- Introduction
- Kid Pix can be used to make great pictures,
but did you know that you can create cool
QuickTime-based animation using Kid Pix?
Follow these steps to learn the process...
-
- Before you begin...
- Before you start to create your animation, you must
begin with an idea. I'd suggest that you start with a
topic that you may be currently studying in science. For
example, let's think about magnetism-and-electricity or
matter. Using these topics, you could animate how a
magnetic field looks, how electricity flows through a
circuit, or you could show H2O in the three phases of
matter (solid, liquid, gas). From this starting point,
think about a series of about twenty pictures you can
create in Kid Pix to show the process which you
want to illustrate in a step-by-step fashion.
-
- Computer setup...
- Within your Documents folder, create a New
Folder to store the pictures which will be used to
create your animation. Name this folder:
Animation1 If you are using an old version of Kid
Pix, follow these two steps:
- Before you launch Kid Pix, check these settings in
the Control Strip: monitor resolution: 640x480 and
colors: 256 colors
-
- Let's start...
- Draw your first picture. When it is done, save it as
pic01 (that's PIC-zero-one). Keep pic01
open and make a few changes. Since you are creating an
animation, make these changes slight. We are not trying
to create a slide show, but a series of images which will
be displayed rapidly on the screen. After you complete
your second picture, then "Save as..." pic02.
Continue to make slight changes to each picture and
continue with this numbering scheme (pic01,
pic02, pic03, pic04, pic05,
etc.). When done, you should have at least twenty
pictures for your animation. If you have more, it may
work even better. When you are done with Kid Pix,
quit the program.
-
- Now, launch QuickTime Player (You need to use
the Pro Player edition to create the
animation)...
- You could create an animation with Kid Pix
SlideShow. However, QuickTime Player Pro will
give you more options for creating a smoother looking
animation.
- Step 1 - Create the
animation...
- Launch QuickTime Player.
- Use the File menu and choose Open Image
Sequence. Open the first picture
(pic01) in your Animation1 folder. Set
the Frame rate: to either 2 frames per
second or 6 frames per second. Test your
animation by clicking the Play button.
- Leave your animation (your video track)
open while you proceed to the next step.
- Step 2 - Add a music
track...
- Open one of the FreePlay
Music sound files (pick one with a file name which
includes the number 10: for a ten-second sound
clip). Open the sound file by dragging the sound icon
over the icon for QuickTime Player.
- You now have two QuickTime files open, your
animation (video track) and a sound file (music
track).
- Click on your animation.
- Use the Edit menu and choose Select
All.
- Use the Edit menu again and choose
Copy.
- Click on your sound file.
- While holding down the shift and
option keys on the keyboard, use the
Edit menu and choose Add Scaled. This
step will cause your animation to match the length
of the sound file.
- Test your animation with its sound file. If you
like it, you're ready to save it (Step 3). If not,
use the Edit menu and choose Undo.
Then, follow these steps with a different sound
file.
- Step 3 - Save it
correctly...
- When done, use the File menu and choose
Save As...
- Click the button "Make movie self-contained", name
the file
yourfirstnamelastinitial-animation.mov, and
select Save. (Examples of correct file names
include: dickd-animation.mov, amandab-animation.mov,
georgeb-animation.mov, dianeb-animation.mov)
-
- Using the QuickTime™ Movie...
- Now that your finished project is a QuickTime
movie, you may open it and play it using QuickTime
Player. In addition, you may insert the
QuickTime movie within many other programs like
AppleWorks, HyperStudio, Claris Home
Page, Kid Pix, etc.
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