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 Zu3D
In the last scientific and creative learning seminar for animation we used a software package called

Zu3D.  We had to create our own animation using this software and then convert it to an avi or wmv file and then finally post it on to our blogs with the help of tinypic.com. How amazing! Here was a software package that enabled me to become an animator. Animating is something that I have always wanted to do since the days I used to sit watching Rolf Harris draw pictures and ask "Do you know what it is yet?"
I have always enjoyed drawing pictures and using flip books to try and get my images to move, but animating by hand is painstakingly slow and takes a long time to create. Zu3d has many features that speed up the process of animation. Firstly drawing a basic frame and repeating it instantly by dragging it across and then using the copy and paste functions. Secondly layering it with other images or texts whilst keeping the basic frame the same this is called onion skin layering. I found the software frustrating at first but once I got to grips with the creating tools I was very proud of my creation. I am confident that the more I use this software the more exciting each of my experiences and creations will be.
Throughout the process I felt empathy for the pioneers of animation. The creative process we used let us experience all the different techniques of animation within a couple of hours but we were still frustrated initially. It had taken the pioneers of animation a century to get animation to this stage. Thank god they didn't give up! I love watching animated films!.

I practiced the skills I learnt from this session by teaching my daughter how to make her own animation. I found that the experiential learning made me consolidate all the skills Ihad learnt so far. 

 

Below is a picture of my daughter using the 7 day trial version of Zu3d she created her own animation using the same steps I had used in class.

Blog 2 group camera- less animation activity

The Magic Lantern is the earliest known example of camera-less animation. Thought to be invented in the 15^th century by Giovanni Fontana a Venetian.This invention cannot be credited fully to Fontana as he only published a drawing of his invention not an actual working lantern.  It was not until the 17th century that a working model was produced by Christian Huygens and Athanasius Kircher. In 1676 the Sturm Lantern was invented one of the first known magic lanterns.  The Magic lantern is an early version of the projectors that we know today.Even Leonardo Da Vinci experimented with image projection in the 16th century. The components that make up the Magic Lantern are oil paintings done on translucent material; a lens and a light source such as a candle or a lamp. The audience would be able to view the images in a darkened room on a flat surface. The Magic Lanterns were used as props by magicians to fascinate and scare their audiences. The most well known example of this is the Phantasmagoria. It wasn't until the 19th century that it was brought to the masses by Wilhelm Busch a german artist and his story slides. The The Magic Lantern  is the predecessor to the cinema projectors and helped develop photography.

             


Production of our own Magic Lantern
In a group we made our own version of a Magic Lantern using a card board box, cardboard, acetate, a lamp and a lens. The proto-type was constructed with whatever material that was available in the class. We used the card board box as the main body to house the light source, We then used a rolled up piece of card as the ledge for the images to sit on. This rolled up tube was then attached to the box using cellotape and incisions we made with scissors. The light source was then attached to the box. Finally we decided upon an image to make incremental changes to.  Whilst making our Magic Lantern there were many things that we discussed in the group such as: whether a mirror was needed; what would be a good light source: how to make sure none of the light escaped and what material to draw on etc.

  

Evaluation
I feel that we did a good job considering it was our first ever attempt at making a Magic Lantern.  Our proto- type worked but needed to be fine tuned in order to be used by the masses. I felt like an early inventor. Maybe Kircher or Huygens felt like us when first attempting to build a Magic Lantern. The production process would have gone more efficiently if we had known more about the components needed to build one. Maybe an image of how it was supposed to look like would have saved us time, but I doubt it would have given us as much fun, as we had in the making of it with no idea of what we were doing at first.  The thinking and discussions we had were all important and necessary to the production and our understanding of the mechanisms of our camera-less animation gadget.

What is stop motion animation?

What is stop motion animation?

Animation is an optical illusion created by incremental changes to images or objects in order to make them come to life. The origins of animation can be traced back to the Paleolithic times. During this time story-telling and mark making were conveyed through drawings on cave walls. Through these drawings messages were passed to others. Ptolemy the Greek astronomer discovered the persistence of vision which brings inanimate objects to life in our eyes.
Stop motion animation is a technique that makes images or objects like clay, puppets, cut outs, etc that are static and appear to move. This is usually created by overlapping images captured on film or computers using cameras.  The picture or digital cameras used need to be able to expose single frames. There are animators making the small changes to the set, characters, and props between each frame. Stop motion is the core element of a clay motion animation process. 15 frames per second continuously produce a moving video of the inanimate objects moving.

Magic lantern in 1671and the Phenakistoscope , zoetrope. praxinoscope, flip book in the 1800s are inventions of early animation. .They used the technology of sequential drawings to produce movements. Animation started to come into the spotlight in the 1890s because of special effects on films sets and short animation sequences produced for children’s television. The credit of creating animation cannot be given to one person, as at the time many people where discovered to have been experimenting with it.  

There are many names that have made animation what it is today.Winsor McCay of United States, Emile Cohl and Georges Melies of France are important names in the world of animation.

 J. Stuart Blackton was the creator of the first animated film in 1910. Emile Cohl created the first paper cutout animation. It wasn’t until 1913 that celluloid allowed animation to be produced in a manageable way..Émile Cohl's created the first hand drawn animation. Georges Méliès, combined the ideas of animation, special effects and stop motion and McCay made the first feature animation.

The history of animation will not be complete without the mention of Walt Disney who combined animation and sound to produce the animations that we love to watch , such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs etc.  Art Clokey in 1955 combined stop motion clay animation with computers. Ivan Sutherland in 1951 created Sketchpad, further giving computers importance in   creating animation. Ther are many animation types such as puppets, sylhouettes, cut outs, objects and Stop motion animation is another animation category.

The main considerations of making a stop motion animation would probably be the cost of production and time.

Aspects of stop motion animation

The software that is going to be used to film it and the hardware required to make the film.
There are many applications available to use to film animation such as : Imovie maker, Windows movie maker, ZU3D and Stop motion pro to name but a few.

The sets and characters are aspects that need careful consideration. They can be made from recycled material or, wire. wood, cardboard or foam and acrylic paint.
The hardware can be as simple as a hand held digital camera or lots of computers taking shots from different angles


Stop Motion Pro prices

To produce a stop motion animation the following is needed: Software, animation rostrums (start from £150), Webcam and tripod (£40-100 or more), armatures and webplast plasticine. Software can range from £33 single user-£999.
Current pricing:

Stop Motion Pro	Price
Studio HD (The software used by Aardman Animations)	$295
Action! HD for enthusiasts who need HD quality	$185
Studio HD Education discount (The software used by Aardman Animations) Single licenses can be purchased by a student or school.	$185
Action! Plus for animators who need more creative functions than Action!	$140
Action! for people who are just beginning the exciting journey of film making	$70

Lip Sync Pro	Price
Seperate product from Stop Motion Pro. Create your own or use the built in mouth shapes to lip sync dialog easily.	$49

This is an example of a stop motion film using post its.

The latest animation that I have watched

The latest animation that I have watched is hard to select, as I watch many everyday with my daughters. If I had to choose a favorite, it would be Tangled an animated musical. It was pure genius, the way the story of Repunzel was twisted on its head.Tangled is also my daughters favorite at the moment. It was created by Disney using computer generated images and traditional hand drawn images. I loved all aspects of the film from the illustrations to the sounds and musical score. I have grown up watching Disney animations and each one is a classic  in its own way. I have always wanted to be able to make an animation or be part of one since I was small. I got the chance to experience the magic and fantasy of Disney at Disney World Florida. However I hope to experience a tiny bit of the magic of creating an animation from scratch during this module and our group animation task.


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