there's a camera set up on what's photographed, (2) the subject photographed, and then (3) a Mac--linked to the digital camera via firewire. I use my laptop, and I can see the subject on the laptop screen and if I could just stay out of frame of the camera and record via a Snarb-created Clicker script I could reduce my video production time by at least 50%. I could stay out-of-frame but still next to the Subject and just occasionally having to touch/adjust either the camera or the Mac.

Right now, besides the time it takes to literally walk over to the laptop and press a button, one of the other big problems is that by just walking over to the laptop/camera, my movements can change the shot selection--which means I have to stop and set everything up again.

Even if no one is interested in producing such a script, if there's a guide I can go by, I'll try and write my own.

Thanks.

davidfreels

[druuka]

Hey,

Which version are you using? Is there just a particular keystroke you need to push each time? How much control of the software are you looking for? If all you are looking for is a to take a shot it should be really easy to get your device to send a keystroke to the software.


Andrew

[salling]

Hi,

I was in touch with the iStopMotion guys a rather long time ago, and they do have an AppleScript interface to the app, that'd make it possible to do some pretty nice things with Clicker and it.

Best.
--
Jonas

[yourbartender]

I created a very quick script which sends basic keyboard commands to iStopMotion:
these keyboard commands are sent: 1 and 2 for capturing 1 or 2 frames, cmd+T for timelapse and left and right to navigate in the timeline back and forth. Since my main phone is a touchscreen and developing for that is a bit tricky I didn't put in all the keys possible in a normal push-button phone. But with the new s60v5 version for clicker some gestures are mapped as keys (funny the right and left sweep seem to work in a mirror way)

on a push button phone the keys are
2: capture 2 frames
4: previous frame
5: capture one frame
6: next frame
8: start time lapse.
I know these values don't make so much sense, it should be button one for one frame, but as I said I developed it mostly for my touch screen phone so I went for the remote controller metaphor.

This script is actually a heavily modified version of the Spotify Remote, so thanks to Jim Carlberg. There are much more interesting things one could do: change overlay, manipulate blinking and onion skinning. The iStopMotion AppleScript Library is rather small, but with keyboard commands you could do these.