Eddie Murphy had it all wrong when he proudly proclaimed way back in the 80s, "I'm Gumby, dammit!" No, Eddie, you aren't Gumby. Gumby, hero to us all, was a clay figurine that remained perfectly still until bent or twisted or otherwise manipulated. Move Gumby, take a pic, move Gumby, take a pic, and repeat. The process, called stop-motion animation, was pioneered pre–World War I, and has since found a home in everything from Star Wars to Robot Chicken to 2009's critically acclaimed cinematic adaptation of the Neil Gaiman novel, Coraline. And now, with the aid of a computer, a camera, and a startlingly easy-to-use piece of software called Stop Motion Pro, you can go all Gumby, too.

Time was when stop motion was a royal pain in the Pokey. But digital image/video capture devices and apps such as the Aussie-created Stop Motion Pro changed all that. We recently had a chance to take the most recent iteration of SMP (version 6.5) for a spin and within minutes had our first video, as they say in Hollywood, in the can. Granted, a clip of a soda bottle mysteriously slip-sliding across a kitchen table will not, generally, gain one an invite to the Oscar ceremonies. But the ease with which we put it together had us excitedly pondering our inner Spielberg.

The primary SMP interface is far from imposing, housing a window that displays the image currently being seen by the video device, and a small, dynamic toolbar. Click the "capture" icon and you're on your way. Move the subject, capture another frame, and review your work by clicking the play button. Enacting frame-by-frame alterations in the editing window couldn't be more intuitive, and the program boasts several unique advanced capabilities to non-destructively rid your movie of stuff you don't want—say, the stray hand of a newbie animator.

SMP supports Chromakey (blue screen) technology, so you can painlessly blend animated and live-action scenes together, and it'll let you efficiently synchronize your video with whatever WAV files you have lying about, from any position within either file. You can even use your NVIDIA graphic card's zoom function to get up close and personal with your subject for subtle alterations that aren't so easy from a distance.   

Stop motion with SMP can be as quick and dirty or as polished and sophisticated as you want. You can test the waters with a low-budget webcam and a $70 entry-level version of the software, kick it up a notch with a decent camcorder/DSLR and one of SMP's midlevel solutions, or do what the makers of the feature films Mary and Max and Wallace and Gromit did and shell out $1,700 for the full-on professional HD Studio Edition. The way-cool thing is that you'll get perfectly acceptable results even from the introductory setup.

But you won't find—yet— features such as direct publishing to YouTube (we recommend using VReveal to clear up shakiness before publishing), frame-painting (wherein you dress up your scenes with a virtual paint brush), or the "Rig Removal Tool," a super-nifty little bit of programming that automatically eliminates wires and other positioning devices you don't want visible in the final product. Those goodies will appear in Version 7, due for release this November.