I tested a free app for stop motion framegrabbing on my iPad (also runs on iPhone and Android devices) to see how it compares with the software I'm used to - Stop Motion Pro on a PC, and Dragonframe 3 on my Mac, shooting with a Canon DSLR and Nikon lenses. That all costs money, so a free app on a device many people already have would be an easy way to try out animation. This one is Stop Motion Studio, there are other apps. For learning, it actually performs very well - you could use it to teach a class, and not just to kids. Moving the camera by touching the screen was not such a problem in practice, once I mounted the iPad firmly on a tripod with a home-made wooden frame. You can buy mounts for phones. All the auto functions can be locked off so you don't get constantly adjusting light levels or focus, which is the usual problem with automatic cameras. So that's all good. But it uses the HD video function rather than the still camera images to capture frames, which performs best outdoors in daylight. So although the resolution is full HD, the image gets grainy in the lower light levels I was able to get in my studio. Still usable, and fine when you are beginning. When I wanted to move the puppet in time with the music at the end, I had to go back to Dragonframe so I could load the audio track. The only alternative for lipsynch animation with Stop Motion Studio on iPad would be to make and print an X-sheet in an audio program and refer to that, as I used to do with Magpie.
Music: Kevin MacLeod (Incompetech.com) This piece is called "Thatched Villagers". Licensed under Creative Commons: by Attribution 3.0. creativecommons.org/licenses/b...