Friday, April 2, 2010

Digital Delight

In the constant quest to find something that really gets the kids pumped, we may have one viable candidate: movie-making. The other day A and I was hanging at the local coffee shop while N had his class and we did a little browsing of stop action animation. R and I have though all along that some form of animation would speak to the kids, especially A, because she loves the right elements. She loves to draw, she loves to tell stories, she loves to create worlds of her own making, and she really gets into creating the details. She enjoys making cartoons because they incorporate these elements, and they can be really fun. Naturally, we thought that animation would be the next logical step, but felt like we needed a video camera, so we sat on it.

Well, wouldn't you know it, but once we did a little investigating, we found out that all you need is a digital camera. You just take a series of snapshots with small increments of movement, and then you upload them into iMovie, and voila. It makes them into a movie. Too cool for words. A got a huge kick out of it, and, at least for the moment, there's no stopping her. The picture is one of her screen credit frames.

I think the most fun she'll have is making animation from her drawings, but one step at a time. For now, we'll enjoy her time lapse creations, and may even post them on YouTube. Hey, you just never know.

Until the next time, thanks for reading.

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