A fun way to track your belly growth throughout your pregnancy is to make a stop-motion movie. If you have a digital camera and the right software, such as Virtual Dub, and you’re willing to take a picture a few times a week, it’s simple to create a short movie of your belly growing. You will enjoy watching it for years to come!
First, pick a time of day during which you will be able to take your photo each time. You want to take the photo at the same time each day so that the light is the same. Next, pick a spot to stand and position the camera. Standing next to a window (but not in front of it) will produce the most flattering light. If you really want your movie to appear seamless, mark the floor with some tape so that you and your photographer will always stand in the exact same spot. Finally pick out an outfit that you can wear every time you take the picture. It needs to be something that shows off your curves and will fit up until the end of your pregnancy. Remember to style your hair the same each time you take a photo as well.
Try to take 2 or 3 photos each week. You can take a photograph once per week, but the more often you take a photo, the more gradual your growth will appear in the movie. Attempt to pose the same in each photo. If you want to show how many weeks along you are, try holding a whiteboard with your weeks of pregnancy written on it. Hold the whiteboard the same way each time you take a photo. In the movie, your whiteboard will appear to count the weeks of pregnancy as you grow.
When your pregnancy is over, compile all the photos in order and import them into your movie making software. How you create the actual movie will depend on which software you are using. You can add background music and choose how long to show each photo (the frame rate). You’ll probably want the picture to change at least every half of a second or so if you took one or two photos each week. If you took a photo every day, you might set the frame rate to 5fps. How fast you want your movie to go is purely a matter of preference.
A cute way to end your movie is to include some live video footage of your newborn.