As a kid (in the 1960s) I used to spend hours making flick-books - usually from my schoolbooks, which was A Bad Thing - they were a great way to learn though, pencil, paper, scissors, tape and a bit of carbon paper (or tracing paper with soft pencil scribbled on the back). Much cheaper than a 3GHz P4 + software :)

StopMo, now that's strange, first time I got anything on film was when my parents bought a Eumig Super 8 cine camera and editor/splicer. I did some stopmo with plasticine (UK brand of modelling clay, as seen in Wallace and Grommet) and film that cost two weeks pocket money, Mr Kodak charged me three weeks pocket money to develop it and posted it back a month later, the joy of seeing it projected onto a screen though...

Funny thing is, since I've had a VidCam and all the software, I've never thought of stopmo until I read some posts above, I wonder if there's an all-night Plasticine shop somewhere around here?