Animation

“Dad, what is animation?” asked Gabe the other day.

“It’s a bunch of still images put together to produce movement.” I answered, at the same time thinking for alternative explanation.

“Dad, I don’t understand.. how can still images produce movement?”

I should have thought out alternative first.. but I skipped the mumbo jumbo.

“Cartoon movies are animations, too.” I replied instead.

“So animation is cartoon..” Gabe concluded.

“Not always…. say, I have an idea.. Let’s make an experiment with one of the Transformers..”

“What’s the idea?” Gabe looked intrigued.

“We’ll make a short animation of Bumblebee transforming from Camaro car..”

So I went to grab my old cellphone which has a built in VGA camera, took the Bumblebee car, and set up a chair as stage for the animation.

Gabe was curious.. wondering what was I up to?

But then after having taken a few snapshots of Bumblebee and showed Gabe in slideshow mode, he was so excited.

(click the image to view animation)

“Let me do another!” Gabe begged..

“I’ll make another animation, but watch carefully.. so then you can do it your own.”

I took another figure and make the animation. But Gabe could hardly wait, “Let me, let me, please.. Dad!”

“Okay, here we go.. you take the snapshot, I’ll transform it once at a time.”

“Why not me do it all?”

“Teamwork, son..”

“Can a person do this all by himself?”

“Of course… but it’s so much fun when we do it together..”

And here is the animation of Brawl transformation shot by Gabe.. neat!

(click the image to view animation)