There are different types of animations you can make - online, 2D or 3D, stop motion, stickfigures.
If you are a beginner wanting to try making an animation, then here are my best animation software recommendations.
Computer Created Animations
There is lots of software available now that will let you create animations within the software, without you having to build models or take photographs.
This type of software is available both online and in downloadable format.
PC Downloads
Pivot Stickfigure Animator is free software that allows you to create a stick figure animation. There is also a more advanced version – Stickman – it's not free but there is a free trial.
Online Versions
Shapeshifter is a free animation program for creating short movies online. We have had a play with this and it is really neat.
I have found a great site that allows you to create really detailed animations. Go Animate is worth checking out!
Stop Motion Software
Stop Motion Photography is a much more 'hands on' way of creating an animation. You are in total charge of building the set and characters - and then taking a sequence of photographs that you will string together to make the movie.
Different software is available depending whether you intend to use a digital camera, or a webcam.
I found if I made a slideshow (setting the automatic slide advancement to 0.002 seconds) it gave a smooth transition through the pictures. There is an article on this with an example on the PC World News site (although I used Jpeg files not GIF).
This program is great to use if you have already taken your animation photographs and want to view them as a film.
Webcam/Digital Camera Software
There are several programs that allow you to take images with a webcam to make an animation. You can find details on my Time Lapse Software page - all the programs mentioned there have an animation option, and support selected digital cameras.
