My first animation project

[Shrimpfarmer]

I have been impressed by a few animation videos I have seen recently and so I have decided to have a go at this myself. Way back when I was about 14 I tried my first ever animation using an 8mm silent camera. It was King Kong!!!! and I made a wireframe Kong out of pipe cleaners and had him climbing various plants and things. The only trouble back then was you could not see the results until the film was developed. My Kong came out way too slow.

In the digital age things are easier. I dont have a video camera that can do stop motion, or that I can connect up to Premier Elements 7 to utilise its stop motion feature. Instead I am going to use a digital stills camera shooting 640x480 stills.

Today I hired my 'Talent' a 6 inch Marine I shall call Private Jones. He cost the princely sum of £1.45 from a local toy store and boasts about 16 points of movement. He had his first screen test today being filmed directing imaginary traffic. Having absolutley no idea how to animate I used small amounts of blue-tack to stick his feet to the table and moved his limbs taking one photo each time he moved. I have the camera mounted on a small gorilla-pod which allows me to rotate the camera around him and zoom in and out.

I pulled the photos into PE7 and set their default duration to 1 frame. Having just created the first dvd file this seems too fast so I will have to experiment to find the ideal number of frames per photo. Once I have found this out I intend to create various animations of him doing different tasks against a mini green screen. I can then use these to link together to create longer sequences. If I can green screen him well then I can drop him into various backgrounds.

Its tremendous fun so far and very easy to do. As a complete newbie to animation any tips would be appreciated. I just tried to upload his screen test to Youtube but it keeps failing. My internet link is very weak in my campervan. (currently touring Derbyshire UK). If it works I will share to give you a laugh!

[rusty]

Shrimpy, you must be a very patient man! Good luck with it - looking forward to seeing the results...in about three years Just kidding!! I googled "stop motion animation" and it came back with a whole load of sites that would likely be of assistance.

[momoffduty]

Place your action figure (doll) on a doll stand. The doll stand can be painted green to key out. ed has made many doll....action figure.. movies and gave me this tip.

For the frame rate could start at about 4 frames per second for slow or about 12 frames/sec for fast. Can always export the stills as an avi and bring back into the project and speed up or down the file.

Some of the brickyard pros use 19 frames/sec or more. That would mean you have to move the figure just slightly for each pic. Lots of patience for that.

Would like to see your test project.

[ed]

The doll stand can be painted green to key out

ACTION FIGURE Mom!

You need to have a lot of patience shrimpy. Make sure to take extra intro and outro shots so you don't have abrupt beginnings and endings. If it's for the web, I recommend shooting at a lower resolution then you camera or camcorders highest setting. Also, I'm a big fan of the free program JPGVideo. The advantage to it is that you can quickly make different frame rate tests, and it outputs to an AVI file that PE will accept. Here's one I did awhile back that mixed stop motion with regular video using JPGVideo.

[Steve Grisetti]

Very sweet, ed! And more great music!

[Shrimpfarmer]

Thanks for the tips, very useful. I couldnt watch your film Ed due to my bandwidth problem. I will catch it later

[momoffduty]

Very nice ed! Can you post your Hillary doll dancing video? Forgot who she was dancing with. It had a red couch in it...

[ed]

I can't believe I did this 3 years ago Mom...how time goes by. I really need to find the time to do more fun videos. I used my green painted ACTION FIGURE stands in this one. Another tip for shrimpy is to not use flash and have consistant lighting when doing stop motion. Also, don't make the mistake I did on this video and drink adult beverages during the filming: wait until afterwards. I had much higher expectations for this but basically said the heck with it.



Can't wait to see shrimpy's!

[Shrimpfarmer]

I cant play either of yours due to poor bandwidth

I will share as soon as I can. Does the green screen option in PE7 demand a specific type of green? or can you use any green and match it within the program.

[Steve Grisetti]

Ed, that was more entertaining than a whole season of Dancing with the Stars!

[Chuck Engels]

Does the green screen option in PE7 demand a specific type of green? or can you use any green and match it within the program.

You can actually use just about any color with the Chromakey Effect, Green and Blue are most popular.
There is a control that allows you to adjust the keying, there is lots of control so you shouldn't have a problem Shrimpy

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

Does the green screen option in PE7 demand a specific type of green? or can you use any green and match it within the program.

Chuck has answered that specific question. A point to keep in mind is that the lighting should be even over the background to be keyed out and the background material should be as flat as possible (i.e. no folds/creases).

[momoffduty]

Thanks ed. Think that is my favorite Action Doll video.

Regarding the green screen, I have used green poster board with success. The flat color green, not shiny.

[ed]

I always use the chromo key with the eyedropper, and just move the eye dropper around until I find the best match. If the lighting was not perfect (usually happens for me) I sometimes adjust brightness, color, and contrast after the clips are made into video, and do it then.

Thanks Mom! I thought you'd think the christmas tree one was your favorite. I've used poster board like Mom and I also bought a bit of green cloth. The cloth works well but it's a pain to iron before using.

[Chuck Engels]

Think that is my favorite Action Doll video.

Action Doll