Monkey Jam!!
If any of you out there are looking to animate you HAVE to take a look at the program Monkey Jam. It is to the traditional animation community as Blender is to the 3D animation community meaning that its straightforward, free and powerful. Ok, enough chit-chat...back to animating.
3 Comments:
I just checked it out =P Looks pretty cool, though I don't have much experience with stop-motion.
What would be the easiest way to test it out? I have a webcam, but what to use as a model? (is there an equivalent to a bouncy-ball in hand-drawn anims?)
Also, this is a little offtopic, but what the hey.
You seem to be progressing well in 3D anim (btw, any new vids?), and your 2D legs in the side-on-view of your Worm character (the, "This is how his legs would move if he had any") are really great...
I'm having a lot of trouble with walks, did you look at frame by frame side on walks, or record the movement of the hips, or how was it 'taught' in class?
Anyway, if you have spare time to answer, that'd be great, but anyway, this is all really great stuff man, I come to this site always expecting a new surprise =P Thank you!
Thanks! I really appreciate you always checking in....its people like you that keep me going. Some times I wonder if anyone out there is watching and just then I usually run into someone at school that says "hey nice animation you uploaded"...that always lights a fire under my you know what. Anyways, thanks.
As for stop motion using Monkey Jam I am currently writing a guide for both that I will be uploading to the resources section. Also, I uploaded 4 stop motion vids (mostly claymation) to the animations section.
Last but not least...walks. Yes a little difficult but you are on the right track. Definatley start with the hips. Then work your way out from there....I usually go down and finsh up the legs then knock out the upper body. This hasnt been taught to me yet but I probe some of the PIXAR student buddies of mine that are a couple semesters ahead of me. Basically you want to break the movement down into primary and secondary action which means there is normally a driver and a driven (in this case the hips are the driver and there are drivens of the drivens....just do it in order but have a plan going in). Check out the Animators Survival Kit and Preston Blares Cartoon Animation book. Let me know if this helps. Take care and good luck.
I have used monkey Jam with a group of 10 year old school children. It's fairly straightforward and easy to use! We did stop motion animation and it was so simple!!
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