Basic Animation using iMovie

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Animation SOL-ation Animation is simply a series of still pictures that, when viewed rapidly one after the other, create an illusion of movement.

The pictures can be obtained several different ways:

1

Drawing or painting on sheets of paper.

2

Creating digital drawings on the computer.

3

Taking photos of paper cutouts, clay objects or other 3-D models.


When you are taking photos, remember to use a tripod so that your camera always stays in the same position. Then connect your camera to iPhoto and Import the pictures.

Click the + sign in the lower left corner of iPhoto to create a new Album and give it a name.

Next open iMovie and click on the Media button to locate your pictures.


Click on Photos and you will see all your iPhoto albums listed. Click on the one you just created for your pictures. Then click on Show Photo Settings at the bottom to set the speed to about 0:03. (Also remember to uncheck the Ken Burns Effect).

Now drag your pictures down to the timeline. If they are still not fast enough, you can highlight them all, click on the Editing button, and use the Fast/Slow/ Reverse filter to speed it up further.


Once your animation looks right, you can add titles....

...and drag down music and sound effects to your movie or record your own voice using the record button.


If you want additional sound effects try these free sites: www.findsounds.com! !

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www.soundsnap.com

If you have several songs and sound effects, you may need to decrease or increase the volume of different tracks. Here, I have reduced the volume of the song to 20%.


Lastly you will need to Export the movie to QuickTime. Usually the best choice is to compress it for CD-ROM.

Now you have completed an animated learning video that you can post to a website or just save on the computer.


If you want to create your own digital pictures on the computer you can use AppleWorks Painting (or some other paint program).

Choose the size of your document by going to Format > Document

Then start drawing your picture using the painting tools. Remember in animation to build on your previous picture. You can save time by using the lasso tool to copy objects.


Finally, you will need to save each picture as a JPEG file. Go to File > Save As... Then click JPEG from the list of choices.

Give each picture a name with a number so they stay in order when you put them in iMovie (like Seed01.jpg, Seed02.jpg, Seed03.jpg, etc). Choose the Quality you want (Medium is fine).

When you are done with all the pictures drag them into iMovie.


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.