More Animation

I had a little time tonight to play with Fluxtime Studio’s Animation for Kids. The free pop-up window allows you to create an under water scene with a limited set of backgrounds and objects. It creates a gif that you have no way of downloading unless you sign up for an account, and it all directs you toward purchasing their more full featured software package, Moviesoup. There is no easy way to tell how much this software costs.

What I like:

• It is very quick to get started and  create something.
• The controls are fairly self explanatory

What I don’t:

• I am not crazy about the animated gif. It severely limits what can be created.
• The push toward the paid service with no obvious pricing

The biggest thing, however, is that this software creates tracks that record motion as you drag objects around on the screen. There is no sense of frames and of moving objects simultaneously to create interactions. This might be helpful for some students, but I think it obscures some of the fundamental principles of animation from the students.