Howdy!
I was hoping someone could help me out with something.
My ten year old son would like to do a little stop-motion animation. I know that the program I use for drawing, Painter 9, has animation features that I could have him use...but how do I go about adding sound?
Any advice would be appreciated....Oh, also, uh.....think "free" and/or "cheap"
And one more thing, since calling me an animation noobe would be a gargantuan understatement, I would greatly appreciate step by step instructions. :D
Thanks much!
Everyone, thanks for all the advice!
Painter doesn't allow for sound, but I can load digital pics, avi, and quicktime movie files and edit them within the program.
Ooops....and I don't have a Mac! Bummer.
But it looks like some of the basic free/cheap programs will work for me, so that's great!
Now all my son needs to do is to see if he can find a good song that his bionicle can dance to! Lol.....
You'll need a digital camera (possibly just a cheap webcam to start with) and stop-motion software.
Try these sites:
http://www.stopmotionworks.com/howtostopmofilm.htm
http://www.stopmotionanimation.com/dc/dcboard.php
Well, let's see...
I have a fairly decent digital camera, and I figure that I can load pics into a frame stack in Painter, and that will get my son his basic animation. Where I really need help is in how to add music to the finished production.
I'm still scratching my head over that one... I do a lot of drawing digitally, but am a clueless nerfherder with anything having to do with video or audio.
So even a pointer to a primitive digital bongo program would be good for me.
Not sure about painter (does it even support sound?). But there is a program used at animation schools called FlipBook that might work for you. Good on Mac or PC.
The basic version is $99 (which is pretty cheap) and it's very easy to use. Good for 2D and stopmotion animation. Check out the site and it'll tell you all about what you can do with it.
Other options would be (if you already have the animation and just want sound) using a cheap video editor to sync sound and video. There's some info here about free video editors to help you with that.
Other stopmotion software (anywhere from free to $99):
Anasazi (Windows)
Motion Mage (All OS's)
and Frame Thief (Mac)
www.ElusiveMoose.com
You could probably output the series of frames from Painter and inport them into Flash in order to add sound if you have the Flash program.
Pat Hacker, Visit Scooter's World.
Y'know, another cost effective tool is Apple's Quicktime Pro. It's a free download, however if you want to use the editing features, you'll have to buy it. But, it's only about $30 or $40 and allows you to create/edit movies, has transitions, you can add a soundtrack. Not Avid or Adobe Premiere mind you, but if you don't need all the bells and whistles (and are on a budget) it's a seriously good buy.
Doesn't Monkey Jam have audio features, like exposure sheet synching and scrubbing? Free's cheap.
According to the features page, it does...
Imbrium, can Painter grab single frames from a camcorder? If not, you'll want something like MonkeyJam. It's free and also has some stop-motion features.
Here's a list of stop-motion software:
http://www.stopmotionworks.com/stopmosoftwr.htm
Toward the bottom, they list free video editors that you can use to add sound.
If you have a MAC you can get something called I stop motion. Pretty sure the basic version is free.
If you are on a PC you can use the program movie maker. It will alow you to import music and such. Very basic mind you. If you want to go as far as lip sync you may need to find an editing program.
I've been doing a lot of this with my three kids, ages 6 to 11. We try and keep it simple. I use my digital camera to shot the frames. Import them into Imovie and add music or record their voices. All on the mac mind you.
Good luck with what ever you do
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