Animation - Articles - Zimbio

Tutorial: Create a Stop-Motion Animation Movie using Still Photographs

Mon, 6 Mar 2007 22:41:22 GMT

posted by amitpagarwal
Watch the Stop Motion Animation Video on Youtube (19 seconds)
Sometime back, I created a stop-motion animation film with the soft toys of my 2-year old son playing the lead roles. This 19 second movie was done using just a digital still camera (not video camcorder) and Windows Movie Maker, a free video editing software.

If the term "Stop Motion" is new for you, Wikipedia defines it as an animation technique which makes static objects appear to move. The object is moved by very small amounts between individual frames, producing the effect of motion when the film is played back.

To create a stop motion animation, you need a webcam or a basic digital camera (preferably mounted on a tripod for stability) and any video editing software (like Windows Movie Maker, Adobe Premiere Pro, Apple iMovie, etc)

Step 1: Fix your camera in front of the subjects (Mickey Mouse & Co. in my case). You can also your webcam mounted on the computer screen and capture still photographs using the keyboard.

Step 2: Visualize the movements and action of the characters in the movie (like what path they would follow, whether they would jump, etc). You may want to write this down as a rough movie script.

Step 3: Once your initial setting is in place, click the first picture. Now move the object(s) by a very small distance (few centimeters) and shoot the next picture. Make sure you don't change the position of your camera.

Repeat the step until all your characters reach the final frame.

Here's are some sample photographs shot for the movie embedded above - Notice how the elephant, dog and Mickey have moved in each of the frames while the bear is sitting still.

Step 4: Open Windows Movie Maker and goto Tools, Options and click the Advanced tab. Change the "Picture Duration" to 0.125 seconds and Transition Duration to 0.25 seconds (both are minimum values).

Now import all your digital photographs into Movie Maker and drag-n-drop them onto the Video Timeline. That's it. Export the video in AVI or WMV format and upload it to YouTube for sharing with your friends.

Bonus Tip: If you like your characters to jump in the stop-motion animation video, attach them to a thin wire and lift the wire a few centimeters in each frame. If the wire is of the same color as the background, it won't be visible in the final movie.

If you have professional video editing software like Adobe Premiere Pro or Apple Final Cut Pro, you can further reduce the time duration between still photographs to create a jerk-free and smoother video.

Digital Inspiration © 2007 Amit Agarwal. All rights reserved. Subscribe via RSS or email.

WALL-E (2008)

Sat, 13 Jul 2008 10:56:13 GMT

posted by pppatty

I was privileged to attend a preview of this latest Pixar film which has received nearly universal critical acclaim -- all thoroughly deserved. However watching the movie in a mixed audience loaded with youngsters, I couldn't help wondering if this is a film that adults will find enchanting while kiddies couldn't care less. The young lad sitting in front of me seemed to be spending his time playing video games on his mobile (if I'd been his parent, I would have confiscated it for the duration), while the group of girls to my left went out in the middle of the movie to purportedly buy sweets and didn't return until the near end. I sincerely doubt that any of these kids was as enchanted with the film as Michael and I were. Still given Pixar's track record the movie will almost certainly do well at the box office and on DVD, but I somehow don't see it becoming a movie which youngsters will watch and rewatch.

That is not to say that the film isn't absolutely brilliant and on so many levels probably the best animation ever to emerge from the studio. Apart from ambient sound and carefully selected music, the first half of the movie is virtually silent. Our eponymous hero is the last automated trash compactor left on a deserted and barren planet earth, but he is not just an empty machine. He decorates his "home" with items salvaged from the trash and yearns for love and company, inspired by a clip from "Hello Dolly" which he watches over and over. Into his world comes a robot probe from a space colony, a sleek white and destructive female called EVE, who has been sent to establish whether there are any signs warranting a return to the abandoned planet. When she is taken back into her mother ship, WALL-E stows away and the final adventure begins.

When inordinate amounts of rubbish caused by the high powered marketing of an all-present corporation called Buy 'n Large resulted in earth being abandoned, life continued on a huge space ship where every need and desire was pandered to by the corporate masters, to the extent that humans grew fat and lazy and more or less lost their bone structure and mobility. So here we have the gist of the tale -- it's a scathing indictment against our misuse of the planet and our own susceptibility to mega-marketing. That the growing love between our two robots and the chaos they create manages to reverse 700 years of indolence is the film's message of hope.

With no dependence on celebrity voicing or cute little songs or furry animals (the only other survivor on earth is a cockroach), this is just pure and simply imaginative and amazing animation. The movie is also loaded with cinematic references to other films, especially "2001", which again will appeal to the critics and to the adults in the audience but which will almost certainly pass right over the heads of the younger viewers. It's a pity that the young boy sitting in front of me seemed to think that his game-player was better entertainment. When he grows up, he might think differently.

WALL-E, Pixar

“The Smurfs” to Make Jump to Big Screen

Wed, 12 Jun 2008 15:58:26 GMT

posted by rushprnews

Thursday, June 12th, 2008 | Categories: BREAKING NEWS, ENTERTAINMENT, Film, GOOGLE NEWS, MSN NEWS, YAHOO NEWS

“The Smurfs” Make Jump to Big Screen

Long-awaited movie will be mix of live action and CGI

By Matthew B. Zeidman for Hollywood Today

HOLLYWOOD, CA (RUSHPRNEWS) 6/11/08 – Following in the footsteps of another popular cartoon show of the 1980s, “Transformers,” “The Smurfs” will be adapted into a live-action film full of accompanying CGI animation. Columbia Pictures announced the project Tuesday and is courting animation veterans David Stem and David Weiss to pen the script.

Beginning as a Belgian comic strip in 1958, “The Smurfs” made the jump to the American small screen in 1981, when Hanna-Barbera produced an animated series for NBC that lasted for 9 years.

The eponymous characters were diminutive blue forest creatures who lived in toadstools, sang merrily and did their best to avoid being eaten by the local scheming wizard and his cat. The Smurfs were almost exclusively male (only three female villagers were ever introduced in the fictional universe) and enjoyed using the word “Smurf” as a catchall noun, verb, adjective and adverb.

In 2005, a UNICEF commercial aired in Belgium featuring the Smurfs’ village being decimated by warplanes. The officially sanctioned advertisement was meant to promote the rehabilitation of child soldiers in former Belgian colonies in Africa.

In addition to “Transformers,” other classic cartoon adaptations to mix live action and animation in recent years have included “Rocky and Bullwinkle,” “Fat Albert” and “Space

-END-

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Fly Me To The Moon IMAX Trailer

Fri, 31 May 2008 09:12:00 GMT

posted by teasertrailer
A new full length trailer has been released for Fly Me To The Moon, upcoming 3D movie that will be shown in your nearest IMAX only.

Fly Me To The Moon Second IMAX Trailer
In Fly Me To The Moon, three young houseflies stow away aboard Apollo 11, which is in a mission for the first Moon landing in History.
:)
Teaser Trailer
http://teaser-trailer.com

Game And Animation Business Opportunities In The UK

Sun, 30 Jun 2008 01:06:00 GMT

posted by yen03

By Tracy Hildreth

In the article I am going to discuss the reasons why you should consider investing within the games and animation sector in the North East of England. Teesside University is ranked as the best new university for teaching quality and has more than 1,000 students on the UK's fastest growing computer games courses. It has entered into an agreement with Shanghai University to collaborate on various programmes in this field, based at the Middlesbrough campus.

The region's Centre of Excellence for digital media and technology has set up a special conference for games and animation. This brings publishers and games industry experts to North East England to work with the region's companies. It is also promoting the region's games sector, offering support for attendance at international trade conferences, and is identifying research and skills gap. Games clusters create around £15 million of turnover and employing nearly 400 people. The region is home to some of Europe's most innovative companies responsible for developing internationally successful titles. This capability is strengthened by the world-renowned games and animation courses taught at universities in the region.

The University of Teesside's School of Computing is ranked as the best new university for teaching quality and has the most students and staff of any UK university in the field of visualization with over 4000 students on courses including computer animation and games

University of Northumbria has a programmer focus and is equipped with industry standard games console development kits. The Centre for Design Research provides a design practice to industry including use of animation and new media in new product development. University of Newcastle has expertise in distributed systems which will become increasingly important in a networked world with the growth of online and collaborative gaming. University of Sunderland has the Sony Media Centre, a joint venture with Sony for training in media studies in a £9m state of-the-art facility with studios, workshops and editing suites.

Support is on offer to companies at different stages of the investment process from early stage to new technology and high growth. Companies may be able to access government schemes including location based funding as well as grants and tax credits for undertaking research and development to aid in Business Opportunities UK.

If you are looking for a business opportunities UK or somewhere to expand your business then consider the North East of England, where there is highly skilled labour and business opportunities, backing from the universities and an excellent infrastructure.

Expertise and support organisations place North East England in a unique position to support companies in the commercialisation of research and getting new products to market through Business opportunities UK.

Invest NorthEast England are a regional based development agency that encourage Business opportunities in the UK.