Requirements: OS X Mac OS X 10.3 or later; 256MB RAM; a camera
Binary: Universal
Test Rig MacBook C2D 1.83Ghz/2 GB RAM/OS 10.4.10

Remember when you were a kid and dinosaurs roamed the Earth. What was on TV? Mainly cartoons and claymation. And with the advent of YouTube, et al., they're both making a comeback. Computers have now made it possible for you to give it a whirl. Enter 'I Can Animate.'

"Designed for all ages the, award winning, I Can Animate lets you create stunning movies using a variety of animation techniques.

Work with different video layers so that you can create an animation from video captured from a camera, pictures you have drawn yourself or both together. All this in one single application."

Actually the title is deceptive as ICA can do much more.

THE JUICE

ICA is more than just time lapse software. You can also do animation and chroma key for use in your iMovies. Let's start with the time lapse feature.

Time Lapse. Time lapse is essentially compressing time. Whereas regular video runs at 30fps, you can set your time lapse frame to whatever you wish, say 1 frame every minute and a half.

First, I set my frame rate,then I set up the camera, a light and pointed it towards the living room. Make sure that you set all this up in a place where the set up will not be disturbed, as you want to prevent any movement of the camera.

I followed their simple instructions to a tee but ran into one problem. It seems you have to turn off your computer's sleep function, as well, cause my computer went to sleep although it was in the middle of a time lapse. Otherwise the picture was fine.

Animation. Everyone is familiar with animation. We call them cartoons. Now this aspect requires a lot of time and patience because there is 30 frames in one second. If you want to produce a different picture for each frame, that's 1,800 pictures for one minute!

To make sure that your subject is moving just the right amount (not too much or too little) ICA comes with 'onion skinning.' Onion skinning allows you to translucently place the new frame over the previous frame and see how much movement from frame-to-frame you're making. In this way you can tweak your animation to the exact effect that you desire.

Drawing. The same basic principles as in Animation, except you use drawings instead of pictures. This took a little bit longer for me to get going on, as what I know as the 'Color Wheel,' is called the 'Magnifying Glass' in the manual.

Chroma Key. This is how you make your animation really professional looking. The simplest way to explain chroma keying is to think of layers in Photoshop. The real difference is that your top footage will be shot with either a blue or green background. You will then load a background image that your performer(s) will appear in front of. Think of the Magic Wand tool and you have the basic premise of chroma keying.

Manual. It also comes with an easy to follow, preloaded, .pdf manual that will get up and running.

THE PITS

The documentation is very easy to follow. Unfortunately, I'm simpler than the directions. So, for dunderheads such as myself, I wish the Drawing chapter was a bit more thorough.

THE RIND

Nada.

THE PULP

The fact that any one would even consider making such a tool for an entry level program as iMovie is amazing. But what's more amazing is how good it is!

But make no mistake. Animation is both time consuming and requires the patience of a saint. Make that two saints.

But if you have both of these, and some talent, you can make some amazing art with I Can Animate. Now this is living the iLife!

RATING: 9 out of 10

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2007 Frank Petrie - Macsimum News contributing editor, Freelance writer, Curmudgeon
Email: phranky@mac.com
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