"iStopMotion for iPad from Boinx Software goes through the patented Blunty Review churner and comes up smelling... well, pretty damn good actually."

TUAW editor Steve Sande takes iStopMotion for iPad for a spin and concludes: "The app is extremely easy to use and [...] provides excellent results." Read his full review at TUAW.

This time lapse movie was recorded at the Marin Headlands overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge with San Francisco in the background. Video recorded with an iPad 2 using iStop Motion for iOS. Finishing touches added in iMovie for the iPad. No other computers or cameras were used for this production. Movie by Derrick Story. Music by Kevin MacLeod.

Derrick says: "I filmed this movie with the iPad 2 camera because I wanted to shoot the closing scenes at 20 shots per minute. After some practice, I learned that the best approach was to shoot time lapse clips, then assemble them in iMovie for the iPad. The upshot is that the entire video was created with iPad-only tools: iPad camera, iStop Motion for the iPad, and iMovie for the iPad."

As promised, I have retuned with a new recipe for you to try out. A personal favorite of mine…the Butter Cookie. But before we dive in, let me give a bit of background on this delicious treat.

Balsen is one of the largest cookie producers in Germany. The German family-owned company was founded 1889 by Hermann Bahlsen (1859-1919). Hermann worked as a sweets salesperson in Great Britian. It was there that he learned about English "cakes". In 1889 he founded the Hannover Cakes Factory. While the competition still sold their "cakes" (cookies) individually, he pre-packed them in bags and sold them as such. In 1892 he named his cookies "butter-cakes" after the German court-appointed librarian Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz, and is now known as THE butter cookie in Germany.

Now on to the recipe…and don’t forget to watch our iStopMotion ‘how to’!

Ingredients:

-500g / 4 cups Flour

-375g / about 3¼ sticks (26.5 TBSP) Butter (room temperature)

-190g / ¾ cup Sugar

-4 Egg yolks

-1 Egg

For the frosting:

-1 Pack / 2 cups Powdered Sugar

-Lemon or Lime Juice

Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F

Knead flour, egg yolks, whole egg and butter (add gradually) into a ball of dough Put dough in the fridge for about one hour or so, as the dough shouldn't be too soft Roll dough out into a thin layer, about 3mm thick, and use your choice of cookie cutters to create cookies.

Bake the cookies for about 6-7 minutes, until they are golden brown

Let cool. Meanwhile, prepare the glazing. In a bowl, add juice to powdered sugar and stir until it gets to a creamy texture. Apply a thin layer on each cookie. You can also add sprinkles or dried unicorn tears on top.

Enjoy

For a 19-year-old, Charlie Collier is talented – and wise – beyond his years. “In my opinion, life itself is the most magnificent work of art perceivable by mankind. And to be able to not just experience, but capture even a fraction of this masterpiece is one of the greatest things about being human,” Charlie says on his website, Zapamation – pretty profound for a homeschooled kid who just graduated from high school. After only a few years of experience (and no formal training) in animation and filmmaking, Charlie has already been able to capture that beauty and translate it into something masterful – and something that has been featured on MTV Adria, a European division of the popular music channel.

Part of being an artist is being able to take even the most mundane of objects and “twist” them into something beautiful. So when Charlie began “messing around with twist ties” – something most people use to hold their veggie bags closed – at his local grocery store as a 10-year-old, he saw characters, and began wondering how he could bring his twist-tie figurines to life through animation. And so, Twist Ninja, his first ever stop motion film, was born.

“I was trying to figure out which software to use when I came across Boinx and did a free trial,” Charlie said. “It had everything I wanted in a software package. I’ve been using iStopMotion ever since. Twist Ninja was the first stop motion film I made. I realized how fun it was to animate things; it evolved into a bigger deal than I ever expected.”

So when popular Slovenian band Puppetz reached out to Charlie after seeing Twist Ninja (which was shown on the big screen at Taos Shortz Film Fest, I might add), and asked him to create a music video for their song Generacija Y (or Generation Y), it took him some time to realize just how big of a deal it actually was. Very humble, and maybe a bit green, Charlie was surprised at how much freedom he had in creating the video.

“They gave me almost total creative control over the project. There was a month of storyboarding, and Puppetz wanted the basic concept of the twist ties turning into the band, but whatever animation happened was totally up to me,” he said. “They wanted to let me express myself through the video. I was very surprised – I thought, ‘I’m just some kid from Texas, you guys are really trusting me?’ I was honored that they did.”

Not only was Charlie working with his first big client, but he had to deal with language and cultural barriers as well. “I could put the lyrics into Google translate, but it doesn’t really translate, so I spent a lot of time drilling the guys on not just the lyrics but also the social aspect of it. I didn’t understand their culture, I didn’t understand what’s funny to them or what the song truly meant from their point of view,” he said. “I’m a perfectionist like that – if the video didn’t really go with the message of the song, it would have really bothered me, so it was a challenge.”

What resulted from months of storyboarding, breaking down barriers, and meticulous shooting and editing was an expressive collaboration of handmade and digital art – a feat that was made easier through the use of Boinx’s iStopMotion. “I really like the built in chroma-keying and editing features. Other software just takes frames – with iStopMotion, I could get everything set up and just go right into cutting it all together. The user-friendliness and compatibility features were exactly what I needed.”

Though he’s not entirely sure where he will be in the next few years, he does have a few plans for the near future, including an invite back to the 2012 Taos Shortz Film Fest and another music video request. Charlie draws inspiration from film studies like Laika (creator of Coraline), and says his dream goal is to have that level of quality in animation. “What really inspires me is interesting and innovative concepts, using nonconventional methods of creating. You get out of it what you put into it – and if you put in a lot of passion, it shines through in your work.”

Steve Buckley and his two sons, Alex (13 yrs old) and Will (7 yrs old), are super fans of the Doctor Who program. To show their love of the wildly popular SciFi series, they started making stop motion movies using a still camera and Apple iMovie. However the films were limited to a very slow frame rate and the Buckley clan eventually switched to iStopMotion. “After an Internet search we found iStopMotion and we're all really impressed with it - the frame rate (how smooth the animation is) is superb, and iStopMotion has really improved the workflow for the boy's productions. The onion skinning feature which allows you to see the previous and current frame over each other is particularly good,“ said Steve. Part 1 of this 2-part posting features 'The Secret Within' stop motion movie made by Alex (Dalex7447 on YouTube). The episode was produced in just eight hours on the day the Buckley's purchased iStopMotion.

iStopMotion Helps Dr Who Fans Show Their Love – Part 2 - showcases the brilliant work of young Will Buckley. His father Steven posted the iStopMotion short along with his equally talented brother Alex’s work to showcase not only their talent for movie making, but, the capabilities of the iStopMotion application that let these two budding filmmakers unleash their creativity. Regardelss if you are a Doctor Who fan or not, you will certainly enjoy Will’s stop motion work. All character animation is done in iStopMotion with the files outputted to iMovie for sound, post production and credits.

Our partners and friends over at Noise Industries put together a brand new tutorial video explaining the use of FxTiles in Final Cut Pro X. If you aren't familiar with FxTiles, it's a collection of amazing 3D filters and transitions based on FxFactory (Noise Industries' platform) for Final Cut Pro, Motion, Final Cut Express, Adobe After Effects, and now, Final Cut Pro X. FxTiles offers video and post production professionals some extra spice to impress their audience. Check out the brand new video tutorial here and see all the amazing ways FxTiles can add flair to your videos!

Attention all teachers! Watch this cute video of students using iStopMotion to make a multiplication video, and see just how much the kids like to get involved when using stop motion animation in the classroom. Working with iStopMotion teaches students a variety of skills, from teamwork, to problem solving, critical thinking, and more. It's a new and innovative way to make learning fun and provide students with immediate satisfaction and a sense of achievement. From the arts, to the sciences, mathematics, and more, iStopMotion in the classroom is helping students tackle school subjects in a highly creative, hands-on and very cool way! Click here to learn about more ways to incorporate iStopMotion into your classroom!