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  1. Videoteque deesto's Avatar
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    First, apologies if this is in the wrong place, but it's a fairly newb-ish question ...

    One of my kids has shown an interest in stop-motion animation, but before investing thousands of dollars in cameras and production software, I wanted to gauge the true interest level on the lowest possible budget. We found what seems to be a decent, free piece of software, called AnimatorDV, and we have this working on his Windows 7 machine (by setting admin rights on the program binary). Problem is most of our existing digital cameras show up in Windows 7 as "cameras" (mostly just as USB storage devices), and absolutely none of them are recognized by the software as an input/capture device. A few that I've tried so far and their results:
    • Canon PowerShot SD1000 (shows up as a digital camera, but not recognized as a capture device)
    • Kodak EasyShare MD853 (USB only)
    • Kodak Play Sport Zx3 (USB only)
    • Polaroid i1035 (USB only)
    After reading up on the web site, it seems that AnimatorDV supports only video devices ("AnimatorHD", the paid version, seems to support other hardware), but even our Sony HandiCam DCR-SR45 doesn't show up in AnimatorDV as a supported device in the application, just as a "camcorder" in Windows (though I don't see any video functions available), and as a USB storage device.

    I'd like to know whether I'm wasting my time trying to get this to work with any of these cameras, as well as any advice on how to get started for someone new to stop-motion animation. As I mentioned, at this stage, free solutions would be best, but other advice is appreciated as well.

    Thanks for your help.
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  2. Member hech54's Avatar
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    I would probably keep trying with the Canon camera....make sure you've tried it in all of it's settings/modes.
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    I've been using AnimatorDV Simple+ for a telecine project I have going. You should be able to use just about any webcam for what you are trying to do, at least for starters. I started with a Logitech 9000 pro but am now in the process of switching to a Philips SPC900. The Logitech is capable of higher resolution but I found it much noisier than the Philips. I've also used Stop Motion Animator which has a free version also. Both apps work well for producing avi files but, if I remember right, AnimatorDV actually produces a bmp or jpeg file for each shot. You then run a process in AnimatorDV to assemble these into an avi file. Both apps have a "Grab" button that takes a shot when you have your scene ready. Good luck
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  4. Videoteque deesto's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by hech54 View Post
    I would probably keep trying with the Canon camera....make sure you've tried it in all of it's settings/modes.
    Thanks, but it doesn't seem there are any settings to try: as soon as the Canon is plugged in via USB, its LCD screen goes blank and you can't do anything but grab media from storage.
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  5. Videoteque deesto's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by mickseven View Post
    I've been using AnimatorDV Simple+ for a telecine project I have going. You should be able to use just about any webcam for what you are trying to do, at least for starters. I started with a Logitech 9000 pro but am now in the process of switching to a Philips SPC900. The Logitech is capable of higher resolution but I found it much noisier than the Philips. I've also used Stop Motion Animator which has a free version also. Both apps work well for producing avi files but, if I remember right, AnimatorDV actually produces a bmp or jpeg file for each shot. You then run a process in AnimatorDV to assemble these into an avi file. Both apps have a "Grab" button that takes a shot when you have your scene ready. Good luck
    Thanks for that. Will give Stop Motion Animator Free a go, as well as another I found called MonkeyJam, which is also free. It's looking more like we're going to have to go and buy a webcam for this, or ask him to take individual photos and string them together.
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  6. From what I've seen Creative webcams have good color rendition, lower noise, but bad motion blur. Logitech webacams have much less motion blur but not as good color and more noise. Motion blur won't be an issue for stop motion animation.
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