Hatrack River Forum: Children's Animating Software recommendations

This is topic Children's Animating Software recommendations in forum Books, Films, Food and Culture at Hatrack River Forum.

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Posted by IanO (Member # 186) on :

I'm looking for some kid's software that would allow them to create simple animated movies fairly easily. Not too complicated. We're dealing with children, after all, with short attention spans, and if it's too complicated he'll give up too easily.

Something that is simple to middle of the road. Fairly easy to get set up and use, a good library of stock animation, back drops, etc, sounds, and a simple graphic creation program. Ideally, it'd be nice to import graphics from other formats (i.e.; import a picture of an x-wing or tie-fighter into the animation and do stuff with it.)

I tried to looking briefly and didn't see anything that jumped out at me. Just wondering if hatrack had any suggestions.

Thanks.

Posted by cheiros do ender (Member # 8849) on :

How about game making software? There seems to be a lot more of that available than movie animation software. Sorry but I can't think of any examples. There's RPG Maker but I find that too complicated at 16 years old. [Dont Know]

Posted by IanO (Member # 186) on :

Maybe. I used to have Stuart Smith's Adventure Construction Set (by EA), back in 1985. It was truly awesome, especially back then. Let you create RPGs. I actually found a copy of it online about 5 years ago and played with it for a few months. Still cool, but very limited.

Might be complicated for a 7 year old. I don't know. I'm looing for something that lets a kid make animated comics (even South Park style). Importing graphics would be most cool, though. I am seeing him wanting to create dog-fights with spaceships (without all the fancy banking and spinning and stuff.)

Posted by Zeugma (Member # 6636) on :

Did someone say... animation? [Wink]

http://www.2simpleusa.com/2animate/

Posted by IanO (Member # 186) on :

Looks exactly like what I am looking for.

though I wish the exhibition's button worked, so I could look at some samples.

Thanks

Posted by dkw (Member # 3264) on :

Oooooooooo . . .

Posted by Zeugma (Member # 6636) on :

Have you introduced him to plain old flipbooks? I used to love making those when I was a kid. And claymation, if you have an old video camera or webcam laying around. Lots of ways to fly spaceships around with those. [Smile]

Posted by IanO (Member # 186) on :

No. Nor do I have a video camera or web cam.

I like the 2Animate. Down side is that there is no inclusion for sound. I'm going to keep looking.

Posted by human_2.0 (Member # 6006) on :

If you have a Mac and a camera, iStopMotion is very popular.

Posted by IanO (Member # 186) on :

don't have a mac. Any other recommendations?

Posted by human_2.0 (Member # 6006) on :

AnimatorDV
http://animatordv.wmmedia.com/index.htm

It is *really* expensive though: $100 or $200 depending on which version you get. I have no idea how good this app is.

Posted by Sterling (Member # 8096) on :

You might try Clickteam's Games Factory or Klik & Play. They don't make "movie files", per se, but they can make self-sufficient executables that contain animations, and they support the import of several graphic formats.

www.clickteam.com

Posted by IanO (Member # 186) on :

thanks, everyone. Flipbook looks cool but seems a bit complicated.

I just want to let him create cartoons simply, with sound, and the ability to import graphics (for sprites and backgrounds.) And to be able to same them, preferably in a movie format. Though Flash should be ok.

Thanks again.

Ian

Posted by breyerchic04 (Member # 6423) on :

I don't know if it still exists, but I used kidpix from about 89 (I was born in 86) to 97 and it was good, the later version had fun animation.