Simple Computer Animation

One of many computer functions is a possibility to make drawings. There are graphic programmes available such as MSPaint which can be found in every computer, and professional painting software applications, such as Corel, Adobe or Macromedia.

In the "Animated Debate" project during the firs classes which introduced children and youth into the world of computers, they learnt about MSPaint programme. This application allows creating pictures in the bitmap format. The first presentation of this simplest graphic editor was conducted while working on an animated film. The workshop participants in one of the group (after they had practiced drawing and pasting the movement phases in the corner of a notebook) after they had learnt the most important functions and programme tools, they made a series of drawings, which presented the subsequent phases of an animated object's movement. This exercise was simultaneously the first practical application of the computer to the making an animated film, because the motion phases drawn in MSPaint were subjected to editing in Ulead Media Studio Pro programme (the editing process in described in the next chapters). In this way, first computer animations were made independently by the workshop participants. Next, more advanced step was to make short animations with simple plots, using the same tools and the same techniques. Here is presented the process of creating such an animation.

First computer animation - the workshop layout

Main assumptions

A practical introduction into computer basics and its possibilities as a "drawing pad". In case of participants who have already had some contact with a computer - checking their actual abilities
Introducing to the group's main task - creating an animated film, showing the basic animations rules
Workshop acquires many playful elements, and through visible and attractive results of work, it encourages to take part in the project

Goals

Learning by the workshop participants the MSPaint vector programme
Giving to participants practical basic animation rules - film elements, motion phases, animation pace, editing, sound, and also showing the specific character of working on animations
Encouraging to further intensive work in the project
During the workshop there are created a few seconds long animations based on simple plots.

Devices and software applied

All frames in an animation area are created in MSPaint programme. It is a free of charge application, delivered with every operating system Windows. Therefore it is the most accessible programme which can be used in work. Each of the workshop participants makes individually an appropriate amount of drawings in MSPaint programme - bitmaps which compose the whole film. The pictures are saved with the subsequent numbers as *.bmp files. These pictures are edited in Ulead Media Studio programme. In the same programme there is a soundtrack and final caption added. Editing can be done using any programme to film editing, equally efficient can be simple software received while buying a camcorder or a computer graphic card. Ready animations are saved as *.mpeg or *.avi files.

The course of the classes

Producing simple animations was divided into a few subsequent meetings. Work on even simplest animation is very arduous. It is also one of the workshop points - to show, through play at that moment, what an animator's job is.

The first meeting is dedicated to basic information connected with computer animation and the most important information referring to animations' techniques:

showing some selected animations and a brief history of an animated film
different animation techniques and more detailed description of drawing animation (the one being the object of the workshop), the film construction - a frame, twenty fives frames a second, movement phases (what stages the movement consists of and how to show it)
introduction to MSPaint programme - launching, the most important tools - drawing a curve line, absorbing the colour, filling with the colour, brush, airbrush, text tools, picture size adapted to the editing requirements, saving files as bitmaps.

Second meeting

Choosing the topic and plot of the animation
Reminding about the order of tasks - the drawings of the subsequent animation frames (while keeping in mind that every second of a film consists of about twenty five pictures), possibly drawing the animation on a piece of paper projects
Creating a folder where particular film frames are saved, reminding about the necessity to remember the order of the frames
Training:
- the person running the classes makes a few pictures him/herself. These pictures are joined to make one animation which s/he presents as an example to show how to make changes effectively, how big the changes between particular frames can be
- the display of the previously prepared and edited animation - frame by frame, the comparison of the picture series

example 1 .... example 2 .... example 3 .... example 4

The beginning of work on subsequent pictures. Each participant should work at his/her computer individually, so s/he can focus on drawing the particular pictures. The constant monitoring is needed to check whether the pictures receive proper numbers or whether they are saved in the right folder.

Third and next meeting

Further work on animations preparing
Importing the ready pictures to the editing programme DigiLab 4.0
Editing the ready animations, in this phase it happens with great instructor's contribution
Making soundtracks, choosing the sound files
Captions at the beginning and at the end - the editing programme option film ilustration

Anticipated results

proficient use of MSPaint programme tools
permanent, because based on practice, command of the most important computer animation rules
increasing the skills in using the computer, overcoming fears if there are any
Inspiration and motivation to further work - the attractive result is seen relatively quickly
Developing the habit of conscientious and well-ordered work on animation