The most effective way to use paper animals in video is a technique called "Stop Motion." This is a form of animation that involves taking many pictures and moving the subjects ever-so-slightly for each picture. When the pictures are put together and sped up, if done well, it creates an animated effect.
This tutorial, uses the Macintosh program iStopMotion2. While Windows users will have to find an alternate program, the principles will be very similar no matter what program is used.
Instructions
1. Make one or more origami animals. You can use as many, or as few animals as you feel you'll need for your animation. A good basic shape to start with, would be an origami swan or scorpion.
2. Use your camera to take plenty of pictures of your animal in many stages. Do not move the animal very much, or change the fold of the animal very fast. Take it slow, and change very little at a time. The more pictures you are able to take, the smoother the animation will be. If you take too few pictures, or move the animal too much, your video will be very choppy and look amateur.
3. Connect your camera to the computer when you feel you have enough photos. Download all the pictures off the camera, and onto the computer in order.
4. Download and install a stop-motion program. The program iStopMotion2 costs money, but has a free trial version. Once installed, open a new session with all default settings. You will see a timeline at the bottom. This is where you are going to "drag and drop" all your photos in order. Once they are imported, you can select a background and even add music by dragging it onto the timeline as well.
5. When your movie looks the way want, click on "File" and then "Export" and choose where to save your movie and in what movie format.
