My 10 and 8 year old are big fans of stop animationthey love Wallace and Gromit and Shaun the Sheep. The last couple weeks they have been toying with stop animation with a webcam and yesterday actually made a neat 60+ second film @ 8fps in Windows Movie Maker using Lego. The webcam they are using is poor (old Logitech C600 I believe) so this weekend I ordered a Logitech C920. They are using an old Core 2 Duo laptop.
I would appreciate some advice on software, audio and video, and any other pointers. Some links to clear and concise tutorials would also be great. I showed them how to ease in and out of movements and storyboarding but that is the end of my knowledge. My video editing experience is a using WMM a couple of times for very simple short videos.
Video Editing Software. They are currently using Windows Movie Maker (Vista). It is very simple to use (they were able to make their first video with it without assistance other than my wife suggesting they use WMM). It has all the basics they need, and easy to use, but outside some basic features it is rudimentary at best. One issue we have run into is I cannot seem to export to uncompressed AVI which appears to be the reason GlueFace wont load video.
Any recommendations for affordable (better: free) Video Editing programs that are easy to use yet offering more features? Simple things like more rendering options and richer frame features for stop animation would be great (you have to fiddle with the advanced options in WMM by setting the frame duration before importing and then use the double-speed effect to get 16fps). Something with Onion Skinning support would be nice.
Audio Software. Audacity. They are using the built in WMM audio recorder for their simple videos and I helped them create a more complex recording with 4 actors in Audacitythat worked well. One things we would be interested in as we have limited voice actors in the house and I am voice talent challenged, is a voice changer. Any suggestions? Also, a more user friendly audio recording program would be worth looking into as Audacity is great but above their skill level.
Audio Sound Resources. Safe, legal resourced with free / royalty free stock sound effects and music.
GlueFace. We are having a problem getting this to work. Anyone else ever use it? It is a small program to do lip sync with Lego. I believe it is because we are rendering into a compressed AVI.
Thanks for taking the time to read
I would appreciate some advice on software, audio and video, and any other pointers. Some links to clear and concise tutorials would also be great. I showed them how to ease in and out of movements and storyboarding but that is the end of my knowledge. My video editing experience is a using WMM a couple of times for very simple short videos.
Video Editing Software. They are currently using Windows Movie Maker (Vista). It is very simple to use (they were able to make their first video with it without assistance other than my wife suggesting they use WMM). It has all the basics they need, and easy to use, but outside some basic features it is rudimentary at best. One issue we have run into is I cannot seem to export to uncompressed AVI which appears to be the reason GlueFace wont load video.
Any recommendations for affordable (better: free) Video Editing programs that are easy to use yet offering more features? Simple things like more rendering options and richer frame features for stop animation would be great (you have to fiddle with the advanced options in WMM by setting the frame duration before importing and then use the double-speed effect to get 16fps). Something with Onion Skinning support would be nice.
Audio Software. Audacity. They are using the built in WMM audio recorder for their simple videos and I helped them create a more complex recording with 4 actors in Audacitythat worked well. One things we would be interested in as we have limited voice actors in the house and I am voice talent challenged, is a voice changer. Any suggestions? Also, a more user friendly audio recording program would be worth looking into as Audacity is great but above their skill level.
Audio Sound Resources. Safe, legal resourced with free / royalty free stock sound effects and music.
GlueFace. We are having a problem getting this to work. Anyone else ever use it? It is a small program to do lip sync with Lego. I believe it is because we are rendering into a compressed AVI.
Thanks for taking the time to read
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