Here are some additional links to tutorials that may come in handy for your groups animation.

• Green Screen in iMovie

You have 2 more weeks to complete your movie. All groups should be working in iMovie now and editing the frames they shot using iStopMotion. Here are some of the things that your group should be experimenting with as you edit:

• Working with clips means that you are breaking down your movie into smaller parts or pieces that you can then apply effects to, slow down or speed-up, and create transitions between clips. This gives you greater control over how your movie tells your story.
• Transitions are special effects that you can place between clips so that your movie changes scenes or shots in a more fluid way for the viewer. Some work better than others depending upon the content of your movie. Don’t get too crazy with them, you don’t want the transitions to overwhelm the actual content of your animation.
• Dialogue will be added (overdubbed in iMovie) once you have the animation edited. Make sure that you are testing the timing of your movie against your script so that you won’t have to speak too fast or too slow and that your dialogue and voice overs will match the movie frames.
• Sound Effects are another final touch you will add. There are sound effects available in iMovie that you can insert, things like doors opening or closing, car horns, traffic, bells, animal noises, crowd noises etc etc. If you can’t find what you need, ask me. There is also a folder in the Shared Folder on the Hard Drive of each iMac that contains sound effects you can use.

• Sets and props are complete
• iStop-Motion – film
• dialogue/script must be complete as you film the scenes

Before you begin filming your group must show me your script. It is important that you have a sense of what is happening with your story and your characters so that your animation makes sense. You will overdub the dialogue after you shoot all the frames for your story.

Use these settings when you create a new document

How Many Frames??

Remember when we were looking at movies and talking about how animations are created I mentioned that movies are typically about 24 frames per second? Think about how many frames it would take to make a full length stop motion film that could be about 90 minutes long. Of course this is way beyond the scope of our project, but you can do the math to figure out how many frames might be needed for a 1 minute movie.

In the iSopMotion program you can set the frames per second to 12 to make it easier to shoot your movie. When you first create create your file, you should have the settings like this:

The preset should be DV NTSC Widescreen which will work best when we do the post-production in iMovie.

Give the file a name that makes sense for your movie. The movie is saved into your Movie Folder, and it would be best to create a folder first that is the title of your movie. That way all the files you use will be located in one place.

• Groups and outline for story
• Write the story in 3 acts
• Characters, setting and plot

Week 2:     March 18 – 24

• Character development
• All supplies need to be gathered for set building
• Build sets

In life, everything moves at different speeds and at different times. OVERLAPPING ACTION is a tool used by animators to emphasize the action and mood of the character. When a character moves across the screen some parts of the body move before or at different rates than others. Some parts of the body will LEAD the action and some parts will FOLLOW the main action. © Larry Lauria, 1999

** Follow-Through is a companion to the overlapping action. An action almost never comes to a complete and sudden stop. Instead, inertia carries the object beyond the termination point, often causing the object to slowly reverse direction and settle back to the intended stop location. A golfer’s swing provides an ideal example of a follow-through. Once the ball is struck, the club (and golfer) follow through the point of contact to complete the swing. What about a pencil that drops to the ground? When it hits, does it stop dead in its tracks? Or, does it bounce around a little, then rolls to a stop? Two cars collide in the middle of an intersection. Do they hit and stick? No, recoil occurs, causing them to reverse direction. Again, an action almost never comes to a complete and sudden stop. (**from Traditional Principles of Animation – Wikibooks)

Here are some links to help you out with this idea, there are some excellent illustrations and animations to visualize this technique.

• Larry’s Toon Institute
• Law’s of Motion
• Forces & Movement

Vector

Here is a link to a basic description:

Vector vs Bitmapped

SQUASH!

An animated GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) file is a graphic image on a Web page that moves – for example, a twirling icon or a banner with a hand that waves or letters that get larger. An animated GIF can loop endlessly or it can loop through one or a few sequences and then stop the animation.

Animated GIFs in Photoshop

More information about animated GIFs

1/ Quia Activities – These activities are great for reviewing what we have been learning since September, for pre-assessment (what do you already know BEFORE we start a unit), or for current self-assessment of your understanding of what we are currently learning in class.

2/ Create an animation at home using some of the free software that you can download (Mac or Windows) or using an online website. Please comment on this post to include some software or online websites that you have used to create animations and share them with your classmates.

Here are some ideas to start:

• Stykz (download)
• Pencil (download)
• Sketch Star
• Aniboom
• Fluxtime
• Dvolver
• Animasher

Have fun! Remember to send me the links to your finished work, or post the link in the comments. You can also upload your work to the class Flickr website if it is saved as a movie file. (.mov)

• Gunner
• Noah
• Brave

Arcs

Exaggeration

Slow-In & Slow-Out

• Jalah – pendulum

Follow Through & Overlapping Action

• Ryan H.

The 12 Principles of Animation (link to a description of all 12 principles or techniques)

We are focusing on the following 5:

• Squash & Stretch
• Exaggeration
• Arcs
• Follow Through & Overlapping Action
• Slow In & Slow Out

Animation Principles : please look at this tutorial before you create your first Frames animation. You will be expected to include these techniques in your animations and be able to describe the technique and how your animation illustrates the technique.

2D Animation Basics

Walk Cycle - try this! A great example to learn from

Animation Tutorials - more advanced reading and examples