FrameByFrame – a free app for motion animation
Posted on May 25, 2009 by admin
Frames of motion animation are actually pictures or photos taken in different intervals of time, perfectly suited for creation of animated films in which actors are the existing models, toys, tools etc. Very popular actors are Lego figures. There are also interesting examples of this type of amateur uses of animation, such as the motion animation titled “how to make a baby” made up of dozens of photos of couple of a pregnant woman and her partner (father I guess). He is blowing her finger and it looks like her belly is getting bigger with every blow he does. Photos for this movie had to be done for at least 8 months. A touch of the idea, the camera or camcorder, even if incorporated into the computer or the cell can create great-motion video. MacUsers may find useful a free tool – FrameByFrame by Philipp Brendel.
FrameByFrame is a fantastic tool for creating motion animation. The program, as a source, use the built-in iSight camera, but according to information given by the author, is also likely to use the camera connected to a Mac, including webcams. The interface is divided into several sections. The most of it takes a preview of the original picture from the camera and picture from the camera superimposed on the last frame (in order to have a reference on the moving actors and scenes). The lower part is occupied by a preview of the frames of the film. The control panel is located between these sections. We can therefore take another shot, make cuts, set the animation speed (typically 15 frames per second) and set the aspect ratio of the preview image imposed on last frame of animation. The finished film can be exported to a QuickTime file.
Since it was impossible to make use of any external webcam to set an interesting scene, I am acting in this test motion animation:
embedded by Embedded Video
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You can get FrameByFrame at: http://web.mac.com/philipp.brendel/Software/FrameByFrame.html
