Reading through your articles on animation I noticed a connection between the technique Aardman uses (the "move-take a photo-move-take a photo" process) and the fact that the Mac allows you to take photos using a combination of shift-command-3. The only thing needed then was to create some way of moving an object on the screen that could perhaps be independent of its background.
My solution, believe it or not, was to use ClarisWorks...especially the drawing environment, as this allows separate objects or frames to float over one another (the only restriction being that they all appear rectangular in shape (at least I think they have to).
The two animations I've included took very little time to do. Although the whole process used four different programs, I produced each animation in under 40 minutes. I don't view them as works of art. I just thought I might share the process, as I found it incredibly easy. Here's how...
Phil's exorcist impression
This was very easy. I decided on a size for the frame and drew a black square in the paint environment. Then I inserted a picture of me (from a few years ago...I was cute once) and then took a snapshot. Then all I did was lasso the head. Then it was just a matter of using the rotate command to spin the head about 10 degrees and then take another snapshot...repeating the process until I was back to the beginning. I used the first picture (when I hadn't lassoed the head) at the end again.
MacFormat train
This is where I used the drawing environment. First, I created "Mac" and "Format" as separate objects. Also, I created a black background and two pure white frames, which I put either side of the background. This was to mask any part of either "Mac" or "Format" that was sticking out of either end. These two white frames would then give the impression of the words appearing on the left and disappearing on the right. Have a look at the Pict file to see what I mean.
I then had to do a bit of maths and figure out how to get the "Mac" to go across the screen faster than the "Format". Then it was a matter of using ClarisWorks "Object Size" command to type in how much I wanted each frame to move by. Then I just deselected all the frames (to get rid of the dots) and took a snapshot.
TIDYING UP THE SNAPSHOTS
The Mac has an annoying feature of listing picture 2 after 10, 11,12 and so on. So first you need to add a space into each of the names of the single digit files. Then, I just dragged them onto GraphicConverter and used a combination of keys to select the area of each picture I wanted. For instance, I selected (roughly) the area of black around my picture, then went...
Command-Y (trim)
Command-E (this selects the area more accurately)
Command-Y (to trim again)
Command-S (save)
Command-W (close the window)
Using this method I ended up with a set of very accurately sized cells for my animation within seconds. Then it was just a matter of dragging them onto MooVer to get them into QuickTime. Then to add sound and to tidy things up, I used "QuickEditor" which I think is a brilliant piece of shareware.
And there you have it. I know it all sounds complicated, but once you get the hang of it, you can produce stop/click animations rapidly, without having to use any complex animation programs. Have fun.
