Long before computers, animation was done by drawing or painting one
image at a time, or taking pictures of clay or other models and
adjusting the models between each picture to capture a sense of motion.
Today, this is known as classical animation, or traditional animation.
You can create your own classical animations using some paper, a digital
camera and any graphics-editing software program that allows you to
crop images.
Instructions
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1
Gather a stack of paper
comprised of sheets of the same size and shape. You could cut pieces of
ordinary letter-sized paper in half to conserve paper if you wish.
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2
Draw an “X” in two corners of a
sheet of paper. You will use these as crop marks to ensure that the
pictures are precisely aligned. Draw a large circle near the top of the
paper, representing a ball. Draw the ball and the crop marks dark enough
that you can see them when you place another sheet of paper on top.
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3
Position a second sheet of paper
over the first. Trace the crop marks from the bottom piece of paper.
Draw another circle, the same size as the first, about a quarter of the
circle’s dimension lower, so they are partially overlapping.
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4
Repeat Step 3 numerous times
until the ball reaches the bottom of the paper; then draw each
successive ball higher than the preceding one by the same degree until
the ball reaches the top of the paper again.
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5
Do a "pencil test" of the
animation by holding down one edge of the stack of drawings and flip
them. If the ball appears to skip in places, add additional pages with a
ball to fill in the gap, or redraw the ball as needed until the
animation looks smooth.
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6
Take a picture of each piece of
paper in the order it was drawn using your digital camera. Load the
pictures on your computer, and then skip to the “Compiling the Images”
section below.
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1
Position a digital camera on a
tripod or place it in a stable position on a sturdy table so it will not
move when you take a picture.
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2
Shape a piece of clay into any
form such as a person or animal and place it in front of the camera.
Take a picture of the clay. Alternatively, you can use dolls or other
toys, or cut out shapes using construction paper to make figures for the
animation.
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3
Move the clay slightly – for
example, move an arm or leg and then take another picture. Move the clay
again and take another picture. When you have completed the scene, load
the pictures onto your computer.
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1
Crop each image as desired using
your digital camera software or a graphic editing application such as
Adobe Photoshop, GIMP or Paint.Net.
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2
Inspect each image to ensure
that it is cropped to the same dimensions. For cartoon animations drawn
on paper, use the pinholes as guides while cropping. Cropping may not be
necessary for stop motion animation, but if it is, use a focal point in
the background as a guide when cropping so that each picture is cropped
the same.
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3
Place all of the images in a
folder on your computer. Open a Web browser and drag each image onto the
browser. Use the “Forward” and “Back” buttons on the browser to watch
your animation.