YOU’LL NEED THIS

RASPBERRY PI 4 OR 3B+

RASPBERRY PI CAMERA

Preferably the High Quality camera.

RASPBIAN

The Pi’s Debian-based operating system.

WALLACE AND GROMIT, THE EVIL SKELETONS created by Ray Harryhausen… these are all famous examples of an animation technique called stop-motion, which uses individual images posed by an animator so that, when run as a sequence, the subject appears to move. Traditionally this takes many hours or days of painstaking work. But using the power of the Raspberry Pi and its camera, we can make our own movie studio. In this tutorial we will make a short animation using a LEGO model, all filmed using Python and the Raspberry Pi.

The button that triggers our camera is a push button inserted into a breadboard. This is then connected to GPIO pin 17, and GND.

The Raspberry Pi Camera now comes in many different variations, ranging from the V1 camera and its fixed focus lens, to the latest High Quality Camera and its interchangeable lenses. They all connect to the camera port of the Raspberry Pi, located just behind the Ethernet and USB ports. Open the camera port by gently lifting the plastic lock upwards, and then insert the ribbon connector, with the blue tab facing the USB and Ethernet ports. Close the lock on the connector and give it a gentle pull to make sure it’s in place, and you’re ready to go.