Here is a great little tutorial on how to use DP Animation Maker to make an animation of a dragon flying over a castle! Before moving on to the tutorial be sure to check out the video of it in action!

Here is the animation that we make in this tutorial:

This step by step tutorial will show you how to turn a picture into an animated fantasy scene that will be a great addition to your stop motion movies or music videos. All you need is DP Animation Maker, one picture, and a few minutes of your time.

What You Need

1. Background image
2. Animated GIF with soaring dragon
3. DP Animation Maker

First of all, you have to add a background image. Click the "Change background" button and load the picture of the medieval castle.

Now we are ready to fill in all the elements to bring this picture to life. Let's start with adding the fog animation to the scene. Click the plus sign in the "Animations" box or the "Add Animation" button that is just above the view window.

After the Add Animation window appears, focus on the left list named "Moving Objects". Go to Standard Objects > Weather > Fog, select it, and click "Add".

Now click on your "Fog" animation in the "Animations" box and change the "Speed" parameter to 27.

Let's add deepness in our scene by putting the fog behind the castle. Click on the button to add animation again and go to Standard Brushes ? Geometric Brushes ? Background Copy in the "Animation Brushes" list, select it, and click "Add".

Now you will have to select it and paint over the castle. By doing this, the fog will stay behind it while the castle will appear up front.

The next step is animating the castle lights. Go to the Add Animation dialog again and add Standard Brushes > Nature Brushes > Blinking Brush. Then change the "Type" option to Chaotic and paint over all castle lights as shown on the screenshot.

Now we will make our animation a bit more interesting by adding a dragon that will fly in front of our castle. To add the dragon, go to "Add animation", and click "Import image". Locate the animated dragon GIF on your computer, select it, and click "Add".

Now select your dragon in the Animation box, click the "Boundaries" settings tab, and change the properties to the following: Top to 72, Bottom to 323, Left to 710, and Right to 918. Then click on any "Options..." buttons and set the "Interaction behavior" to "Reflect". Repeat this process for all tabs (Top, Bottom, Right, and Left).

By doing this, we make our dragon fly in a specific area under the castle.

After you place the dragon in the right position, open the "Motion properties" tab and then set the "Direction" to 65 and "Flip horizontal" to "On". One thing left to do on your dragon is to set "Speed" to 35 under the "Base properties" tab.

And finally let's set fire to the castle to make scene more dramatic. Click "Add Animation", and choose Standard Brushes ? Nature Brushes ? Fire Brush, select it, and click "Add". Change the "Speed" of the brush to 40 and "Flame Shape" to Shape 2, then paint over the castle tower as shown in the screenshot.

And there you have it! Just a few minutes and you have your castle animation finished. Be sure to export it in the format that you require. All that is left to do is to download DP Animation Maker from http://www.animationsoftware7.com/ and start creating wonderful animations in only a few clicks.

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