Stop Motion Animation

To Whom It Might Concern, 
	 I am 14 years old and have been working with
puppets and puppetry since I was 7 years old. Recently, I was introduced to
the art of Stop Motion Animation. Since then I have made several short
films using the equipment at the Governors Institute on the Arts in
Castleton, Vermont (Where I was introduced to Stop Motion Animation) and my
VHS camera. However, if you are familiar with the proccess of stop motion
animation, you'll know that pushing the record button on and off as fast as
you can doesn't work as well as everyone thinks it does.
	I am looking for a computer program, or other piece of video equipment,
which will be able to capture a
user-selectable ammount of frames (Usually 1, 2 or 3) and then combine
these short intervals into a finished piece. Do you know of anyone who
sells any
software/video capture boards, video equipment, editors, cameras, etc. that
would be capable of this task? What would you reccommend for this use?
*(If you are responding with computer products)->Truthfully, I do not know
a whole lot about computers but am willing to
learn as much as I need to in order to get effective stop motion animation
results. I have an IBM compatible computer, running Windows 95.

				Thank You,

							tr...@together.net

In article <01bdebdf$786289c0$72025bd1@taylorum>, "Taylor Umphenour" <tr...@together.net> writes:
|> To Whom It Might Concern, 
|> 	 I am 14 years old and have been working with
|> puppets and puppetry since I was 7 years old. Recently, I was introduced to
|> the art of Stop Motion Animation. Since then I have made several short
|> films using the equipment at the Governors Institute on the Arts in
|> Castleton, Vermont (Where I was introduced to Stop Motion Animation) and my
|> VHS camera. However, if you are familiar with the proccess of stop motion
|> animation, you'll know that pushing the record button on and off as fast as
|> you can doesn't work as well as everyone thinks it does.
|> 	I am looking for a computer program, or other piece of video equipment,
|> which will be able to capture a
|> user-selectable ammount of frames (Usually 1, 2 or 3) and then combine
|> these short intervals into a finished piece. Do you know of anyone who
|> sells any
|> software/video capture boards, video equipment, editors, cameras, etc. that
|> would be capable of this task? What would you reccommend for this use?
|> *(If you are responding with computer products)->Truthfully, I do not know
|> a whole lot about computers but am willing to
|> learn as much as I need to in order to get effective stop motion animation
|> results. I have an IBM compatible computer, running Windows 95.
|> 
|> 				Thank You,
|> 
|> 							tr...@together.net
|> 


Animated ascii art is accomplished by creating seperate text pictures
with special cursor positioning characters between frames to allow
scrollless redrawing - it has little or nothing to do with recording
images with a camera or other video equipment.

I would suggest you go to your local photography store and ask
the clerk if he has available a camera that can record a single frame
at time - even if the store doesn't carry one, you can ask for the
name of such a the camera type and get a catalog number, after which
you can check other stores out by phone, ["Do you carry part number XYZ?"],
and possibly search the web for where you can buy one.

Buying computer equipment would probably be more expensive, depending
on what you plan on doing - I'd suggest that it might be easier with
using regular off-the-shelf video equipment than getting computer
hardware and software.

You will probably also want to get a tripod to hold your camera still,
as having the background jump around between frames of a stop motion
film would look really ugly.

Depending on how smooth you want to make your short film, you might
be able to use an ordinary camera, make alot of pictures, and have them
converted to a VCR tape.

Good luck
Ben Goldberg

PS
Whatever you decide to do, I'd suggest that you make a script of your
animation using a sequence of drawings on a small notepad [one of those
3x5 inch homework assignment pads will do] so that you can get an estimate
of how many frames you want and how long your want your film to be --
Even doing a 2 minute skit with 2 frames per second is 240 frames --
Now assume that it takes [only] one minute to pose your puppets for each
frame and get back out of the way [It'll probably take longer than that,
since you will want to compare your puppet to what you have drawn in your
sketchpad for the current frame number] -- Plus set-up time -- Your short
film will probably take 4-6 hours, probably longer, and time constraints
[friends, parents, scoolwork, other distractions] will probably prevent
you from working on the project from more than a couple hours at a time.

PPS
It's ususally not a good idea to mention your age on the web,
particularly when you're under 18 or so; it usually results
in being ignored, being told to not post till you're older,
being flamed for posting dumb questions [regardless of whether
the q. was dumb], etc, etc.

It also will get your name and address into the mailing list of anyone
who wants a list of gullible people to try to con into giving them a
credit card number, or start you on 'MAKE $$$ FAST' pyramid schemes.
[Even if you're not dumb, people will assume you are - do you really want
 more junk email?]

Also, leaving out your age makes people think of you [if they remember
you more than a minute after reading the post [yeah, the web has a short
attention span]] as "the person who wrote/asked about so and so", rather
than "that [dumb] [14 year old] kid" or whatever.
-- 
Ben Goldberg
--
The first rule of intelligent tinkering is to save all the parts.
- Paul Erlich

Taylor Umphenour wrote:
> 
> To Whom It Might Concern,
>          I am 14 years old and have been working with
> puppets and puppetry since I was 7 years old. Recently, I was introduced to
> the art of Stop Motion Animation. Since then I have made several short
> films using the equipment at the Governors Institute on the Arts in
> Castleton, Vermont (Where I was introduced to Stop Motion Animation) and my
> VHS camera. However, if you are familiar with the proccess of stop motion
> animation, you'll know that pushing the record button on and off as fast as
> you can doesn't work as well as everyone thinks it does.
>         I am looking for a computer program, or other piece of video equipment,
> which will be able to capture a
> user-selectable ammount of frames (Usually 1, 2 or 3) and then combine
> these short intervals into a finished piece. Do you know of anyone who
> sells any
> software/video capture boards, video equipment, editors, cameras, etc. that
> would be capable of this task? What would you reccommend for this use?
> *(If you are responding with computer products)->Truthfully, I do not know
> a whole lot about computers but am willing to
> learn as much as I need to in order to get effective stop motion animation
> results. I have an IBM compatible computer, running Windows 95.
> 
>                                 Thank You,
> 
>                                                         tr...@together.net

Most computer video camera software can do frame capture and save. The
only problem you would have is linking the images together in to a movie
format and saving them.

You may need to look into buying a production level package of Real
Player or Shockwave. These packages are not cheep and will contain
features you may never need.

You can find many hardware cards that allow you to record images on your
monitor.

You may have to change your video card in your computer. It may not be
fast enough to allow you to get full screen imaging of your movies to
record onto your VCR. Your COMPUTER may not be fast enough to do this
either. While you did not post exact specs on your computer (and I am
not asking you to) the question of weather your computer can handle the
speeds necessary for full motion video is an important one.

-- 
                    /)-._    | It may be better to be a live jackal than
                   Y. ' _]   | a dead lion, but it is better still to be
            ,.._   |`--"=    | a live lion. And usually easier
           /    "-/  `.\     |
  /)  sk  |   |_     `\|___  | - Lazarus Long, A fictional character
  \:::::::\___/_\__\_______\ |   created by Robert Heinlein

 Taylor Umphenour <tr...@together.net> writes
>To Whom It Might Concern, 
>       I am looking for a computer program, or other piece of video equipment,
>which will be able to capture a
>user-selectable ammount of frames (Usually 1, 2 or 3) and then combine
>these short intervals into a finished piece. Do you know of anyone who
>sells any
>software/video capture boards, video equipment, editors, cameras, etc. that
[][ hi ...

hunt around for camera/camcorder with data output or record to disk option.
... or for a computer-graphic-card with video-frame-grabber.

then look for programs like AutoDesk-Animator to stack the frames into a .FLY
or GRASP to make a .GL or an .EXE (if using dos) as a self-displaying-film.

[][ have fun
[][ colin
-- 
( () /_ / /\)   _/   /? .\ /\) /) .\ /_ /_
CJRandall http://www.shieldwolf.demon.co.uk