SingleFramer
Free Single-Frame Animation & Time-Lapse
SingleFramer is a frame-capture application for animators. It captures individual frames from an attached video camera, either manually or automatically (time-lapse).
You can turn on “onion-skinning” to see an overlay of your previous frame as you compose your shot. You can also “onion-skin” an existing movie so you can match your setup from one day to the next. (Useful for school situations where you might need to break down borrowed equipment between shoots.) Basic functions can be controlled via Applescript. (see the included scripts)
SingleFramer supports NTSC and PAL cameras. (Sorry, no HD cameras and no digital still cameras.) If you’re looking for full-featured animation software ($$$) that supports HD and still cameras, try iStopMotion or Dragon Stop Motion. They are both fantastic! Also check out Philipp Brendel’s FramebyFrame freeware. Toonloop is a unique option for doing live stop-animation. (Open-source. The Mac version is made with Processing, so it’s easy to edit the code and add your own features.)
Download Current Version
v 2.4 (Mac Intel/PPC)
Dec, 2007, 8MB with source “patches” for MAX/MSP/Jitter 4.6. (Tested with Mac OS 10.5 Leopard.)
Please read the SingleFramer Guide for instructions and a detailed Changelog.
For Snow Leopard compatibility you must install Quicktime 7.
There is no Windows version. If you are a MAX/MSP user and want to compile your own, my download link points to a Mac disk image which you can open with HFSExplorer on Windows. Inside you will find the cross-platform source patches.
Known Bugs
- After finishing a movie, the keyboard can still trigger grabbing sounds, but no frames are actually grabbed.
Changes in this version:
- Fixed: keyboard wouldn’t trigger grabbing if number boxes had been recently touched.
- Fixed: after canceling the creation of a movie, frames could still be grabbed.