#CreatorConversations is an AMA (Ask Me Anything) series hosted by @sonyalpha on Instagram. As part of the series, we were joined by stop-motion artist and photographer Colette Peri (@colette.peri). See some of the highlights below as she gives us the inside scoop on her stop-motion techniques and how she overcomes creative blocks. Visit the Instagram post for the full AMA and make sure you’re following @sonyalpha and #CreatorConversations to stay connected.

“As adults, tapping into our creativity and using our imagination can be so restorative.” – Colette Peri #CreatorConversations

"For someone starting out with stop motion, what kind of budget-friendly lighting do you suggest?" – @the.wunderkammer

Colette: “You can find some cheap lights on Amazon that will work just fine starting out! I’d recommend searching for 2 continuous lights (with daylight bulbs), with soft boxes.”

“When I try to edit my stop motion in Adobe Premiere, it never shows me the video in real time. When I try to play it back, am I doing something wrong? I wonder now if my jpegs are too big to play back?” – @emilleaah

Colette: “At the top menu of Premiere, go to Sequence, Render In to Out. If that doesn't work, I'm thinking maybe you haven't timed your frames yet. When you drop them into your timeline, you first need to: Select All, right click— Speed/Duration— change to 00:00:02 (for example), click ‘Ripple Delete,’ click OK.”

"When you come across a creativity block or you run out of ideas how do you deal with those problems?" – @thetravellersexpeditions

Colette: “When I’m at a creative block, I go PLAY. Think about what you liked to do as a kid and go do it. When we tap back into that imagination, the ideas flow! Try it and let me know what you think... it could be drawing, or staring at the clouds, legos, you name it!”

"With stop motion, how far do you move from one picture to another? How far do you know how to move and is it consistent between pictures?" – @houskali

Colette: “Great question...it’s totally up to you! I recommend when first starting out to move the object in smaller increments than you think, and keep them even. However, an advanced technique called easing means you make an item appear to accelerate by changing the distance of movement each time.”

"Who are some of your stop motion influences? How’d you get into this?" – @alexnikas

Colette: "I’ve always loved magic tricks and quickly became obsessed with stop motion as a kid. I used to make little claymation films with a giant 90s camcorder! Once I became a photographer as an adult, I’d go home every day after work and make stop motions just for fun. One day someone asked what I charge, and the rest is history!”

"How many frames per second do you use? What would a good starting point be?" – @menskiann

Colette: “I usually fall between 8-12 frames per second. Try that and you can always play around with it in post!”

"I had a question on what camera settings do you use (specifically aperture and shutter speed)? Is it better to be shooting at high aperture with minimal bokeh?" – @ohnoitsmarit

Colette: “Your aperture is totally up to you, it can be low or high depending on the style you want! But I mostly shoot with a low shutter around 1/30 because letting more light in helps reduce flicker and the camera is on a tripod anyhow.”

"I’ve never dabbled with stop motion before but as a commercial photographer, I do get clients asking every now and then. How would you advise on charging for this type of a work? Do you go by number of frames, video length, etc.?" – @aishanazar

Colette: “I’d charge based on an hourly estimate, because a 10-second video for one client could look drastically different than 10 seconds for another – depending on animation complexity, props, sound/music, graphics, aspect ratios, etc.! Hope that helps! And I have a pricing guide ebook coming out soon so stay tuned for that!”

See the full AMA here.