I don't even know which "For Dummies" title I need

October 16, 2007 9:48 PM

I need to know how to do some exceedingly simple animation. Problem: I'm an idiot.

This is what I would like to be able to do: take line drawings, somehow magically import them into a computer (this may be that "scanning" I've heard so much about), combine the line drawings at various glacial speeds in slideshow-like fashion, and then put an audio track under the whole thing. Only, not like a slideshow. Like extremely simplistic stop-motion animation. (I think. That may or may not be the right term. Argh.)

Put another way - and perhaps I should have led with this? - I more or less need to be able to illustrate a podcast and turn it into a short little video.

It's ridiculous that I don't know and can't figure out how to do this. But I'm stuck. I don't even know what to search for, or what kind of book I should be looking for. Or what kind of expert to ask for advice. Let alone what kind of software one might need for such a project.

Help? Please to assume that my baseline of knowledge about these things hovers somewhere around that of a kindergartener. You know, in case you couldn't tell.

posted by thehmsbeagle to Media & Arts (14 answers total)

This is ridiculously easy to do with Flash -- if you have it. It isn't too hard to learn it to the small degree needed to make this work.

I think there's a time-limited demo that can be downloaded. It would take you a bit of work to learn it, or a mentor to sit behind you and tell you what to do. But it wouldn't be too bad.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 10:02 PM on October 16, 2007

Toon boom is supposed to be very good.
posted by BrodieShadeTree at 10:20 PM on October 16, 2007

If you're on a Mac and have a digital video (or still) camera, you should take a look at iStopMotion. This will let you point a camera at your drawings (make sure you light it well!) and take a picture, one frame at a time. With the new version, it looks like you can slap audio in there and animate to the audio (which would be handy for syncing everything up). When you're done, you can export it to Quicktime and from there, do whatever the heck you want with it. Super easy...if you're on a Mac, of course.

iStopMotion
posted by Becko at 10:38 PM on October 16, 2007

With this you draw directly to your computer (how good is your eye/mouse coordination), and make an animation online. I did one of these before I learnt flash and the big thing it taught me was about onionskin - the ability to see a faded version of the drawing before the one you're doing.

http://www.benettonplay.com/toys/flipbookdeluxe/

Flash can do this, but the first time I tried to learn Flash alone, I lost. It might help to get one of those Flash for dummies books and follow through.

If it's an interesting project (to me) and something that might be useful for my portfolio, I'd consider helping you out - my email is in my profile.

For a really crappy version, you could scan the images, and whack them into a powerpoint presentation with animation set, and your sound file playing at the same time.
posted by b33j at 10:43 PM on October 16, 2007

Flash was pretty much designed for this. There's a free trial (signup on the Adobe website required), although I'm unsure what the limitations of it are.

I'd recommend getting a book, though. It's relatively complex software.
posted by neckro23 at 10:45 PM on October 16, 2007

Getting a book??

You can't grep dead trees, and by the time books about computer software have make it from the publisher to the bookstore lots of mistakes have been found and a new version of the software the book is about has been released and the book is worthless (and yet, also worth $50). Please don't waste your time and money and the planet's natural resources by buying books like those!

If you must use Flash, there are plenty of tutorials online. Although I dislike Flash on the web a lot, I think it is probably a decent tool for easily creating animations that are not meant for the web.

From the free software department, it looks like the three leading options for 2D animation currently are Synfig, KToon, or the GIMP Animation Plug-in, none of which I have ever tried (but all of which have online tutorials).
posted by finite at 12:05 AM on October 17, 2007

In defense of books, libraries have books that are reusable and which tend to be free to the end user. Unless you have two screens, and somehow, it's possible you don't, working with a type of software you're not at all familiar with AND following a tutorial at the same time is quite difficult when you're ALT-Tabbing.
posted by b33j at 1:10 AM on October 17, 2007

Second iStopMotion. Incredibly intuitive as video software goes - much easier than trying to learn Flash or even work with a version of Final Cut, I suspect. I've done several simple animations that were more or less what you are aiming for, and they came out great. The only hard part was doing enough drawings to be able to get a decent frame rate (i.e., make sure that things weren't too choppily animated.)
posted by ubersturm at 2:05 AM on October 17, 2007

Best answer: You have the basic concept down, so don't worry about the technology yet, just work on the elements. Write the script, do the line drawings, and record your voiceover, (or get voice actor to record it.) Then, as someone above suggested, get a camera and shoot your line drawings making sure to light and frame them well.

Now, all that's left is the editing, which can be done on any basic software. If you have a newer Mac, use iMovie, it'll work fine, or any PC equivalent. Bribe a video inclined friend to get you started. Having a tutor will be so much better than buying a book, and probably cheaper, and a lot of people know basic editing these days. You'll just be laying down audio and slapping the pictures over it, so it's really easy. You may be able to figure it out for youself, but find someone with a baby and they'll usually talk your ear off about video editing.

Sounds like your concept is all in the line drawings, so make them look good and your video could be really creative. Don't sweat the technique.

Good luck.
posted by Blingo at 2:10 AM on October 17, 2007

Seconding a book. I can't "grep" a professor, but that doesnt mean I shouldnt have gone to college. A well written book explains basic concepts and is a tutorial. Youre going to hit a wall if you dont know what betweening/tween is, what vector-based means, etc. Most net tutorials I've seen are written from the perspective that you are already proficient in a similiar product but need to learn how something is done in that particular product. At your level the more hand-holding you get the better. I just like to go to my regional library branch and walk out with a couple books and use the web tutorials as supplements.
posted by damn dirty ape at 7:27 AM on October 17, 2007

Thirding actual books. The time you spend with a book is not spent reading on a goddamn screen. Completely different experience.
posted by rokusan at 7:49 AM on October 17, 2007

Best answer: All you want to do is convert a folder of image files, however created (scanned, photoed, digitally drawn), into a video. Once that’s done, you can add audio. Right?

If you google this process, you’ll find lots of software that will do this, from simple imagestack-to-video conversion utilities to slide-show creators to vector animation software to full-blown video editing suites. One advantage of going with a more sophisticated tool is that you’ll find it easier to match your video timing to your sound. For simple conversions, you make sure your image files are all the same size and format, with the drawings aligned (doing them digitally will be the easiest way to achieve this) and are named in sequence (001, 002, etc.) Then you set a rate at which the images will change (frame rate) in the conversion application and simply drop the folder into the app.

Here’s a good description of how to do this using QuickTimePro, which I assume is available for both Macs and PCs.


A conversion option for PCs (I just googled this; haven’t tried it. I’m on a Mac)
posted by dpcoffin at 8:56 AM on October 17, 2007

Note that the only differences between what’s generally thought of as a “slideshow” and what’s called an ”animation” are that the first uses photos and goes slowly, while the second uses drawings and goes fast.
posted by dpcoffin at 9:04 AM on October 17, 2007

Response by poster: Thanks, everyone! I feel slightly more confident in what I'm going to be searching for, at least. Your tips are appreciated. :)
posted by thehmsbeagle at 2:10 PM on October 17, 2007