{"id":3672,"date":"2019-10-19T14:46:08","date_gmt":"2019-10-19T13:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mathscitech.org\/articles\/?p=3672"},"modified":"2020-05-30T02:20:44","modified_gmt":"2020-05-30T01:20:44","slug":"animations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mathscitech.org\/articles\/animations","title":{"rendered":"Making Animation from Stills"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Hi, my name is Jasmine, and I&#8217;m 7 years old. Today I made two animated movies, <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/sTmieoLh-Us\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">The Basket (1m 18s long)<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=_BaFAJNgmX4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Snowbell&#8217;s Accident (2m 23s long)<\/a> <em><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">(Nov 2nd, new with audio!)<\/span><\/em> Enjoy!<\/p>\n<p>I made these by taking still photographs of the action with my dad&#8217;s iPhone and then recording an audio soundtrack (for the second animation). My dad then assembled the stills into an animation and layered on the soundtrack (<a href=\"https:\/\/mathscitech.org\/articles\/animations#howto\">see below for how<\/a>).  I&#8217;m working to add music to it &#8212; check again soon!<\/p>\n<p><strong>The Basket (1m 18s long)<\/strong> <em>(silent film)<\/em><br \/>\n<em>The Pets find a cozy basket. But amidst all the hustle and bustle, will anyone be able to take a nap?<\/em><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sTmieoLh-Us\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><strong>Snowbell&#8217;s Accident 2m 23s long)<\/strong><em><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">(Nov 2nd, new with audio!)<\/span><\/em><br \/>\n<em>Snowbell the cat has a terrible accident. Will her family be able to act quickly enough to save her?<\/em><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_BaFAJNgmX4\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3693\" style=\"width: 360px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3693\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-image-3693\" src=\"https:\/\/mathscitech.org\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/screenshot.0889.png\" alt=\"Animation (2m 23s long) made from stills assembled into an sequence playing at 1 frame per second.\" width=\"350\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mathscitech.org\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/screenshot.0889.png 464w, https:\/\/mathscitech.org\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/screenshot.0889-262x300.png 262w, https:\/\/mathscitech.org\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/screenshot.0889-131x150.png 131w, https:\/\/mathscitech.org\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/screenshot.0889-400x458.png 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-3693\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Animation (2m 23s long) made from stills assembled into an sequence playing at 1 frame per second.<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><a id=\"howto\"><\/a><\/p>\n<h4>How-to instructions, for Windows PC, using free software.  (written by Jasmine&#8217;s daddy)<\/h4>\n<p><strong>1. How to make Animations from Stills<\/strong><br \/>\nUse <a href=\"https:\/\/mathscitech.org\/articles\/totcmd#images\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Total Commander<\/a> with two free plugins: (1) the <a href=\"http:\/\/totalcmd.net\/plugring\/graphicconverter.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Graphic Converter plugin<\/a> converts the iPhone&#8217;s native HEIC images to PNG files, and can compresses the images to reduce data bulk; (2) the <a href=\"http:\/\/totalcmd.net\/plugring\/avi.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">AVI plugin (Alt+F5)<\/a> sequences images at a user selectable speed (frames-per-second 1 to 30) and image compression quality (Full 100% or MS Video 1 @ 75% compression)<\/p>\n<p><strong>2. How to record Audio soundtrack<\/strong><br \/>\nUse <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fosshub.com\/Audacity.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Audacity<\/a> (download the zip file which is portable). This will allow you to record one or multiple audio tracks, edit them, add effects if desired, and export to an audio file (MP3). (<a href=\"https:\/\/manual.audacityteam.org\/man\/tutorial_making_a_test_recording.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Audacity quickstart<\/a>.) For good sound quality, it&#8217;s worth investing in a good USB headset with microphone (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/Logitech-2227812-H390-USB-Headset-Black\/dp\/B005BFCNYU\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Logitech makes decent ones<\/a>, even at the lower price points). (Note that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.toptenreviews.com\/best-voice-recording-software\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Comparable software to Audacity have $30-$50 licenses<\/a>.)  Troubleshooting: If the sound bars jump to yellow\/red whenever you&#8217;re recording, you likely have sound amplification (e.g. +10dB boost) or other enhancement configured.  Fix: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.voxforge.org\/home\/docs\/faq\/faq\/windows-how-do-i-adjust-my-recording-volume-levels-using-audacity\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">turn off such settings<\/a> from Windows control panel (Control Panel > Sound > Microphone > Recording).  Or, you could try the free <a href=\"https:\/\/online-voice-recorder.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">online voice recorder<\/a>, but you&#8217;ll have less control in the editing studio department than with Audacity.<\/p>\n<p><strong>3. How to merge animation video and audio soundtrack <\/strong><br \/>\nDownload the <a href=\"https:\/\/ffmpeg.zeranoe.com\/builds\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">portable version<\/a> of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ffmpeg.org\/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">FFMPEG video\/audio converter<\/a>. Using this you can merge separate audio and video tracks with the following <a href=\"https:\/\/superuser.com\/a\/277667\/153054\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">simple command line script<\/a> which you putting it in the same location as the audio and video files, and updating the variables of the script to your filenames and directory structure:<br \/>\n<code><br \/>\n@echo off<br \/>\necho Merge AVI video and MP3 audio with FFMPEG  (AE, Nov 2, 2019, v1)<br \/>\n:: configure the below to match your setup<br \/>\nset ffdir=c:\\totalcmd\\ffmpeg64\\bin<br \/>\nset video=snowbells_accident_jasmine_second_take_silent.avi<br \/>\nset audio=snowbells-accident-audio_track4.mp3<br \/>\npause<br \/>\n:: instruction<br \/>\n%ffdir%\\ffmpeg.exe -i %video% -i %audio% -c:v copy -c:a aac -strict experimental output.avi<br \/>\n<\/code><\/p>\n<p>Note: This should work for FFMPEG versions even as old as from 2012.<\/p>\n<p>(For those who like Total Commander, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.saschahlusiak.de\/total-commander-extensions\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">AVIWCX plugin<\/a> looks promising, though FFMPEG will have many more options and be able to input and output many more AV formats.)<\/p>\n<p><strong>4. Concatenating (merging, joining, chaining) video files<\/strong> (works with FFMPEG 4.4.1, not with<br \/>\nUse <a href=\"https:\/\/stackoverflow.com\/a\/11175851\/181638\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">FFMPG concatenate video function<\/a>:<\/p>\n<p><code><br \/>\n@echo off<br \/>\necho Concatenating selected videos with FFMPEG (AE, Jan 2, 2020 v1)<br \/>\n:: configure the below to match your setup<br \/>\nset ffdir=c:\\totalcmd\\ffmpeg64\\bin<br \/>\npause<br \/>\n:: instruction<br \/>\n%ffdir%\\ffmpeg -y -f concat -i list.txt -vcodec copy -acodec copy merged.MOV<br \/>\n<\/code><\/p>\n<p>This concatenates files in list.txt, which is formatted as:<br \/>\n<code><br \/>\n# comment<br \/>\nfile IMG_2814.MOV<br \/>\nfile IMG_2818.MOV<br \/>\nfile IMG_2822.MOV<br \/>\nfile IMG_2826.MOV<br \/>\n<\/code><\/p>\n<p><strong>5. Hosting your video on YouTube<\/strong><br \/>\nGet an account with YouTube.  This is the easiest and quickest way to get your video content on the web. No need to deal with storage, download rates, server bandwidth. With the embedding link, you can get the player to appear within your own webpage and play the content.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s it!  Enjoy!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hi, my name is Jasmine, and I&#8217;m 7 years old. Today I made two animated movies, The Basket (1m 18s long) and Snowbell&#8217;s Accident (2m 23s long) (Nov 2nd, new with audio!) Enjoy!<\/p>\n<p>I made these by taking still photographs of the action with my dad&#8217;s iPhone and then recording an audio soundtrack (for the [Read More&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":119,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[136,100],"tags":[169,121,128,170,171,168],"coauthors":[135],"class_list":["post-3672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jasmine-sheherazade","category-softwaretools","tag-creativity","tag-education","tag-stem","tag-tech-for-children","tag-total-commander","tag-video","odd"],"views":5652,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mathscitech.org\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mathscitech.org\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mathscitech.org\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mathscitech.org\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mathscitech.org\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3672"}],"version-history":[{"count":36,"href":"https:\/\/mathscitech.org\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5590,"href":"https:\/\/mathscitech.org\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3672\/revisions\/5590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mathscitech.org\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mathscitech.org\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mathscitech.org\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3672"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mathscitech.org\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=3672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}