HUE Animation for Maker Space or Genius Hour

Hue Animation Studio
by Hue Animation
Kit comes with HUE HD camera with mic; the HUE Book of Animation, a 60-page full color book; a mini stage with background and 'green screen' and stop motion software with sound effects, printable activities and backdrops.
Review kit provided by Hue


Stop motion animation couldn't be easier than it is with the Hue studio. Once you've got the software installed, you plug the camera into your USB port and...get creative!

The first time I fiddled with the camera, I experienced firsthand one of the basics of stop motion animation -- the more pictures you take with smaller movements of your character, the better your movie turns out! The Hue software makes this easy by providing the image of the picture you just took on the left and a ghost image of that picture on the right. I took the pink box completely out of the screenshot below to show this ghost image, but when you're shooting your movie, you use the ghost to determine how far/what direction to move the object for the next shot. The on-screen tools are very intuitive, and the project autosaves on your computer. It's easy to create a QuickTime of the final movie so you can share your work. This is a tool with lots of "stretch." You can get good results in a short amount of time, or you can go crazy with creativity (including backdrops, sound effects, and an actual storyline) and get fabulous results.

I predict that stop motion animation will be a hit in Genius Hour this year. In less than 15 minutes, I will demonstrate the basics to my students and then I will be able to step back and watch what they create using objects from around the classroom (or that they bring from home), making scenery, writing/acting out stories, or just fiddling around the way I did for this test movie. My process:

1. I grabbed the button box where I gathered all the loose buttons I found in the laundry room/sewing area of mom's house. 
2. I chose a place to film that had decent light without a glare. 
3. I set the buttons free. 

I didn't know when I started what those buttons would do once they were free, so just like when I start writing with only the very smallest of a seed idea, I had the experience of surprise that comes with following my creativity wherever it chooses to lead!