The Teachers' Animation Toolkit

Other hints and tips:
If using a video or still camera, place the aperture, gain, shutter 
speed and focus in manual mode, so none of these settings change 
between exposures. (Many cheaper camcorders do not give you 
control over all these settings, so you may still see fl uctuations in 
exposure and focus when you play back your animation.)
Make sure your subject is sharp and correctly exposed before you 
begin shooting.
If you work in HDV, the process of capturing both the video assist 
frame and a high defi nition tiff or jpeg still frame can take up to 
6 seconds (as compared to 2 seconds in standard defi nition). You 
will hear a shutter sound effect as soon as the video assist frame is 
captured, followed by a beep after the still frame has been captured. 
Animators must wait for the beep before moving their models again, 
otherwise hands will be recorded on the high-quality still frames!

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Resources
 139
OTHER PC-BASED SOLUTIONS
Stop Motion Pro is a software tool for making stop motion and 
other animated fi lms. It requires a video camera, webcam or digital 
still camera and be compatible with Win XP or Vista. See: 
www.
stopmotionpro.com
AnimatorDV is a PC-based software for creating stop-motion 
and time-lapse animation. Can be also used on a fi lm set as a 
previsualization tool.
See: http://animatordv.com/
Monkeyjam
and a simple webcam is a £5.00 animation solution!
See: http://www.giantscreamingrobotmonkeys.com/monkeyjam/
index.html
Toon Boom Studio
Toon Boom Studio is a vector-based drawn animation tool, 
discussed on p. 98. See: http://www.toonboom.com
Serif DrawPlus
DrawPlus is Serif’s award winning vector-based drawing package, 
ideal for use in schools. See: http://www.serif.com/drawplus/