I haven’t done a flip book in ages, and frankly, they are some of the best medicine for boredom which is why most of my school texts were loaded with them. Sure, geometry, Punnetts squares, and object-verb agreements are great ways to use the pages of a big, fat, sold-by-the-pound text book, but all those neat sharp edges and 1″ margins have other uses as well! I drew this animation after three days of fumigation by the gas industry, so I’m pretty sure I was gassed out of my gourd when I came up with this story line. But it made me laugh, and laughter is all too rare in our society. I hope it makes you laugh too. Here’s some tips on making your own low-tech animation film. 1) The best flip books are relatively short in duration – like 3-5 seconds, taking up maybe 60 pages or so. Anything bigger is too difficult to properly engage. 2) Flip books work best when they flip relatively quickly – too fast: you get a blur and miss the action – too slow: you get a drawing instead of animation, and the pause in action ruins the effect. (This is why shorter segments work best) 3) Subjects should be pretty simply drawn. Too much detail can be lost in a short segment. But go wild if you want – even add color! For most purposes, stick figures are great. You can draw them quickly – like during a discussion on verb agreement. 4) Begin your animation with a simple drawing. To begin the sequence, do maybe three or four of the same first frame. This gives time for the eye and brain to …
Video Rating: 4 / 5