Animation Capture Software

To create handmade animation, you need software to capture the individual images that will make up your animation. This is called animation capture software. It lets you grab each frame of animation and then it strings the frames together to form animation. Any animation capture software will work with our ReadyANIMATOR stop-motion animation equipment. Here are the major brands. All are reasonably priced.

• I Can Animate: www.kudlian.net/products/icananimate (PC, Mac)
• Stop Motion Pro: www.stopmotionpro.com (PC)
• Frames 4: www.tech4learning.com/frames (PC, Mac, Linux)
• i-StopMotion: www.boinx.com/istopmotion (PC, Mac)

Each of these has a trial version. It's a good idea to test the software with your camera and computer before you buy.

Mr. Fox Digs Deep

Fantastic Mr. Fox is a stop-motion delight that will appeal to students and teachers alike. Students who see this movie might be inspired to try stop-motion animation themselves. They will be intrigued by the handmade special effects, such as cotton smoke and plastic water. Teachers will relate to a recurring theme of the film: efforts to become civilized versus the wildness in us all.

English teachers can use this film as an example of witty writing and characters that are three dimensional (in more ways than one). The title character, voiced by George Clooney, and his wife, voiced by Meryl Streep, have a relationship richer than seen in most Hollywood films. Mr. Fox has buckets of confidence. Mrs. Fox has a temperament reflected in her off-beat hobby: painting landscapes dominated by natural disasters. Their  divergent personalities result in marital bumps and clashing parenting styles.

The stop-motion animation is ambitious and energetic without becoming an unwatchable frenzy as some animated features can. The detail in the backgrounds is too much to absorb in one viewing; this film should be seen twice just to pick up the clever signage, book titles and product names scattered throughout.

Watch for visual puns like the appearance of a model train within this movie that's brought to life via model-making. And listen for songs performed by Burl Ives, a tip-of-the-hat to the classic Rudolph stop-motion Christmas special. Music teachers will love the entire soundtrack which veers from 'The Ballad of Davy Crockett" to the Rolling Stones.

Students can see classic stop-motion techniques put to good use throughout the movie. To make characters appear larger as they approach the camera, "Fantastic Mr. Fox" employs forced perspective. Hear director Wes Anderson describe the technique.

And here's a terrific interview between Terry Gross and the director.

'Atmospheric Animation' meets TV weatherman

Larry Sprinkle, well-known TV weatherman for Charlotte's Channel 36 News, visited an animation class I'm helping to teach at Idlewild Elementary yesterday. The 5th grade students in this elective class are creating clay animation movies on the topic of weather. (Weather is part of the core science curriculum for 5th graders in North Carolina.) During his visit Mr. Sprinkle (his real name!) told the students how lightning is created. He also graciously posed for photos that the students will incorporate into their animation, and recorded audio for the movies as well.

Idlewild art teacher Rebecca Kelly is leading the class, which was arranged by Gloria Jones and funded by a grant from the Arts & Science Council, which supports the cultural community in Charlotte.
In a few weeks I hope to have more information about the class and a link to the animation the students create.