Cloud Stop Motion automatically saves your project to your account in the cloud whilst you have an internet connection. If you lose your internet connection, you can continue to use Cloud Stop Motion, but it will no longer be able to save your work. A red exclamation mark will appear in the top right hand corner of the screen to indicate your work is not being saved to the cloud. Your work continues to be stored locally in the browser until you connect to the internet again. It is a habit to check the top right corner of Cloud Stop Motion for a tick in the yellow circle, before closing the browser, this indicates everything is saved. The different icons that appear in the top right corner of Cloud Stop Motion shows you the status of Cloud Stop Motion.
Restoring Projects To A Previous Point
You can restore your Cloud Stop Motion project to an earlier point in time (restore point). This means that if you make a mistake that can’t be undone, or prefer an earlier version of the project you can restore it to an earlier point. Cloud Stop Motion automatically creates a restore point every ten minutes that you are working on your project and you can also choose to create your own restore point.
Creating a restore point
Click on the three dots at the top to the right of your project name and choose ‘Create Restore Point’. A green tick will appear beside ‘Create restore point’ to indicate this has been done. You can then continue working on your project.
Restoring a project from a restore point
To revert back to an older version of your project, click on the three dots next to your project name and choose ‘Project Restore’. This brings up the project recovery page which shows the time and date of all your restore points.
You can click on each restore point to show you more information about them. It shows you:
- An image of the last frame of the project
- The number of frames in the project
- The size of the project
- The time and date the restore point was created
- The amount of space this restore point is using.
If you want to restore your project to one of these points, click ‘Restore project’ on the restore point that you want to use. This will create a new restore point for your current project and then your current project is overwritten by the project as it was at the restore point you have selected. Click ‘OK’. You then need to return to the Cloud Stop Motion Home Screen and open your project again. To do this click the Cloud Stop Motion Logo in the top left corner, which takes you back to your home screen, where you can open your project and continue to work on it.
Restoring Deleted Images
When images are deleted from your project, they are still stored within the project and you can choose to restore some or all of them.
Click on the three dots, next to your project ’s name in the top left corner and choose ‘Project Restore’ . This will bring up the ‘Project Recovery’ Menu, click on ‘Deleted Images’ in the left hand menu. You will then see all the images that have been deleted from your project (if you have copied and pasted frames, these will only be shown once). Tick the images you would like to restore and click on ‘Recover Images’. A new clip will be formed at the end of your film with the recovered frames. You can then copy/cut and paste these frames and insert into your film at the point you desire.
It is also possible to permanently delete the remaining images from your project in which case tick those images you want to permanently delete and select ‘Permanently delete’ or choose to leave them here in the Project Recovery Area, in which case no action is required.
Once you are finished in the Project Recovery Area, you will need to return to the Cloud Stop Motion Home Screen and open your project again. Click on the Cloud Stop Motion icon in the top left hand corner to return to the home screen and then open your project appearing in a clip at the end of your film.
Restoring Orphaned Images
Orphaned images are images that are no longer linked to your project, but are still stored in the cloud. Images can be orphaned when you restore projects back to a previous version, any of the newer images will be dissociated from the project. To find and restore orphaned images, click on the 3 dots next to your project name and choose ‘Project Restore’. Click on ‘Orphaned images’ in the left hand menu, and then click ‘Scan for images’. This will bring up any images that are still stored in your cloud account, but are not linked to your project. If there are any images they will appear below. Tick the images you would like to restore and click on ‘Recover images’.
A new clip will be formed at the end of your film with the recovered frames. You can then copy/cut and paste these frames and insert into your film at the point you desire. insert into your film at the point you desire. It is also possible to permanently delete the remaining images from your project in which case tick those images you want to permanently delete and select ‘Permanently delete’ or choose to leave them here in the Project Recovery Area, in which case no action is required. Once you are finished in the Project Recovery Area, you will need to return to the Cloud Stop Motion Home Screen and open your project again. Click on the Cloud Stop Motion icon in the top left hand corner to return to the home screen and then open your project. You will find the orphaned images appearing in a clip at the end of your film.
This guide was written using Cloud Stop Motion Version 2.00.61