Category - Drawn animation

MonkeyJam is a free digital pencil test program that runs on the Windows operating system. It lets you capture images from a webcam, camcorder, or scanner and assemble the separate frames into an animation. You can also import existing images and sound files from your computer. Although it is designed for pencil and paper, MonkeyJam can also be used for stop-motion animation. Once you have created your movie it can be exported as an AVI file.

MonkeyJam information panel (click pic to enlarge)

The MonkeyJam software downloaded and installed on my PC without problems. The program starts with a window containing an information panel and a frame list. There is a help file with a quick start section to give the basics.

The first step is to select a folder to store your image files. The nest step is to select a method of adding your images to the frame list. This can be from a video source such as webcam or from a scanner. Alternatively you can import existing image files that you already have on you computer.

For the purposed of this test I decided to use the stills that I had created for my bouncing ball demonstration. It was simply a matter of selecting the images from the computer and clicking the import button. To view the animation you select Preview from the Tools menu and the software builds your movie and opens another window to play it back. It is as simple as that. You can then export your movie to an AVI file for sharing with others, such as uploading to YouTube.

MonkeyJam preview window (click pic to enlarge)

You can add sound to your movie in the form of WAV or MP3 audio files. Once imported into MonkeyJam the audio file is displayed as a waveform to the right of the frame numbers. The audio can be scrubbed in the exposure-sheet by running the mouse curser along it, played with the animation in the Preview window and exported as part of the AVI.

You can’t adjust the sound file once it is in MonkeyJam. Only one sound file can be imported per exposure-sheet and it always starts on frame one. This is fine if you are animating to a pre-existing sound track. If you want to fit the sound to pre-existing animation you need to use another program to edit the sound.

I can recommend this program as a straightforward line test and frame capture program, especially as it is free. If you want something with more sound and image editing capabilities then I would suggest you look at purchasing something like Stop Motion Pro.

Visit the MonkeyJam website to download the free software.

If you found this review useful please let us know in a comment to this post.

Colors! is a painting program that takes advantage of the pressure sensitivity of the Nintendo DS touch-screen to create a digital sketch-book. Animator Sheila Graber, who has been experimenting with it, told us; “It is great for ‘smudge and click’ as I used to call it in ye pastel days when I used 16mm film. It is SO much easier using this programe and you don’t get your hands dirty! I can recommend it for animators of today”.

During her long and illustrious career Sheila has produced a number of “face to face” movies where one face dissolves into another. Now she has produced one using Colors! called “Facelife”. It covers life from cradle to grave through various faces.

Facelife, by Sheila Graber.

You can find out more about the program at the Colors! website. There you will find a FAQ page that tells you all you need to know about running the program on your Nintendo DS, a gallery of drawings produced with Colors! and a page where you can download the program free.

Another animation program for the Nintendo DSi is Flipnote Studio. This has an onion skin feature so that you can see your previous drawings. You can also record sound and add sound effects to your animation. However, it does not appear to use the pressure sensitivity of the touch-screen like the Colors! program. Flipnote Studio is available as a free download from the Nintendo DSi Shop.

If you have used either of these programs let us know your thoughts about them in a comment to this post.

Exaggerated squash and stretch is a great way to add amusement and believability to your animation. I have created a demonstration using a bouncing ball made of very flexible rubber.

This demonstrates Newton’s third law of motion, more commonly called action reaction. For every action in one direction, there is an equal and opposite reaction in the opposite direction; even if the object does not move.

In this case the moving ball hits the stationary ground with such force that the top of the ball keeps going downwards when the bottom has stopped. The ball keeps the same volume so the sides move outwards. The amount of squash will depend on the material the ball is made of. The energy of the moving ball is not absorbed by the ground; instead it translates into a reverse thrust and causes the ball to fly upwards. Now the ball becomes long and thin as it stretches up. Near the top of the bounce gravity takes over and starts to pull down on the ball. Making the ball squash a little at the top of its bounce gives the illusion of opposite forces acting on the ball.

I created the ball animation in CorelDRAW, which is a vector based drawing program. I made just one drawing and then squashed and stretched the ball with the resizing tools that are part of the program. After each transformation I exported the picture to a jpg file. These picture files were imported into Windows Movie Maker and dragged onto the timeline. The sound track was made with a boing.wav that I found with an Internet search. I dragged two boing sounds onto the timeline and adjusted their position to match with the ball hitting the ground.

Here is the movie that I made. Please let me have your thoughts in a comment to this post.

Bouncing ball

The Animationizer in use

Stop-frame animation is a method Chris Neale has been using to create paper prototypes of website forms to explain them to his clients. To achieve this he has written some software for the Mac that will capture pictures from a webcam and convert them into a QuickTime movie.

Chris suggests that the software “might be helpful for artists looking for a simple tool to make animations with. And if you find yourself struggling to keep your kids occupied at Christmas, I can almost guarantee that this will save the day.”

The software is called The Animationizer and Chris has made it available as a free download from his Plain English Breakfast blog. There are also a couple of examples of the animations produced with it.

Model sheets from The Battle of Wangapore.

Anticipation – before a character moves forward they will make a small movement in the opposite direction.

Cycles – a series of movements such as walking that can be repeated several times.

Squash and stretch – this is best demonstrated by a rubber ball bouncing. When it hits the ground it will flatten slightly. When it bounces up it will return to the round shape and then go elongated. The same effect can be used on cartoon characters when they go through fast moves.

More techniques are discussed in the article ‘Open Letter to an Enthusiast’ that appears in Animator’s newsletter issue 4. In it animator Ken Clark introduces a beginner to cartoon animation.

Also Ken clark tells how an amateur group solved the mammoth task of animating ‘The Battle of Wangapore in The Grasshopper Animators.

If you have any animation tips to share with our readers please let us know in a comment to this post.

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