Those who’ve spent much time watching jittering Lego blocks on YouTube, Wallace and Gromit shorts on an iPod, or recent Tim Burton animated films in the theater know that stop-motion movie-making is a going concern. For those unfamiliar with the term, stop-motion animation is the painstaking process of capturing still images of a scene, moving objects within the scene ever so slightly after each still image capture, and stringing together the resulting images as video frames so that when played back they mimic movement. Unlike in the golden claymation days of Gumby and Pokey, creating stop-motion videos is well within the grasp and budget of the typical Mac user. With little more than a digital camera or camcorder, software, and a fair measure of patience and planning, you can create a compelling animated feature. Here are some suggested ways to go about it. Tools of the trade Camera You can’t very well capture still images without a camera. Although you could conceivably use your Mac’s built-in iSight camera, you’re far better off with a real camera that captures higher-quality images.

• Best 2d Animation Software For Mac Free
• Best Animation Software For Mac Beginners
• Best Animation Software For Mac

This can be either a digital still camera or a camcorder. Which you choose largely depends on the software you use to assemble your animation.

If you use a traditional movie editing application such as ( ), you’ll use a still camera to capture your images, import them to your Mac, and add them to an iMovie project. Applications designed specifically for stop-motion animation can not only import images shot with a still camera (some can capture live images directly through the camera) but also capture images from a camcorder tethered to the Mac via USB or Firewire. If you have the option, a good still camera will produce better images than a typical consumer camcorder because of the camera’s better sensor; you get greater control over focus, aperture, depth of field, and white balance, and the variety of lenses you can use. Software As stop-motion animation is little more than still images pieced together in a sequence, you can create a movie with any video application you like. And, for Mac users, that generally means iMovie ’09. However, while iMovie ’09 is affordable (particularly if it was bundled with your new Mac), there are tools better suited for the job. Philipp Brendel’s free is a bare-bones stop-motion animation application that works with a DV camcorder or iSight camera.

It supports a form of onion skinning—a feature that displays a semi-transparent overlay of the last frame you shot along with the image of the object currently in front of the camera. Using onion skinning you can see how much you’ve moved the object in relation to its last position, thus helping to ensure that the movement between frames is neither too minimal or radical. FrameByFrame doesn’t support still cameras nor can it import still images. Boinx Software makes three flavors of its capable stop-motion animation application, —Home ($49), Express ($99), and Pro ($499). The Home version lacks support for rotoscoping (used for lip syncing dialog) and soundtracks, and doesn’t allow continuous recording (shooting a user-defined number of frames or seconds of video) or offer noise reduction. Like the Home version, iStopMotion 2 Express doesn’t support HD video or provide integration with ( ). All versions include onion skinning, allow you to use both camcorders and supported still cameras, and include a compositing feature for adding background images and foreground frames.

Boinx's iStopMotion 2 includes a compositing feature for applying foreground and background images. D-Zed’s $275 is a professional stop-motion animation application.

Although it can use camcorders for capturing images (including HDV/HDMI cameras in league with an HDMI conversion card), its strong suit is its support for still cameras. With it you can use the Live View feature found in recent Nikon, Canon, and Olympus DSLRs to not only preview shots through the camera’s lens, but also capture high-quality images. IStopMotion 2 also supports some DSLRs, but not as many as Dragon Stop Motion.

It also includes such worthwhile features as onion skinning, an X-Sheet window (a technical script template) for plotting and annotating your shots, support for RAW camera files, and a dialog track for typing in phonetic symbols to help sync audio and motion. Onion skinning as seen within Dragon Stop Motion. FrameByFrame, iStopMotion 2, and Dragon Stop Motion let you trigger your camcorder and—in the case of the latter two applications, supported still camera—via the Mac’s keyboard or remote control. IStopMotion 2 additionally lets you use Apple’s hardware remote control (with Macs that support it) to trigger captures. D-Zed includes the Dragon Stop Motion Controller—a wired USB keypad—for controlling the software and performing camera captures. Both iStopMotion 2 and Dragon Stop Motion support time-lapse shooting, provide an on-screen grid so you can more carefully design your shots, and include a feature for adding and offsetting soundtracks.

Accessories A camera and the right software can be enough to get you started, but you’ll create better-looking projects with a few additional items. Start with a tripod. It’s vital that your camera stay in one place when you shoot a scene and a tripod can provide that service. If you’re animating small objects—clay figures, Lego, or toys—a desktop tripod will often do the trick. Lights are another useful addition. Light changes over time and if you don’t control your primary light sources the quality of light within each shot will vary, making for an uneven looking video. You can inexpensively light your sets with a couple of tungsten work lights from your local Home Depot or Lowe’s.

To cut down on harsh shadow, diffuse that light with a white bed sheet, white shower curtain, or sheet of diffusing material found at a photographic supply shop. Alternatively you can use a couple of table lamps with daylight bulbs or purchase a small-object lighting kit such as American Recorder’s $130. Whether you choose work lights, daylight bulbs, or the lights in a lighting kit, adjust the white balance on your camera to find the setting that works best with the light you use. Choosing a medium Your stop-motion video will be mighty dull if you put nothing more interesting than a bare wall in front of the camera. Fortunately, you can animate just about anything.

Traditionalists will turn to modeling clay. It’s inexpensive and easily shaped. If you choose clay it’s a good idea to wrap it around a wire armature (skeleton). Tall clay objects tend to bend of their own accord (particularly when the clay is warm) and you don’t want to constantly twist something back into the correct posture between shots. The wire helps objects stay where you put them.

You’re welcome to make your own but you can also purchase armature kits and parts from such companies as,. Additionally, you can place small magnets in the feet of your armature and a thin steel plate in the stage’s floor to anchor your models.

Pre-made armature from Animation Supplies. When creating clay creatures that talk or use facial expressions, consider creating multiple parts—mouths, eyes, even heads—and swap them in when needed. For example, if your clay character speaks, you can form mouth parts that accompany “oo,” “ah,” “ee,” and plosive sounds (b’s and p’s). Record your dialog and then place the appropriate mouth shape to align with that dialog.

Again, both iStopMotion 2 and Dragon Stop Motion include audio tracks for adding dialog. Another popular medium is Lego blocks and characters. Lego offers a lot of advantages as it’s a relatively inexpensive material; there are a wide variety of shapes, pieces, and characters; you can work on a small “stage;” base plate pieces provide you with a “floor,” making it easy to attach your characters to a predictable surface (one where you always know where to place the characters’ next step); and because Lego is so recognizable, your audience will expect the animation to be a little wooden (and without animated expressions on the characters' faces). If you’re a doodler, give paper and drawing or painting materials a try.

Though some may define your effort as closer to a cartoon than stop-motion animation, the results can be spectacular (and inexpensive to produce). Your subject need not be inanimate.

Humans prove to be a perfectly good subject for stop-motion animation not only because they’re flexible in so many ways, but because you can tell them how to move. YouTube is full of stop-animation videos that feature human subjects. Preparation Although you can set up a camera, launch a stop-motion animation application, and start shoving Polly Pocket figures around on the dining room table, your video will be more compelling with some scenery and a story line.

Scenery will be determined by both the characters’ materials and their size. Human subjects are best shot in the real world.

Clay characters can interact with the real world or be confined to a set you construct. Unless you have a lot of Lego, you’ll use a small set, much of which you can make out of Lego blocks. When constructing a set, it’s worth the effort to create walls on the sides and back.

This provides surfaces to bounce light off of and will lend depth to the scene when you place objects in the background. Additionally, you can line those surfaces with green paper or cloth, providing you with a green-screen background on which you can overlay pictures or movies in a video editing application that supports green screening. A simple setup with stage, figure, lights, camera, tripod, and controller. You should also prepare a shooting script. Having a script in hand will not only ensure that you’ve thought through your story before you start shooting, but it will help you plan your shots. Look at any modern TV show or movie and you’ll find that the camera doesn’t linger on a character or angle for more than a handful of seconds.

Your movie will look more professional when you shift angles every so often or move between long, medium, and close-up shots. All these movements should be planned and written out in a script that contains columns for action, dialog, camera position, and technical notes (“light from below,” for example). When shooting from multiple angles and distances, you’ll find it easier if you use more than one camera. With multiple cameras you can leave each in place. With one camera there’s the danger that when you move it, you’ll be unable to return it to the exact position it was in originally. If you have just the one camera, carefully mark the position of the tripod—both where its legs stand and its height—so you have a better chance of putting it back in its original position. Audio issues If your video includes dialog, record it before you start capturing images.

That way you can accurately form the character’s lips and mouth to match the words it speaks. Even if you’re animating Lego or stuffed animals—where moving mouths isn't a concern—you’ll find it much easier to pace your movie if you edit it to the dialog. Shooting first and then trying to cram the dialog into the correct spots can make the dialog sound unnatural. You have more leeway with sound effects. With an audio editor that supports QuickTime (GarageBand, for example) you can easily add, edit, and position many sound effects after you’ve assembled the video. Shooting Before you take your first shot you have some important questions to answer: How smooth do you want the motion to be?

How long do you intend the video to be? How much time and patience do you have? And how clearly have you observed the movement of “real” objects? Considering frame-rate Motion pictures are shot at 24 frames per second (fps). Full-motion video is approximately 30 fps.

The Wallace and Gromit 30-minute shorts were shot at close to 20 fps—around 35,000 shots per video. That’s a lot of pictures. Unless you’re a professional with a staff to do the grunt work or have nearly endless amounts of time on your hands, you need to find ways to take fewer shots. One way, obviously, is to make shorter videos. Another is to choose a lower frame rate.

15 fps looks reasonably smooth, but that’s still a lot of pictures. Because viewers expect stop-motion animation to be jerky, putting together a movie at 10 or 12 fps is hardly a sin. If you’re importing images into iMovie ’09, you don’t have much choice as the shortest value you can assign to a still image is 0.1 seconds. FrameByFrame, iStopMotion 2, and Dragon Stop Motion, however, allow you to set the frame rate you like. Power Whether you use a DV camcorder or DSLR, your camera will be switched on for long periods of time, which will drain the battery and eventually leave you in a powerless lurch.

You’ll be able to shoot as long as you like if you forego the battery as a power source and instead attach an AC adapter to your camera. Also, if you use a DV camcorder, that camcorder may go to sleep after a few minutes of inactivity. You can often prevent this by taking the tape out of the camera.

Contents. The Whiteboard Animation Video is the coolest and the right way to create visual online money making content. And to create a good marketing video, you need to have the best value for money animation software. You know the type of the things wanted for creating the traditional whiteboard video and those are – a hand, a whiteboard, a pen, and some good fun drawings.

But to strengthen your online branding and provide you a lot of social signals, you need a help of top rated software which helps you to make whiteboard animation videos. There is quite a good number of video animation software to create whiteboard content available in the market, some of them are available as free as they provide free options for use while some of them are paid software. For beginners, it is a good thing to start with the free versions, but when you are serious about creating quality whiteboard videos, then I recommend you should upgrade to premium animation software. I have researched for the top video software for creating whiteboard animation and made this list to help you easily choose the best software according to your need and requirements. Best Whiteboard Animation Software. Among the highest-rated software, the Videoscribe from Sparkol can be placed at the top. It is best for Educators, FAQs, and simple, technical explanations.

It is like nothing you have ever seen before. More impressive thing is that you do not need to be a techie to use this video animation tool. If you are looking for a whiteboard animation software for MAC and PC support, then go nowhere than Videoscribe. You can use it with your Android, iPhone, iPad or Kindle Fire device. comes with cloud storage, so you can use this tool software on multiple devices as well. By giving the yearly and monthly plans at a very cheap rate of $12/month and $29/month respectively. Videoscribe offers a 7-day free trial also.

Easy Sketch Pro is not just a whiteboard animation software, but you can generate leads through it also. You also get the options of multiple video publishing, adding call optin form links, and getting the about the user interaction with your videos. You can get Easy Sketch Pro at a very low price of just $37 and can claim for the welcome bonus package too.

The latest version 3.0 of is a lot faster and has an improved user interface than its previous versions. You can add live ‘hot spots’ to make interactive videos. You can also add URLs of your website, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter accounts and affiliate links. The awesome feature of ‘Click to call’ button allows the prospects to call you directly within the video.

Python Releases for Mac OS X. Latest Python 3 Release - Python 3.7.1 Latest Python 2 Release - Python 2.7.15 Python 3.7.2rc1 - 2018-12-11. Please remember that MMTK, like Python, comes with neither a price tag. MacPorts provides an install-and-build system for Unix software on the. To build and install a C extension module included with MMTK, Python is looking for the C compiler it was built with. For OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard), the least. Python comes pre-installed on Mac OS X so it is easy to start using. However, to take advantage of the latest versions of Python, you will need to download. Mmtk python download for mac.

A great professional whiteboard animation software that allows creating awesome videos using your favorite internet browser. The has thousands of inbuilt hand-drawn assets like backgrounds, props, etc. And hundreds of character actions which help you to draw your whiteboard video content in a professional way according to your business needs and requirements. You can add your voice acting or voice over to your animation video, can import audio files as well. You can also hire professional actors to record the audio and to get the faster turn around.

It is a good tool for cartoon stories, animated infographics and anime stories videos. GoAnimate offers three different plans and pricings for its potential users, you can choose the best suitable plan for you.

With a good option of providing a free plan also for its users, PowToon is simply one of the most popular and top-rated whiteboard animation software. In the category of the free video creating software, it can be at the first position for sure. It is a web application just like the GoAnimate. Does not work like other animation software, but it is proven something more attractive than the others. You can create awesome animated videos as well as presentations with its easy-to-use interface.

The premium account starts at just $19/month, which shows how affordable and cheap the software is. It allows its users to engage, explain and sell with an effective and simple PowToon.

You can also get the ready-made templates to design a good quality PowToon within a few minutes. Explaindio is one of the top used marketing animation software today. It helps you to create convincing, attention-grabbing, and financially supporting whiteboard videos to market your brand. You can create green screen recordings with its preloaded animated slides. It allows to try a before the full software purchase. You need not require a high-scale of learning experience to understand its interface and working, just a little bit of knowledge of the work you want to do with it is enough. It has a feature rich and user friendly interface, which can give you better experience than!.

Easy-to-operate timeline helps the beginners to create stunning whiteboard videos in just a few minutes. Switch easily between presentation/animation and sketch feature to quickly analyse your work. In every slide, there is an option for placing your voiceover and music. The list of the best whiteboard animation software is incomplete without Moovly.

It allows you to create animated videos, presentations, and other multimedia contents easily. You can sign up for free and start creating your first animated video using. You can create your videos using the free templates and library objects. You can add your own images, video clips and sounds.

You can view, edit, delete, and restore your videos anytime on Moovly. You can share your videos with your friends and can publish them on Facebook and YouTube. You can also download the videos for the offline use. Moovly offers plus plan at a very cheap rate of just $9.95/month for yearly basis. A pro plan at $24.95/month is also available for the users who want more storage and want to render more videos at a time. Whiteboard animation videos help to communicate with people and educate new learners easily and beautifully.

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They speak to the eyes and ears. They can convey a complex information very easily.

And for creating these awesome videos the best whiteboard animation software help in a right way. They can be looked something costly at the first time, but when you see a long run cost for your company and the revenue that the animation videos can generate for you, then nothing is better than those. 10 Tips to Create Awesome Whiteboard Animation Videos So, you have decided to create a professional marketing presentation video for your brand or service. But, how will you make excellent content for it? Check these below tips to get the answer. Tip1: Keep it traditional You know well the traditional way of creating whiteboard videos, and you should follow it here too. The basic things incl ude; a white background, your hand, and continuous drawing with these both.

These basic characteristics will give a recognizable style to your content. Tip-2: Don’t forget the drawing hand The main and selling point of a whiteboard video is that the user feels that there is an artist drawing the story in real time.

So, use the design tools and technology to make it look like a real drawing. You may know that the are great for drawing and animations. You can change the way of making the animation video, its story, characters, things in the background, but one thing that cannot be changed is – a drawing hand.

Remember that, ‘if there is no drawing hand, then it is not a whiteboard animation’. Tip-3: Provide a way of learning For a successful animation video, there are some essential ingredients needed, and those are; an interesting subject, related characters, objects, and drawing. It is a fact that if you provide fun to the people in a marketing video, there are more chances that they learn about the content faster and get more interest to interact. According to the study made by Dr. Richard Wiseman, people can learn and recall things with 15% more rise in memory when they see content in an animation video than any other format.

Tip-4: Use your storytelling power If you tell a well-formated story in a meaningful way, then there are no chances of resisting it by people. We all like to hear/read stories, and if we can watch the whole story in a short, interactive, and animated video, then we get attracted to it even more.

So, don’t just focus on selling your service or products through an animation video, but also make a relative, attractive, and actual story content which provides free learning and fun too. Present the by focusing on the problems as well as the interest of your target audience, not on the features and specs of your products or services. Tip-5: Emotions do work A whiteboard animation video is a free way to learn about something in a simple way, this thing you should remember all the time.

And if you use relative emotions like funny, light, happy, nostalgic, etc. Then there are more chances of viewers will attract and interact with it. Appealing to the emotion of the audience in your favor generates identification and is a proof of great storytelling power. Tip-6: Animated characters are always beloved Most of the tools or software provide a free use of animated characters. Use them wisely in your video content to add a personalized approach. You should narrate the characters in the way like they represent the target audience. Create a memorable and engaging video content.

Tip-7: Plan in advance Though I mentioned it at this position, it is one of the most important things to consider. The advanced and well-detailed plan creates a thick line between the professional, beautiful animation videos and the average media content. A great plan contains two things; your goal and your target audience.

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Set your objectives and goal for creating the marketing video like are you making it get more traffic? Want to generate more leads through it? Want people to click on the buttons or navigate through the menus? Or just want to provide the learning material which also markets your brand. The second thing is to think about the audience you are targeting.

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Make sure that the audience will easily understand the content you are providing and will work for them. A well-planned whiteboard video will show what the people want to see and motivate them to act.

Tip-8: Evaluation should be done Regular evaluation of your work at various stages can save your lot of efforts. If you for the first time after a few months spent on making the video, it may shift your perception, and it is a normal thing. You may have to spend a lot of time on checking, editing, and modifying your video than you have expected. Sometimes it does not create much botheration, but sometimes it affects significantly on your goals. So, regular evaluation at smaller stages of work helps you save your time, efforts and allows you stay on your target.

Tip-9: Read it loud After writing your script for your audience, read it out loud. You may also take help of your colleagues or friends to hear from you and give their opinion on it. Your script should sound natural, relative and to the point.

Your script in a whiteboard video is the content that is spoken directly to the viewers. So you should write in the way your audience want to hear. Tip-10: Use the best software/service available in the market All you have followed to create an awesome video, but if you don’t use the quality tool to execute that, then your target may have to suffer. So, be wise and choose the best animation video tool which offers premium as well as accountable free features to implement your idea perfectly. Conclusion Whiteboard videos are nothing but a story you tell to the viewers about you/ your brand/ your ideas and let them interact with things if you want to make them do so. Creating video content is not enough for this, you have to be at the top-level of the game and should also play the role of a harsh editor.

The tips as mentioned here will surely help you to become a smart player and achieve what you want from the tool you have purchased. Videos are the best way to with a good user engagement. Hope you like the list of the top-rated Whiteboard Animation Software. Share this list to let the other people know about these awesome software to create wonderful interacting videos.