easy animation software for iMac

Red Waterlily

Not a natural citizen of this forum but hoping someone here might be willing and able to help me out, please.

Would anyone know of animation program that is easy enough to use in a classroom but cheap enough (or free) for a very small budget that works well on an iMac? The clever program I bought with the iMac is tricky and doesn't save the projects simply so when the students go to reopen their work it's all separated and different. I know some easier programs for PC where you just "start new project" , shoot, edit the timeline, add/record your sound and click save sure in the knowledge that the thing will be there, the same way, next class. I need to find one of them for the iMac.

Apologies if I'm posting in the wrong place.

ZENER

Do you mean Stop Motion animation or 3D modelling type animation ? What was the "clever program" you bought called ?

Ken

Red Waterlily

Hi Ken,
Thanks for your reply. It's for stop motion animation so far.. . intend to develop more skills and facilities but am learning as I go. The "clever" program is F.C. Express and you're probably laughing but it really was too clever for me. I couldn't count on being able to retrieve the projects as they were in the previous session. Gave up at the time and went with PC's only but would love to re-try with the iMac if there was an easier program that suits the budget.

ZENER

F.C. or Final Cut Express is for editing video more so than stop motion.

You don't need anything special in the way of Software to do Stop Motion Animation on the Mac. iPhoto and iMovie is all you need. Have a look at this video for a simple way to do animation.

For about 20 euro you could try Smoovie although there are other packages if you search around.

Ken

Red Waterlily

Hi Ken,

Thanks a million - had a quick peek at the video and will check out the other links this evening with note copy and biro in hand. Just wanted to say thanks for giving me a direction to go in.

RW

Greentree_uk

I can recommend "I Can Animate."

http://www.kudlian.net/products/icananimate/

Red Waterlily

Thanks, Greentree UK,
I already got icananimate and we used it a lot before I moved over to the PC's. Great fun but I could only get it to work directly with one sort of Agent Webcam, which has since died, and we never managed sound. But that was a few years ago and perhaps there's a new version that will do the business. Worth another look. R.L.