A.C.M.E.-ZON products make their debut this week on Shark Vs Rabbit. What is in the box? Rabbit can hardly wait. Big things come in small packages.
Episode 6 takes you into the minds of the Animation Chefs. Why do we animate the way we do. Why don't we do 3D animation? Why don't we do Flash? Why don't we grow real mustaches? (We can't...yet)
Our most ambitious show to date, Episode 6 has it all: app reviews, new viewer features, Pot-O-Problems challenge reveal, secret recipes and more. Mobile animating is the theme and we show you how to do it on the fly.
We live in wonderful times. We hope you enjoy our show!
Bon Animate!
Animation Chefs
A lot has happened since our last episode. We've had a fire set us back for a few months. We've done Holiday Shows. We've finished our finals in school. It's about time to launch a new episode.
As we put the finishing touches on Episode 6, we thought you might like to see a trailer of sorts.
Here is a montage on what to look for in Animation Chefs' next episode. Plus, some bonus behind the scenes footage from the Pot-O-Problems challenge - "Call of Fruity".
Make sure you stay tuned for the launch of Episode 6 probably next week. Make sure you sign-up for the email if you already haven't.
Bon Animate!
Animation Chefs
We love doing animations for people we care about. We love sharing them. Sharing animation via social media, custom animation, is like handwriting a letter. Sure you can go buy a card, or send an email, or a text, or a tweet. But when you receive a handwritten letter, it get's attention. It stands out. It says you care enough to take the time to sit down and write the old fashioned way.
Even though it isn't old fashioned, doing an animation for a special occasion has the same effect. It stands out. It says, "we took the time to really think this through. We worked at 15 frames per second to make your day.
Because that's how much we think of Mom.
You should try it. All it takes is a little imagination. A mobile device with an animation app, and a bit of an edit on a laptop.
We hope you enjoy it.
Happy Mother's Day
P.S. Sorry for butchering Beethoven's Fifth.
We had a blast at the Tribeca Film Festival Family Day in New York City. The organizers invited us to come to the event prepared to teach young people how to animate. They provided the tent and technology, we provided the know how and buckets of clay and eyeballs.
The response was almost overwhelming. If we are invited back next year (and they have just enthusiastically done so) we will deputized more Animation Chefs. We could have used at least three more people to help us handle the volume of kids who are interested in animating and uploading their creations to share with the world.
Youngsters as young as three years old, up to youngsters as old as adults were busy making all sorts of creations out of modeling clay. We had three iPads, three Apple TVs, and three flatscreens to display and enjoy each animation as it came out of the iPad ovens.
We hope you all get out an iPad or some kind of smartphone, and animate something to send to someone you think would like it. Let's add animating to the list of tweeting, texting, photosharing, and video sharing we already do. It can be so much fun to surprise your loved ones with a custom animated message.
Bon Animate!
Animation Chefs
We were invited to participate in the Tribeca Film Festival's Family Day street event on the final day in New York City. The Tribeca people wanted us to help hundreds of young animators learn stop-motion animation recipes, techniques, and tips. We only had time for each new animator to make a few seconds of footage, but each young media producer brought a special flair to their creations by making their own clay and paper figures.
For most this was the very first time they animated anything. And many were very pleased this was all done on iPads. As usual, we used iStopMotion's app to bring good things to life!
If you'd like to see their creations in action, join our member's area to the right. We've posted well over 100 animation experiments by kids mostly between the ages of 5 and 10. We'll also be posting a "behind-the-scenes look at what it took us to set up such a wonderful tent and get ready for the day. This will be in the members area shortly.
Join and we'll give you a head's up when it is ready.
Until then,
Bon Animate!
Animation Chefs
Our fan-imations are some of the most popular posts on our website. We've helped two young men do their own stop motion Godzilla animation. Their fan-imation will be part of our upcoming Episode 6.
As a teaser, we have assembled a few of our screen tests here to show a work in progress. We animate in iStopMotion and composite and edit in iMovie 11 with the green screen function enabled in the project window.
Just a little something to tease for Episode 6 of the Animation Chefs - coming soon.
Bon Animate!
Animation Chefs
Episode 5 is our most ambitious to date. It's all here! Godzilla meets Justin Bieber, dragons are slayed, secret recipes are revealed, visitors honored, app reviews, and the dreaded Pot-O-Problems. Media making fun has never been...well...funner. In fact, we have had the mostest funnerest blast putting this all together for our animation fans. We have heard from animators from all over the world. We are joined by the multitude who wants to make their own movies. Welcome to our journey. You just might learn something that will inspire you to do what we do....think up stuff and bring it to life. Bon Animate! Animation Chefs
We have had some amazing experiences as Animation Chefs over the years, but none as amazing as this. We were invited to go to Rwanda to help kids there create animations. The Rwanda Cinema Center was opening soon, and we went there with author Craig Hatkoff who had written a book about Mountain Gorillas called "Looking for Miza". Enjoy!
Bon Animate!
We worked with a group of local kids to make an adventure movie about discovering an ancient pyramid in a jungle and finding ghosts there. Then they would zap the ghosts. They thought it would be fun to make a story using themselves as characters.
We took pictures of them doing different facial positions. Then we printed their pictures out on card stock white paper from our printer. We cut out just the faces, and then built some bodies out of construction paper. Then we did table top stop motion animation.
We finished the sounds in iMovie! We spent a few nights on this. Maybe three. It was a lot of fun.
Make sure to watch until after the credits when one of their Ghosts gets some revenge!
Enjoy!
Bon Animate!
Animation Chefs
We love our fans! So we'll let this Valentines animation speak for itself! Stop motion emotion coming your way! With all the cool animation apps and cameras in everything but your toothbrush, why not make movies for your holiday wishes. Imagine how blown away your loved ones would be if they received a customized movie. Come on. Do it!
