Animator is a resource for budding animators, be it with a pencil, plasticine/clay, puppets or computer. Animator has two main sections; a blog with information that we hope is useful to animation enthusiasts and an archive of articles originally published in a magazine called Animator’s newsletter.
A computer generated cat has emerged from my experiments with the Animation:Master program that I mentioned in my Computer animation revisited post.
I started with the head by creating a ball shape. A smaller ball was created for the snout and half pushed into the head. A ball was added for the nose and two balls for the eyes. Eyelids were modelled from half balls and positioned on top of the eyes. The ears are also created from half balls. The whiskers are long thin tubes that resemble drinking straws.
Final render of the cat.
The body started as a fat sausage shape that I pulled around until I was happy with it. The tail started as a long tapered sausage that was moved around to get the curve. The legs also started as long sausage shape that I gradually moulded until I got them to what they are now. An Internet search found me a diagram of a cat skeleton that I used as a guide to as to where the legs would bend.
Final render of the cat.
Colour is added by selecting an area on the model and giving it a name. Once named it can have various attributes associated with it such as a chosen colour. The nose and eyes have been given a shiny surface as you can see from the highlights.
I have just started a new animation project using a computer program called Animation:Master. I first used this program way back in 1994 and last used it in 1998. That was three computers ago and my animation from that time has found its way to computer heaven never to be seen again.
I was inspired to install the program on my present computer following a visit to the Martin Hash’s Animaton:Master web site last week. I was pleased to see that not only was the program still available but it has grown in scope over the intervening years.
I am using a version that I purchased in 1997 so it does not have anywhere near as many functions as today’s program but the basic modelling and animation functions are there. The recommended operating system for my copy of Amimation:Master is Windows 95 and NT so I was pleasantly surprised to find that it works on Windows XP. Just to be sure I have set it to run in “compatibility mode” for Windows 95.
Having got the program running I decided to do a bit of character modelling. That is when I realised that in my twelve year absence I had forgotten what buttons and keys to press to get things working, so it was just like starting over. There is an old saying that if all else fails read the instruction manual. It starts with a simple exercise of building a candle so that is where I began.
Amimation:Master project window
The modelling tools are similar in operation to a vector drawing program such as CorelDraw. You add lines by clicking the start and end points, building up the shape with multiple points. Then comes the clever bit, when you have your basic outline you click on a “lathe” button and it turns your outline into a 3D shape.
The candlestick has four separate components; the candle holder, the candle, the wick and the flame. As you create the parts you can add colour by selecting from a pallet. You can also add surface attributes such as shininess, called ’specularity’ in the program and brightness, called ‘ambiance’.
Candle exercise. The final render.
At any point you can do a final render to see the finished version. One difference I noticed from the computer that I was using twelve years ago is the speed of the final render. The picture of my simple candle model appeared almost instantly whereas it used to take several seconds.
This little test run has inspired me to carry on learning the program so I will keep you posted on how I get on. If you have tried computer animation then let us have your thoughts in a comment to this post.
Note: click on the pictures to see a larger version.
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.
Windows Movie Maker is software for creating and editing video movies and is included in Microsoft Windows. The feature that makes it a useful tool for novice animators is the ability to add single pictures and play them back as a movie. You can also add sound effects and music and export your finished work to a move in WMV or AVI format.
The first step is to open the program:
1. From the Start menu, click All Programs.
2. Click Windows Movie Maker.
Set the frame rate by going to Tools > Options > Advanced > Default durations. A default duration is assigned to each picture s it is added to the storyboard or timeline. The shortest duration that can be set is 0.125 seconds. This will give a frame rate of 8 frames per second. This gives a reasonably smooth result and is ideal for a novice to try their hand at animation.
The next thing is to import some pictures. For my first try I imported the sequence of stills that I took for my Stop Motion Pro review. This is a 30 frame animaton of objects moving around my desk taken on my digital still camera and imported into the computer using the leads supplied by the manufacturer. You could also use a webcam to add pictures.
There are two methods of working; storyboard and timeline. The storyboard setting is good for adding individual pictures. The timeline view can be used for adding music and sound effects to synchronise with the pictures.
You can drag and drop your pictures onto the storyboard. There is a large preview window above the storyboard where you can view your pictures as a movie. You can add or remove individual frames. For example, after my sequence of pictures I added the same pictures in reverse order. This made the objects return to their original position. I repeated the sequence a few times to make a ten second sequence.
Music can be added by importing a tune of your choice and using drag and drop to add it to the audio timeline. Then click the play button and you see your movie with music.
Windows Movie Maker enables you to do other useful things like adding titles with various effects. I called my test movie “Office Desk” and chose the “Typewriter” animation effect to add it one letter at a time.
If your computer runs Windows it is well worth giving Movie Maker a try, especially as it is available at no extra cost.
If you found this article useful please let us know in a comment to this post.
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.
Director of Photography, Tristan Oliver, demonstrated the secrets behind Aardman’s animated Wallace and Gromit movie “The Curse of the Wererabbit” to a group of 11 year olds in a video clip on the BAFTA website.
In very clear language Tristan takes the children through the process from scripting to animation using clips, real models from the films, drawings and stories. Near the end of the video clip he takes questions from the children who demonstrate a great enthusiasm for the subject.
A sequence I found particularly interesting was how they get the plasticine characters lips to move in time with the sound track. He shows a set of pre-moulded plasticine mouths that are substituted in turn to give the movements. That alone shows the great attention to detail that is needed to bring the characters to life.
Tristan Oliver has shot all of Aardman’s best loved stop frame animations, including The Wrong Trousers, A Close Shave, Chicken Run and The Curse of the Wererabbit.
The eleven minute video clip can be viewed at the BAFTA web site.
Having mentioned the Stop Motion Pro software in my previous post about plasticine animation I decided to test drive the free version that is available as a download from the Stop Motion Pro website. The latest Wallace and Gromit half hour special from Aardman, “A Matter of Loaf and Death” was filmed using Stop Motion Pro HD Studio. You would expect software of this calibre to be very expensive, but luckily for us home animators it comes in a range of prices to suit most pockets. The basic version is called “Stop Motion Pro Action!” and this does enough to satisfy the needs of a novice animator. It is compatible with Microsoft Vista, XP and Windows 7.
The first step was to download the software. It is a big file at 24,536 KB so took several minutes. Once downloaded it was just a matter running the file to set up the software. This went very smoothly and I was soon ready to make my first movie. When the program is loaded it pops up a box asking what you want to call your move and the name of the first scene. Having done this you are now ready to add some still frames.
There are various ways of feeding it with stills; a web cam, a digital still camera, a video camera or even a scanner. I had my digital still camera to hand so decided to use that. Some still cameras allow you to connect them to a computer, view a live image on the screen and record the still frame to the computer. Unfortunately my camera is not one of those so I had to settle for taking a series of pictures and then transferring them to the computer with the cables provided by the camera manufacturer. I set the camera to its lowest picture size of 640 by 480 pixels. This gave me room for thousands of pictures on my memory card.
For this test I rested the camera on my desk, held it down and clicked the shutter. I then moved a couple of objects and took another picture, and so on until I had a sequence of 30 frames. I transferred these to my computer ready to import into Stop Motion Pro.
You click on “Import” on the file menu and browse to the folder where you stored your pictures and select them. You then get an option to change the running order if you wish. When the pictures are loaded the first frame is displayed on the screen ready for you to run the movie. A click on the toolbar below the picture and the scene is played. No matter how long you have been doing animation it is always a thrill to see your work come to life on the screen.
Having got your pictures into Stop Motion Pro there is much more to do with them. A feature that caught my eye on the “Getting started” tutorial on the Stop Motion Pro web site was the ability to make a reverse copy of your action. You use a tool that copies the frames you select and pastes them after your first set in reverse order. The objects on my desk now moved forward and then returned to their original positions. I set the play to loop so that they went forwards and back continuously, what fun.
The basic version also enables you to paint on the frames so that you can create special effects such as explosions.
When your movie is ready you can export it to a AVI, WMV or MOV file and share it with your friends. The next version up called “Action! Plus” even has YouTube uploading built in.
The best feature of this program is the ability to preview your plasticine animation as you go along. To enable this you do need to have your webcam or digital camera set up to capture live frames on your computer. Stop Motion Pro adds you frame captures to your movie as you go along and you can play the animation created so far, at any point. This means that you can check on the speed and smoothness of your animation and adapt it if necessary. This feature makes it a great learning tool.
All in all it is a great piece of software and it is well worth trying the free trial version from the Stop Motion Pro website.
If you found this review useful please let us know in a comment to this post.
Maybe you have been inspired by the adventures of Wallace and Gromit and would like to produce your own animated plasticine films. If you are wondering where to start here is a complete beginner’s guide to plasticine animation.
First some advice from amateur animator Fred O’Neil (writing in A.N. issue 4): “Try putting a ball of plasticine in front of the camera, set the camera to single frame, and take one picture only. Taking care not to shift the ball from its original position, squeeze it very slightly, and take another picture. Continuing in this way, the ball you began with will assume various shapes, and in this way you can obtain inspiration. Work patiently and slowly for the whole effect can be spoiled large movements.”
If you are new to animation you are probably wondering where to get a camera that takes single frames. If you, or someone in your household, has a webcam or a digital still camera then you already have such a camera. It is just a matter of getting the single frames taken on the web cam or digital camera into your computer and make them into a movie. There is some software that you can download free that will capture your images and enable you to convert them into movies. It can be used with a video camera, webcam or digital still camera and is compatible with Windows from XP onwards. See the external links at the end of this post for more details.
Now that you have your camera set up you are ready to learn from the experiences of some other animators. Lewis Cooper tells us “You’ve decided to make a film one frame at-a-time. To make it you’ll need lights which get very hot but the substance you have chosen to use slowly melts under those lights. Not only that, the substance has the alarming tendency of falling over at regular intervals, thereby flattening the features you’ve carefully modelled. Even if you can achieve the impossible and prevent it falling over, the very act of manipulating the substance to get your animation slowly disintegrates your model. You’ve guessed it – this melting, squashing, disintegrating substance is plasticine. It is also an excellent medium for the animator to work in. These statements side-by-side indicate the basic requirement for all animators. They need to be a little nutty. Having established that fact, let’s talk about animating plasticine.” You can read the rest of the article in A.N. issue 3 page 14.
David Coleman recalls his first experience of plasticine animation (writing in A.N. issue 5 page 20): “All went well during-the first twenty-eight hours of shooting. I did not have to do as much re-furbishing of my huge and heavy, white horses (more than a 500g pack of plasticine in each of them!) as I had expected. One nomad did seem determined to get a new nose job every few hours, but I was in time to catch most of those suicidal characters who tried to dash their faces against the chipboard of the square. People say plasticine figures are less temperamental than real actors but don’t you believe it!”
What are you planning to do with this informaton about plasticine animation? Please share with us in a comment to this post.
MonkeyJam – a program designed to capture images from a webcam, camcorder, or scanner and assemble them as separate frames of an animation. Free to download.
Stop Motion Pro – image capture software as used by Aardman Animation Studios. Download a 30 day free-trial version.
The films of Sheila Graber were featured in Animator’s newsletter number 5, summer 1983. At the time she had recently given up her post of Head of Creative Studies at King George Comprehensive School to pursue animation on a full-time professional basis.
In a career spanning more than 20 years she has created over 60 shorts and 3 TV series. One of Sheila’s driving forces has been to “use animation as a means of communication not just for entertainment but for education and healing too”.
She has run animation classes as far a field as Tunisia and Caracas, and gained an Alumni Fellowship from Sunderland University in 1998 for “Outstanding services to Education and Art”.
Sheila is currently running a series of weekly art and animation classes for adults with special needs for the “Brothers of Charity” in Waterford, Ireland. This is a long term project of 4 years standing. The results are so successful she hopes to continue and evolve her work in this area.
“There are two ways of making a cartoon film. One is to say I am an amateur making an amateur film, so don’t expect too much. The other way is to say I may be an amateur but I will give it every thing I have”, writes Ian Whitworth in his new series on animation. His first article covers planning your film.
In the second part of his history of British animation, Ken Clark explains why monologues performed by famous comedian Stanley Holloway did not go down well as a cartoon sound track; “Holloway’s lugubrious delivery worked perfectly on stage and radio; but when the artists came to animate the Sergeant walking ‘on the beat’, the pace was pedestrian. Cinemagoers preferred the frenetic pace of imported productions.”
An article about drawing cartoons explains how figures can be based on a series of ovals at the rough animation stage.
Animator Sheila Graber started producing short cartoons as an amateur and she explains how she managed to break into the world of professional animation.
Links to other sites from the pages of this website are for information only. Products are reviewed for the interest of the reader. No guarantees are expressed or implied.
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