Hello!

This afternoon while moping around college, James 'The Rhodester' Rhodes offered to give me a little tutorial on how to use the stop frame animation booth down in the AV suite. I came totally unprepared, but managed to scavenge a piece of A2 paper and a couple of pens, I learnt how to use the video camera to capture images and input them into 'Frame Thief'.


My First Stop Frame Animation from Kate Prior on Vimeo.
Song: 'Prism' by Battles

There is so much wrong with this, I don't even know where to start!!

1. Tips to myself after my experimentation;
   
2. Don't move things around at the edge of the frame. Move everything out of the shot, or crop the video in post production.
   
3. Don't allow anything to make a shadow on the board.
   
4. Concentrate! Don't miss a shot.
   
5. Be prepared. Know exactly what you want the final animation to be like. Create a mock-up, possibly trace live from it! 
   
6. Use a white board for more interesting effects.
   
7. Take the frame speed into consideration so that some areas don't appear faster than you want them to.
   
8. For better quality, use a digital SLR rather than a video recorder (apparently the software isn't compatible with Canon. Grr).
   

I loved the process of making the animation and learning about a new skill. Although I wasn't sure what to draw, I had fun experimenting and think with a bit of planning and some good ideas, I can come up with something a little more 'put together'. Researching, comparing and contrasting the people who create similar styles of animation will help me with this.