Animated Movie Using Windows Movie Maker

Ever wanted to create your own animated movie? Well, you're not alone! A lot of people, young and old, want to do this without working in a studio or using a moviola. Below are a few steps for creating your own animated movie using Windows Movie Maker.

editSteps

• Draw your animated movie. You must finish drawing your entire cartoon before going onto any further steps.
• Draw your animated movie as if you are creating a flip book. Every picture must match to make your animated movie move from frame to frame. You may want to flip your cartoon over to see does every frame match each other.
• Take pictures of all of the frames(Pictures) you drew, or scan them into the computer via scanner. You must have taken a picture of every picture you drew to make your cartoon move. But the drawings must be photographed in order in which your movie goes.
• Take your camera and plug it into your computer. You must then save all of the pictures you took of your cartoon to the computer. But EVERY picture you drew must be saved to the computer for this to work. Once you saved the pictures don't touch them until step 4.
• Open windows movie maker onto your computer. But you must have Windows Movie Maker downloaded onto your computer. In the right hand corner, click on import pictures.
• Import ALL of the pictures you took of your cartoon that you saved to your computer. Then all of your pictures you took should come up in the middle of your screen of Windows Movie Maker.
• Then right click on all of your pictures you imported. But this must be done ONE at a time by picture by picture in which the order of your cartoon goes. Then a rectangle should come up.
• Click on the first box at the top that says "ADD TO TIME LINE". Then the picture you right clicked on should appear at the bottom of the screen on a rectangle that says "Video" on the right side of it. But you must do this to all of your drawings.
• Delete ALL of the pictures in the box that says "COLLECTION" in bold, big letters. But do not touch the pictures that are in the box where it says "VIDEO" until later.
• You now have to edit your video to make your animated movie work. Right click on "ALL" of the pictures one at a time drawing by drawing. Then another rectangle should come up. Click on the "7TH" box in the rectangle where it says "VIDEO EFFECTS".
• A box full of options called "ADD OR REMOVE VIDEO EFFECTS" should pop up. Scroll down all the way to the bottom of this box of varieties. You should see a video effect that says "SPEED UP, DOUBLE" that comes third last. Select that option. Then you should see a button in the middle that says "ADD". Select that option 6 times. Then you should see a option that says "OK". Click on ok.
• Now that you have done all of steps, you are ready to preview to see what your animated short looks like. You can do so by going up to the menu buttons up at the top of windows movie maker. You should see a option that says "PLAY" at the top. Click on play. Then a drop down rectangle should pop up. Click on the 3rd option that says "PLAY TIMELINE". Then you should see your movie play by picture by picture.

Clay Animation

Clay Animation is an obscure yet amazing art form. In the following ten steps, you will learn how to turn a ball of clay into a figure of your choice. Then you will animate the figure and create a short clay animation video of your own. This form of animation is most often called "Stop-motion animation" because that is what it is. You are animating something that can't move.

1. Buy plasticine or polymer clay and wire at your local craft store. Any size wire will do. Make sure the clay will not harden when exposed to air. Purchase any color of clay you desire, but also purchase gray clay to use as a base.
2. Cut about a three foot piece of wire and bend it in half. Starting at the bent end, twist both strands of the wire together.
3. Form the wire into any shape you wish. Form it in the general outline of whatever you are trying to make. Do not include fingers. This shape is called an armature, and it is the frame on which you will mold your clay. This will help support your clay figure when you begin to animate it.
4. Start molding a thin layer of gray clay onto the armature or wire frame. The gray clay acts as a neutral base on which you will later mold other colors of clay.
5. Create a figurine for clay animation. Begin putting on the other layers of colored clay. For example, if you are creating a person from clay, then you mold different colors of clay onto the figure for things such as the shirt or pants. If you are creating a zebra, you may want to use black and white clay to make stripes.
6. Begin animating your figure. Set up a still digital camera at the angle in which you wish to capture the animation. A tripod is essential in this situation. For the animation to flow, it needs to all be captured from the same angle. Without a tripod, it isn't going to work.
7. Place the figure on a flat surface. Carefully bend it into a starting position and take a picture of the figure with the camera.
8. Move the figure very slightly into the next position, then take another picture. Each picture is called a frame. Film runs at 24 frames per second, and digital video runs at 30. Be very precise while animating your figure. If you move it too much, it will appear to jump in the video. If you remove the figure from the camera's view, it will seem to disappear.
9. Continue to move the figure and take pictures until you have completed your desired animation. If you run out of pictures before you have finished, save the pictures to your computer and leave your figurine in the exact same position. Clear the camera and continue shooting.
10. Load the pictures onto a computer. Use a photo editing program to speed up each individual picture so that it creates a movie. Watch your creation and show it to whoever you wish.