Making a Simple Plasticine Animation Using Digital Blue Movie Creator Duncan Whitehurst ICT Advisory Teacher Pembrokeshire County Council

Transcription

1 1. Plug your Digital Blue camera into the USB port of your computer and start up the digital Blue software. Click on the Stop Motion Animation tool on the opening screen. 2. Start by capturing 15 frames (1 second) by clicking on the camera icon 15 times. This gives the viewer 1 second to establish the scene. 3. Now to make the blob wave. Move the arm a small amount and capture 3 frames by clicking on the camera icon 3 times. 4. Now move the arm a small amount again and capture 3 more frames. 5. Repeat this process until the wave is finished. Notice I have shot 57 frames and the movie length is 3 seconds Now click on the red Finish Stop Motion icon to complete the scene. It s a good idea to do this every time you complete a scene from your storyboard.

2 7. Now click on the Go To Create Screen (the scissors icon). 8. A collection of video clips opens up. Click on the Temporary collection tab. The animated scene will be in this temporary collection of clips. 9. Click on One beneath Transfer to Permanent. This sends your scene to the Permanent Collection. 10. Click in the Permanent collection tab. 11. Drag the scene down onto the storyboard/ timeline film strip towards the bottom of the screen. 12. Click on the Play icon to view the animated scene. 2

3 13. Save your animation by clicking on the Save icon. It is important that you do this every time you add a new scene because you never know when the computer is going to crash! 14. Give the storyboard a name and click on the tick. 15. Now return to the live screen to animate the next scene. Click on the camera icon to do this. 16. Click on the Stop Motion icon. Notice I ve moved the camera closer for this next scene changing the shot from mid shot to close up. 17. I m now going to make the blob s mouth move. The simplest way is to use 2 mouths for this, I ve got a smiley mouth and an open mouth. Capture 3 frames with the smiley mouth Take the smiley mouth off, put the open mouth on (lightly so it s easy to take off again) and capture 3 frames.

4 19. Take of the open mouth, put on the smiley mouth and capture 3 more frames. When animating speech, have the script in front of you, read the words and estimate how long it takes to say them. 20. Keep an eye on the Movie Length box. When you have the right number of seconds you can stop animating the mouth. Always have a bit longer than you think you need. 21. Before I finish this scene, I ll just make the blob blink. To do this take of the eyes and capture 3 frames. 22. Put them back on and capture 3 frames. Keep repeating this a few times depending on how long you want the blob to blink. 23. Click on the Finish Stop Motion icon. 24. Click on Go to Create Screen to edit the animated scenes. 4

5 25. Click on the arrow pointing down at the top of the screen to open the Clips Collections. 26. Click on the Temporary tab, then beneath Transfer to Permanent, click on One as before. This will put your scene in the Permanent collection. 27. Click on the Permanent tab and then drag your next scene down onto the storyboard/timeline. 28. Click on the Close Collection cross and click on the Play icon to view the two scenes together. 29. When all the animated scenes have been added we can add a title onto the animation. Open the clips collection and click Page Forward to find some blank backgrounds Drag a background onto the storyboard/ timeline.

6 31. Click on the Tools icon and then the a to open up the titles tool. 32. Choose a font colour from the palette. 33. Choose a font size by sliding the slidey thing. 34. Choose one of the 3 fonts by clicking on it. 35. Click on the + to add a text box to the title screen. 36. Type in the title. 6

7 37. Make the title text as big as possible. To do this drag out the text box so it fills the screen then increase the font size using the slidey thing until the title fills the screen. 38. Click outside the text box to add the title. It s important to keep the text big so that it is easy to read in the final movie. 39. The final part of the editing process is adding the sound. Click on the scene you want to add a voiceover to. 40. Click on the Sound Effects icon. 41. Click on the Narration icon. 42. Click on the Narration microphone icon at the bottom of the menu that opens up. 7

8 43. With your camera connected to the computer (or a good quality USB microphone if you have one) click on record and try reading your script along with the animation. Repeat until you are happy with the result. 44. Repeat until you are happy with the result, then give your sound a name and click on the tick to add it to the collection of narrations. 45. Click on your narration in the narrations collection and click on the + to add it to the scene. 46. Click on the speaker icon to close the Narration tool. 47. Click on the scene you narrated and click play to see and hear it. 48. There would normally be more scenes in an animation and credits on the end (made in the same way as a title), but imagine I ve finished. 8

9 49. Now it s time to save the finished animation by clicking on the save icon. 50. To save the animation so it can be played outside of the Digital Blue software, open the clips collection, make sure your storyboard is selected and click on Export. 51. Choose a place to save your animation. I am choosing the desktop here. Give the animation a name and click on Save. 52. The program then exports your animation to the desktop of your computer. 53. Close the clips collection. 54. Click on Quit to leave the program. 9

10 55. Now your movie is saved as an movie file on the desktop of your computer (or wherever you decided to save it). 56. If you click twice on the movie it will play in Windows Media Player. You can copy and paste this movie file to a memory stick or a CD to show to your friends! Better Sound Quality For Voice-overs Using the Digital Blue camera s own microphone to record sound is OK, but you can get far better sound quality for your voice-overs by investing in a good quality USB microphone. The best budget option is the Logitech USB desktop microphone which costs 15 and is available from suppliers like Amazon. This microphone gives excellent sound quality for the price. For that special project you could spend 60 on the Samson CO1U which gives studio quality sound. However, for classroom use I have found the Logitech microphone affordable and easy to use. To get a USB microphone working with Digital Blue Movie Creator you need to follow the set up procedure that follows Plug your USB microphone into a USB port on your computer. Click on Start, Programs, Digital Blue Movie Creator and Audio Setup Wizard. 2. Click on the drop down arrow in the Available Microphones box. This shows you a list of the microphones you have. With the Logitech mic you will have a name like AK5370. Select this (not Audio Wave ). 3. Click OK. From now on the Digital Blue Software will record sound from your USB microphone and it will sound much better! 10

11 Useful Links for Help and Advice About Plasticine Animation Pembrokeshire schools animation website has examples of the latest childrens work, animation tips, examples of storyboards and links to useful websites. Newplast is a type of plasticine specifically designed for animation, it doesn t dry out and it is cheap too at 1.40 for a 500g block. You can also order a large tub of assorted colours for approximately 20. It is available in 22 colours and is the stuff used by Aardman. Schools have tried other plasticine from the Cosortium and Hope but have found this the best. Order direct from the factory at 1 Battle Road, Heathfield Industrial Estate, Newton Abbot, Devon TQ12 6RY. Tel: Claymation at PWC is an excellent site with comprehensive advice on getting started in clay animation, pupils storyboards and animations. Well worth a visit at: Follow the link below for technical help for the Digital Blue Camera and Movie Creator software. There s lots of advice and how to information on this website. Things don t always run smoothly, I have spent a lot of time here! Oscar Stringer s website includes some examples of clay animation. You can buy a CD from this site packed with resources, tips, lesson ideas and a step by step guide to getting started with animation in the classroom. Includes Animation movie examples made by pupils and teachers and copyright free music. Tech4Learning is a commercial site, they make the overpriced Clay Animation Kit. However, this section has lots of advice for teachers including tutorials, downloadable planning sheets, storyboards and self-assessment sheets. The Aardman Animation website is always worth a visit. There is also an excellent book by Nick Parks called Creating 3D Animation The Aardman Book of Filmmaking (ISBN ) available from Amazon for around