I thought about all kinds of different ways I could do the smoke effect for this animation. In the end I went out and bought a smoke generator and it worked pretty good.

Now, technically you can't use smoke in a stop motion animation because it would really mess up the frame by frame shots. But what you can do is stitch in a little bit of live video right into the animation.

For example: The dragonslayer walks up to the word wall and stops right in front of it. This is all good and standard animation. Then we cut to another shot and run a video of the smoke pouring out of the wall.

This picture shows the smoke coming out of the word wall and flowing into the character.

This picture shows the fog machine all set up and ready to roll. The dragonslayer is sitting on the left and taking a break from a long day of shooting. The big thing here is that I used a cardboard wine tube attached to the back of the shout wall. And it is sealed against the wall with hot glue so none of the smoke leaks out the sides.

The first picture, that shows the smoke, gives us a good look at how the smoke only came out of the word, as it was supposed to!

Another little detail is that I put a flashlight in tube. This gave the word a glow.

To get the smoke to go from the word wall and into the dragonslayer's chest I used a vacuum cleaner! Yup. And it worked pretty good. You can see the silver hose on the left.

But of course we don't want to see the vacuum hose so I set up the camera so it was just out of shot. Just like you see here in the picture.

Eliminator Lighting Fog Machines Fog It 700 Fog Machine

This isn't the exact fog machine that I used but it is about the same.

StopMotion Explosion: Animate Anything and Make Movies- Epic Films for $2o or less

Stopmotion is an incredibly fun, hands-on way to make amazing films, using simple software, inexpensive equipment, and stuff that's already lying around your house. Stopmotion Explosion will have you making your first stopmotion film within minutes of picking up the book. It's that easy!

Beginner's Guide to Animation: Everything You Need to Know to Get Started

To beginners, making an animated movie can seem like voodoo magic. And in fact, until recently, animation was expensive and time-consuming. But now with the help of Beginner's Guide to Animation, anyone can make animated movies, using a digital camera, basic software, and a computer. The book begins with an illustrated guide to setting up a simple animation studio at home, including a list of essential items. Then, new animators hit the ground running with six innovative, instructive projects designed to develop technical skills and explore the potential of animation. A full collection of scannable templates makes it even easier to get started and to finish up. Tips, tricks, and clear instructions on editing, scoring, even making your own show reels and shorts make this the complete one-volume guide to amazing friends and family-and everyone on YouTube!-with great I-made-it-myself animation.

The Klutz Book of Animation: Make Your Own Stop Motion Movies

Welcome to the wide-open world of animation. It used to take an empire the size of the Magic Kingdom to make an animated film. And to get viewers, you'd need access to cineplexes or television networks. In other words, you were either in the industry or in the audience. That was then. Today, creating animation for a potential audience of 600 million requires a laptop, a camera, and an internet connection. That's it. The barriers have come down, the people have taken over, and the results are amazing. The Klutz Book of Animation is a complete how-to treatment of this newly accessible art form. It combines practical instruction and ready-to-shoot scripts. Real-life samples of all the projects are viewable online - the perfect marriage of book and web. Speaking of web, the software you'll need is available as a free download. It's plug and play on any computer (PC or Mac). Attached to the book is a piece of low-tech, non-toxic clay, ready to be molded into a million different heroes starring in a million different films - all of them animatedly yours.

StopMotion Explosion -

• This kit contains everything needed to create amazing high-definition stop motion films. Fun for all ages and experience levels! Video tutorial access included.
• Learn techniques for animating LEGO®, action figures, toys, clay, and many other materials. Build your own custom armatures and movie sets.
• Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10 & OS X 7.1+ supported.
• Includes 720p HD video camera with internal microphone, manual focus, and clip, Stopmotion Explosion book, animation software, quick-start guide, sound effects and more!
• Learn how to create stop motion explosions, gunfire, laser blasters, lightsabers and rocket-launch effects. Add voices, sound effects and music to your films with video editing instructions for Windows & OS X.

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