Stop-motion animation is the process of moving physical objects in very small increments, taking a photo at each step, then playing back the sequence of images rapidly to create the illusion of movement. The concept isn’t new and was used to make film animation before the hand-drawn cartoons popularized by Disney.
As early as 1898, the film Humpty Dumpty Circus, by American animation pioneer J. Stuart Blackton, used stop motion to bring his daughter’s wooden circus toys to life. There are also examples of stop motion being included as parts of even earlier French films.
Today, stop-motion animators don’t have to worry about processing chemicals and film or spending hours manipulating film negatives in a darkroom. Modern software simplifies all of the steps required, including image capture, editing, adding soundtracks, special effects, and more.
The characteristic and endearing motion captured by stop motion has propelled films such as James and the Giant Peach, Wallace and Gromit, and Shaun the Sheep to enormous success. The genre has found new popularity with the craze for Lego figure animation, engaging product commercials, and more.
Our article on the best 3D animation software covers many of the big-name programs, including those used by professional studios. Here, we’ll take a closer look at the more accessible market of stop-motion apps available for mobile phones and tablets. Most are aimed at beginner or inexperienced stop-motion animators, but several also include sophisticated functionality for those with more expert needs.
Considerations
With built-in cameras, screens, and excellent processing power, phones and tablets are ideal devices for all but the most complex stop motion needs. We’ve focused on apps that have been designed specifically with stop motion in mind, as opposed to general animation. Many of these share common functionality with time-lapse photography, including the need to take multiple still images and merge them together as video at different frame rates, as well as basic camera controls for exposure and focus.
Beyond the basics, there’s a bevy of other features that extends the stop-motion animation capabilities of your mobile devices:
- Remote shutter triggering is useful, as a drawback of light, small devices is that they’re easily moved unless mounted on heavy, specialized tripods.
- Onion skinning is a simple feature that shows “ghosts” of previous images superimposed on the viewfinder to help judge exactly how much movement is needed between individual frames.
- Green screen functionality allows recorded animations to be easily superimposed on top of different (static or moving) backgrounds.
- External camera support gets around issues with the movement of the device and extends the creative possibilities.
- Alpha brush allows for easy removal of structures used to support animated models.
Making the Cut
Given the variety of options out there, we’ve singled out our short list of apps based on the following considerations:
- Feature-rich: While the basic functionality of shooting a sequence of images and playing them back is necessary for stop-motion animation, other features like those discussed above are a definite plus. In addition, the ability to edit video as well as add titles and audio will certainly boost the quality of your animation.
- Affordable: The majority of apps included on our shortlist are available as free limited functionality versions with full-featured upgrades available at a small premium. We’ve excluded apps with excessive lists of in-app purchases and those that appear to be overpriced.
- Positive user reviews: We looked at user and independent reviews and selected apps that offer what they promise with respect to functionality, ease of use, availability of help and support, and so on.
With the preliminaries out of the way, let’s see what’s out there!
Stop Motion Studio
Stop Motion Studio is a feature-rich app dedicated to stop-motion animation. As one of the most popular, it was featured in Apple’s TV commercial “Life on iPad” and enjoys a large and dedicated user base.
It’s fully cross-platform and so provides a path for evolving from mobile devices to PCs or Macs for those who want to take their animation to the next level.
It supports all of the main features required to make a complete animated stop-motion movie. In addition to basic needs, you’ll find features like manually setting camera focus and exposure, remote shutter release, onion skinning, and green screening. It also supports sequence editing, the addition of titles and music, and the editing out of supports used for objects in the stop-motion video. Some of these features, however, require the pro version.
We also like that it supports external rather than only the built-in cameras and also different features such as the ability to add facial expressions to Lego character animation. The basic software is free, and the full version costs $4.99, which adds better timeline control and handling of audio clips, titles, credits, and filter effects.
- Compatible OS: iOS, iPadOS, Android, as well as MacOS and Windows
- Price: Free trial with limited functionality, $4.99 full version
- Download: App Store, Google Play
Life Lapse
Life Lapse Stop Motion is aimed firmly at content creators for YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and other social media platforms. The focus is on simplicity and the provision of features to make eye-catching content that can be shared with royalty-free music and effects.
The app is geared towards creating content quickly and efficiently. What it lacks in detailed functionality, it makes up for with hundreds of online tutorials to help creators produce marketing, sales, and other featured content.
The free version of the app has limited functionality. The pro version is available in various pricing models suited to content creators, from monthly subscriptions to lifetime support of features. The value offering is helping content creators minimize the time and effort needed to create engaging content.
- Compatible OS: iOS, Android
- Prices: Free taster version, various pro options from $9.99 monthly subscriptions to $119.99 lifetime access
- Download: App Store, Google Play
PicPac
PicPac is among the highest-rated stop-motion apps on Google Play. It’s been around for a long time and is perhaps a bit dated in terms of user interface. Nevertheless, it still has a keen following among the large global community of Lego-figure stop-motion animators.
It’s a good app for beginners and is kid-friendly. A large number of education- and teacher-oriented tutorials are available for using PicPac in a classroom setting. Its cool time-lapse and video frame extraction features make it easy to create stop-motion animation from real-time motion. We also like the sound-activated shutter triggering, which is a simple option to stop camera shake.
Like most apps in this space, the free version provides basic functionality – enough to get started with. The pro version, however, is really required to make, save, and share animations.
- Compatible OS: Android
- Price: Free basic version, $4.69 for pro version
- Download: Google Play
Clay Frames
Clayframes is another tried and tested app. As its name suggests, it was originally designed for clay animation (or claymation) but can be used for any type of stop-motion video production. It may be old, but it’s well loved, with many simple tutorials available online and rich functionality.
Clayframes isn’t available on Google Play anymore but can be downloaded from various websites. There may be some compatibility issues with some devices, though.
- Compatible OS: Android
- Price: Free
- Download: AndroidOut, among other sites
Frameographer
Frameographer packs a punch but places an emphasis on ease of use – per the developers, “Everything you need and nothing you don’t.” As such, it’s easy to start using and can create quality HD stop-motion animations and time-lapse videos, although it may lack some of the features more experienced users might be looking for.
In keeping with their ethos of simple use, there’s no free version, but it’s reasonably priced at $4.99.
- Compatible OS: iOS, as well as MacOS
- Price: $4.99
- Download: App Store
iMotion
iMotion is a full-feature application with support for several modes of time-lapse photography and also stop-motion animation. It has many features in common with Stop Motion Studio, and reviewers like the way it implements camera controls for focus, exposure, and white balance locking.
The app can be used by beginners and yet has lots of additional functionality for more experienced animators. It has several trigger modes to avoid camera shake and can also be used in conjunction with a second device using iMotion Remote so that a camera on another device can be used too.
It’s iOS only and offers integration with Apple Watch for control without reverting to the iPad or iPhone screen, which is handy for those working quickly with complex stage sets.
- Compatible OS: iOS, iPadOS
- Prices: Free basic version, $3.99 full version
- Download: App Store
iStopMotion
iStopMotion is an award-winning stop-motion and time-lapse app for iPhone and iPads. It even has a version for Macs.
The user interface is well thought out with easy-to-use functionality for instant playback of video sequences. It supports the usual functionality for camera control as well as remote release (including a separate free app to allow an additional iOS device to be used as a second remote camera), and the addition of audio and voice over.
An interesting feature is the ability to create physical “flip books” from created stop-motion or time-lapse videos – an intriguing way to connect the old paper world with the new digital world.
- Compatible OS: iOS, iPadOS, as well as MacOS
- Price: $9.99, bulk licenses for educational use also available
- Download: App Store
OSnap!
OSnap! is another app that supports both time-lapse and stop-motion animations. Its features for the former are particularly strong, and the robust software design ensures that glitches and battery failures don’t result in lost work.
It has a high number of good ratings (over 1,000 with an average score of 4.5) and features a very simple and easy user interface. There are good online tutorials and examples covering both basic and more advanced use. One noteworthy feature is a mode to lock on to eyes making “talking head” stop-motion animations easy and professional looking.
- Compatible OS: iOS, iPadOS
- Prices: Free standard version, $5.99 upgrade version, $1.99-$2.99 for additional features
- Download: App Store
License: The text of "Best Stop Motion Animation Apps (Some Are Free)" by All3DP is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.