Equipment
We
used equipment we sourced ourseves to keep the costs as low as possible.
A large white plastic box from IKEA was used as a 'stage'.
Two IKEA halogen lamps, the ones with the bulb on the end of two telescopic
aerials, were used for adjustable lighting
The cameras were standard WebCams
Our high tech modelling material was plasticine
Our modlling tools were hands and ball point pens!
Each set of equipment cost about £22
Our Cameras were from Argos. Catalogue number 676-1147 and were 2 for
£25 as a special offer
Cheap, but up to
640 x 480 and 20 frames per second. They can also be focussed which gave
use good quality results.
Pupils on the course were given a micro mini camera to take away, these
are now very common and though the picture quality is terrible compared
to standard digital cameras (320 x 240 pixels max and only 5 frames per
second video) , they only cost £10 complete with all software. We
are hoping pupils will be able to make good films using the cameras and
use the software to add sound.
Both cameras are connected directly to the computer using a USB cable
and then the picture from the camera is shown ,live, on the computer screen.
Frames are captured by the software.
CODECS
Codec stands for Coding and Decoding software. Simply put, Normal cinema
film is made form individual pictures, each slightly different. Simply
recording lots of separate pictures makes a very large file size. Codecs
record only the difference between pictures so if a dog jumps but the
background stays relatively steady, the codec only records the changes
between the frames (pictures). Unfortunately, without the correct Codec,
you cannot view the film properly. If you need to donwload an updated
codec to view a film, go here.
Note that Windows Media Player will play all these films if you are connected
to the Internet and allow it to download any CODEC's it is missing.
Software
We used a wonderful little program called SMA
animator. This freeware program allows you to capture individual frames
and it uses codecs to stitch together into a finished film. It seems to
be the only free software for making animations we could find for this
course. Most other software uses Flash or cell shading to produce traditional
animation. You can also take lots of frames with a standard camera and
use GifAnimator to stitch them into a compressed film.
Both the cameras shown here include software which you can use to link
together and edit films, and add sound!
Helpguides
A full set of worksheets and pupil information sheets are available for
free download right HERE
(950K) . They are in Adobe Acrobat format (PDF) and you can get a free
reader from HERE