MonkeyJam - Stop Motion Animation
Many teachers use the Digital Blue Movie Creator for stop motion animation. Although it is easy and fun to use, it has some limitations, particularly the quality of the output.
MonkeyJam lets you create stop motion animation from any web cam, digital video camera or sets of scanned images and outputs good quality avi files. It is freeware so can be used on as many computers as you want for no cost.
If you don’t need the quality, you can import the avi file into Windows Movie Maker and save as a wmv file which is considerably smaller.
Here’s a simple 2 second example in wmvformat. The avi file takes too long to download if you want to use it on the web but the quality is great for showing on a whiteboard or as part of a PowerPoint presentation. The wmv file is acceptable quality with a very small file size.
wmv file 149 Kb
Andy,
I completely endorse this application; we have used it successfully with pupils in Angus. By importing into MS Moviemaker pupils are able to perform basic editing, add synchronised sound and merge projects before saving or burning - All for the cost of a webcam (although the superior optics of DV cameras capture higher quality frames). Ideal for developing language skills, exploring aspects of PSD and illustrating (pupil) concepts.
Andy,
Should have said, Pivot is useful for introducing younger ones
http://www.geocities.com/peter_bone_uk/pivot.html
Also Flipbook Printmachine allows flip-books to be created from AVI files;
giving children an insight into the underlying theory of animation.
http://www.dacamyo.net/flipbook/
Others include ‘Flipbook Printer’ for printing flip-books on business cards (interface more cluttered than Printmachine’s).