Recently, I wanted an app for my Windows Nokia Lumia 635 Phone, for when I’m out of the house, and needed to make some stop motion videos. I came across an app called Stop Motion Studio, from Cateater LLC.
Before I get into the app, I would like to mention the range of stop motion apps on the Windows store. I searched the Windows App Store for a while, and unfortunately, only came across one app. As the Windows phone isn’t that popular, I assume this is the reason why that there are not many stop motion programs, which means you are restricted to the one app – Stop Motion Studio. But does it suit your brickfilming needs? Barely.
I can’t say I’m happy. While this app does have its pros – such as its basic layout, and a free download, the cons make the app very frustrating to use.
THE POSITIVES:
The app is FREE to download
This is great, which makes it very accessible to people who may not want to spend money on stop motion just yet, or people who want to try out stop-motion for the first time.
The BASIC layout makes it EASY TO USE
When using the app, I found it quite easy to get to certain tools. Tools are labeled, or had a practical symbol to represent it. An example is the capture tool, a simple symbol of a camera and below, clearly labeled “capture” which tells me that this where you tap to take photos.
Other Cool Features that I liked:
- The frame rate of your animation can be controlled from 1 FPS – 30 FPS which is great, compared to the other apps I have seen where the FPS doesn’t go past 10.
- The gallery is pretty sweet, and gives newcomers an idea on stopmotion (but for some reason, they all seem to have been made using the iPhone version of the app, shouldn’t they be featuring stopmotions made using the Windows Phone?)
THE NEGATIVES:
Very frustrating to export animations.
When I was done finishing a little short animation which I was happy with, I was hoping to share it to a couple of mates. When I tapped on the option to save, chose the quality and chose the folder I wanted to store my animation in, right after – the app crashed! After trying multiple times, using the same process – no matter what I do, it still crashed! This is very frustrating to those who want to save it to your album, or share with friends or YouTube. I am hoping they will fix it in a future update.
I did, however, find an option to email it to myself, which I can then send it to a computer or another device. That however, comes at the price of image quality as there is no option to choose what quality to send in, which in the end, was not worth it.
Most features are LOCKED and cost WAY TOO MUCH for what it is worth
While the app is free to use, most features of the app, are locked, and are unlocked by purchasing an add on pack. For features as small as adding title cards and adding in your own voice? They should have been included without buying it! I could understand locking features such as green screening or a draw tool, but for titles cards and adding audio, is just ridiculous. Especially when the iPhone version has way more features than this and most of it is free!
Other stuff that bugged me:
- Losing animation for unknown reason (went to export to realise that the animation was gone?? Very confused there)
- Buttons are not sensitive enough when tapping the capture button (meaning having to press hard and having the risk of bumping the camera
- No onion skin layering 🙁
- Playback feature is laggy and buggy
- Windows Phone camera has average quality at 5 mega pixel (this isn’t much a negative with the app, but more to do with the phone itself)
The app has potential to be a great tool for stop motion. But due to its locked features and a lot of glitches, I do not think I will be using the app, in the near future. Very disappointed. I will continue to search for stop motion apps that works for windows phones and hopefully, one day, I will find an app that will be suit my brickfilming needs, and hopefully yours too.
Review by Ethan from ETR FILMS – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC165_0uo32KgnnqJGB_tgog
