I always liked to draw and was thinking of becoming a cartoonist as a kid, but the tedium of the technique at the time (1980s) drove me away. Now we have computers and everyone is making flash animations. Flash attracted me because you don't have to redraw the thing every frame, you just move it's pieces. However this severly restricts the expressiveness of ones creations. Also, you have to draw on a computer using a mouse or drawing tablet, neither of which worked ever gave me the results I wanted. So I tried claymation because this allows expressiveness without having to redraw the character each frame. Problem with this is the clay is hard to work with and a pain.
Finally I came up with a very easy and fun way to do animations which can be both expressive, do not require redrawing of the whole character each frame, and allow very easy modification: without messy erasing and without having to use a computer mouse or computer drawing tablet. For this method all you need is a 'dry erase' board ('whiteboard'), a usb camera, a computer, and some free software.
Finally I came up with a very easy and fun way to do animations which can be both expressive, do not require redrawing of the whole character each frame, and allow very easy modification: without messy erasing and without having to use a computer mouse or computer drawing tablet. For this method all you need is a 'dry erase' board ('whiteboard'), a usb camera, a computer, and some free software.
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You will need:
= one or more dry erase boards
(more than one is nice because you can do multiple scenes at the same time without erasing the same board over and over)
= a usb camera
I use a logitech quickcam chat, it's cheap and does the job. It also comes with a weird bendy mount which allows me to mount it on a tripod that I have.
= a computer
any old computer will work as long as it can run the software (see below)
= some free software
I use 'MonkeyJam' to make the initial animations, it's free and it's great, does everything you need to make nice animations.
http://www.giantscreamingrobotmonkeys.com/monkeyjam/download.html
I use 'Video Edit Magic' to do the post animation editing (adding music, sound effects, naration, etc). It's a very cheap, simple, and effective program.
= one or more dry erase boards
(more than one is nice because you can do multiple scenes at the same time without erasing the same board over and over)
= a usb camera
I use a logitech quickcam chat, it's cheap and does the job. It also comes with a weird bendy mount which allows me to mount it on a tripod that I have.
= a computer
any old computer will work as long as it can run the software (see below)
= some free software
I use 'MonkeyJam' to make the initial animations, it's free and it's great, does everything you need to make nice animations.
http://www.giantscreamingrobotmonkeys.com/monkeyjam/download.html
I use 'Video Edit Magic' to do the post animation editing (adding music, sound effects, naration, etc). It's a very cheap, simple, and effective program.
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Thanks,
Dave
Thats the coolest thing i've ever seen, and yes americas voting system is.. well, i've seen better (COOOOOUGH)
-Cheers, Chris
what is your youtube name???
this is great, thanks alot. Hey, could this technique possibly be transfered over to digital? Like, using photoshop, or a similar program and simply keep duplicating the layer, and erasing and replacing the moving parts? Probably would take longer, but would be better for things that had to look like cartoons, like a fan-animation for an anime, or something. Just a suggestion, I'll have to test it first. Again, great job explaining this, I'm gonna use this technique for a few of my first animations^^
-Y
It's pretty obvious if you ever watch old scooby doo cartoons, the things that move are drawn with less detail and usally in slightly brighter shades.
You see i made this a month ago,i think.. for a girl in my class.I know it's not the perfect animation and that there might be some problems with the animation technique but i really had a great time making this short film :)Can anyone tell me the name of a course book or something like that for the basic things in animation,the different types,etc.?I I think that this would really help me to improve myself and i would be really happy if someone can help me with this:)
There's an old college text called simply, "The Animation Book" by Kit Laybourne. It was printed in 1979 so it'll be hard to find but Powell's Books in Portland, Oregon, USA has it in stock as of November 30, 2009.
It has exercises, techniques and lots of stills from award winning animators including a lot of independents.
Hope this helps! You've got a gift and it would be great to see you expand it.
Thanks for the post,again. :)
Enjoy watching :P
here you go :P