The research will cover both theory and the practical use of the Flip Animation. At a minimum, the following questions should be answered.
1) An overview of your animation software
2) What you are going to use the software for
3) A PMI (postive, minus, interesting)
4) How to use the program (basic tutorial)
5) What type of animation the software is
6) An example of the software (embedded into your blog)
7) A short evaluation of the software based on your experience.
Below I have completed an example of the 7 questions above, using Flip Animation as an example. You will need to complete this for each of the animation programs you use (i.e. Line Rider, Pivot, Go Animation and Stop Motion)
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Flip Book - Research
An overview of flipbook
A flip book or flick book is a book with a series of pictures that vary gradually from one page to the next, so that when the pages are turned rapidly, the pictures appear to animate by simulating motion or some other change. Flip books are often illustrated books for children, but may also be geared towards adults and employ a series of photographs rather than drawings. Flip books are not always separate books, but may appear as an added feature in ordinary books or magazines, often in the page corners. Software packages and websites are also available that convert digital video files into custom-made flip books.
What am I going to use Flip Book for
Flipbook is one of many programs that I will be testing. I will set my self a small design brief, which will allow me to test flipbook. I will be using http://www.benettonplay.com/toys/flipbookdeluxe/
Positive, Minus and Interesting
Positive
The program is free and very interesting to use. It is also very easy to use and produces an animation with very vivid colurs.
Minus
The program has limited features
Interesting
The program produces a remarkable good animation, which can be embedded into my blog.
How to use the program
Flip books are essentially a primitive form of animation. Like motion pictures, they rely on persistence of vision to create the illusion that continuous motion is being seen rather than a series of discontinuous images being exchanged in succession. Rather than "reading" left to right, a viewer simply stares at the same location of the pictures in the flip book as the pages turn. The book must also be flipped with enough speed for the illusion to work, so the standard way to "read" a flip book is to hold the book with one hand and flip through its pages with the thumb of the other hand. The German word for flip book—Daumenkino, literally "thumb cinema"—reflects this process.
What type of animation is flip book
A lot like its predecessor, you draw with your mouse on the drawing area and use the arrows to add frames or to go back to previous frames.
Colors and different stroke widths have been added to give Flipbook! a wider range of expression. Another extra tool is the 'duplicate frame' button which makes the animation job a lot easier.
How do I save my Flipbook?
You can use the 'save' button to save your work in progress without publishing it. You can reopen it again from 'my flipbooks' and keep working on the animation until you are ready to publish it.
You can use 'save & publish' when you are ready to publish the animation. Once you publish an animation you can't work on it any more.
You can even make multiple smaller Flipbooks! called 'scenes', work on them independently and them mash them together using 'build and publish' to create your final Flipbook!.
An example of the Flip Book
Overall I am happy with the level of knowledge I have gained about flip books. While the animation is very basic and easy to construct, it can create some interesting animations as seen above. Despite this, I will not be choosing flip book for my main project, as it does not offer the features and complexity I was hoping for.
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Now undertake the above for each of the animation programs you are testing.
