iKITMovie Blog

Cartoon Animation software is a generic term which can be used to include stop motion software. We think of cartoons as “Tom and Jerry” in the broadcast media or as comic strips in the printed media. But the term “Cartoon” can extend to all visual media that depicts caricatures of life. Cartoons have their roots in printed media going back over 150 years. A magazine called Punch appeared in England in 1841 and is reputed to have given us the beginnings of cartoons in modern life. It was a humorous satire on society and politics at the time. It ran until 2002. It had an international reputation for a witty and irreverent take on the world.

Even in early cinema stop motion and cel animation were used to create cartoons. They proved very popular with audiences. The original black and white drawings of Mickey Mouse are treated as works of art by historians of cinematography. A cel from the 1928 “Mickey Mouse – Steamboat Willie” with sound! is shown below. The Disney empire grew from these humble beginnings.

Mickey Mouse - Early Cel Animation

Stop motion ran in parallel to the printed media from the early 19th century. With the advent of home personal computers, everyone could now use animation software to create cartoon strips or cartoon animations in any form. Cartoon animation software can be used to create cel animations or stop motion animation with sound, music and voice overs all from the humble PC or Mac at home. Video sharing sites are full of excellent examples of homemade animations with cartoon animation software. All ages can get involved with the very easy to use cartoon software from WapitaMedia to advanced 3D animation software from Daz studio to our own stop motion “cartoon animation software” called iKITMovie.

It’s always very gratifying to get positive feedback on our software. But when it comes unannounced and without request for a review it is especially welcome. Diana Adams of BitRebels recently reviewed our software out of the blue. Diana and her son tested the software and were very pleased with it. Diana commented on the user friendly nature of the interface which is something we paid special attention to in our development to ensure it was attractive. She also picked up on the uniqueness of our sounds.

And I quote ..

“This software comes with a database of thousands of sounds to choose from and mood music (or you can add your own sounds). These are cool sounds too, like burps, coughs, claps, sneezes, whistles, heartbeats, footsteps etc… like I said, thousands of very crisp, distinctive sounds! I spent about fifteen minutes just flipping through and listening to the different sounds.”

Animateclay also reviewed our stop motion software recenlty. Don Carlson reviewed the software from a younger animators perspective and again had praise for its user friendly interface. Don made one good suggestion and that was to do with shortcut keys. For example “enter key” to playback , arrow key for rewind etc. as an alternative to using the mouse all the time for interface control. We take this on board and will definitely incorporate these shortcut key suggestions. Currently you can use the spacebar to capture images/ snaps, but perhaps a rewind, fast forward key etc. may be useful for stop motion animator also. Don gave us a B+ !  Wish I got as good when back in school right ! lol. Thanks to Diana and Don.

We really need to give more examples of replacement stop motion on our site. The recent examples we gave to some of our customers got a very positive response. Replacement Stop motion is a technique where each frame (or sequence of frames) uses a different object in place of the previous object. It was originally used in professional work by the very famous animator “George Pal”. One of his most famous stop motion sequences was in the 1962 “The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm” He used a a new hand-carved wooden puppet for each frame of film. It is said that they had over 1,000 puppets for one 4 minute sequence.  The example we give on our site is a little more modest that 1,000 hand carved puppets, nonetheless the result for those new to stop motion is very satisfying. With just 5 small pieces of clay moulded in to specific shapes a very impressive stop motion sequence can be achieved.

For new animators abstract shapes work best. It is a far more skilled job to have to create dozens of characters with small differences between each one. The human eye (your audience) is far more likely to amused by abstract shape shifting objects rather than picking holes in characters that are not quite the same between sequences. The other real advantage of using replacement techniques when starting out is that you get to know and become expert at “onionskinning”.  This is the most powerful yet easy to use feature for any animator to use.

So refer to our site homepage for the first example we give.

Drawn animation and to some lesser extent CG animation is alive and well in my native Ireland. There are a number of very successful Irish companies based in Ireland and abroad making significant contributions to the world of animation. Here is a sample listing of those in business in Ireland.

Animation – Irish Companies

http://www.caboom.ie/

http://www.cartoonsaloon.ie/

http://www.brownbagfilms.com/

http://www.monsteranimation.ie/

http://www.bouldermedia.tv

http://www.jammedia.ie/

http://www.kavaleer.com/

http://www.abumedia.com/

http://www.magmaworld.com

http://www.rocketanimation.com/

http://www.telegael.com/

http://www.thestation.ie/

http://www.boxcreative.net/

http://www.pricklypearproductions.ie/

The recent launch in 2005 of the Irish School of Animation at Ballyfermot College of Further Education has three courses on offer, A BA in Animation, a HND (Diploma) and a course called Animation Drawing Studies. According to their website their emphasis in on drawn (2D) animation..

The core of the Irish School of Animation is a focus on animation drawing and character animation coupled with an emphasis on strong visual design.

Browsing their students filmreels is testament to that emphasis. There are some exceptions. “Ben Harper” , a recent graduate of the school displays some of his CG work on his showreel below.

Showreel from Ben Harper on Vimeo.

It is a pity there isn’t much evidence of Stop Motion work at the school. or at least none that I can find. But hey..there work is top quality and it’s still creative and enjoyable.