The Animated World

I have been researching camcorder technology from a straight narrative point of view. I know that camcorders work great to tell a story with actors, locations, & scripts. Or at the very least, camcorders are perfect for capturing real-life moments. Think school plays or sporting events.

But what about animated features? Plenty of people make amateur animated films. Several of my favorite TV shows are on cartoon network. Most of the Adult Swim programming seems to be very low-budget animation. Some of it is drawn, traditional animation. While others like “Robot Chicken” are made using stop-motion effects and digital camcorders. I don’t know which camcorders the show uses, but I’m sure it’s not a very expensive camera. Even a Sony Dcr Sr40 would work for most beginning animators. This show is not doing extreme claymation stunts or anything that requires tons of skill. And it has succeded because most of the humor comes from the dialogue & absurd character situations. It’s all about the writing and not the effects.

I found some suggestions and quick steps for animation with a camcorder. Mostly, you just need a camcorder with stop motion or “snapshot” capabilities. Or instead, you can just record one second of action with a regular camcorder. The rest of the work is done in post-production.

Today, people have expanded animation with the use of 3-D or CGI images. But there are still plenty of short films & shows done with more traditional animation skills.

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