I was looking for something else online this morning when my eye was caught by something completely off the track from what I was seeking. Like an infant, I am drawn to shiny things waving in front of my face and leave my original goal behind and shift to the shiny new. Maybe this is one of the symptoms that the author of the new book, The Shallows, describes concerning our ever shrinking attention spans due to the fast scan nature of the internet and the ever shallowing basin of our knowledge.
Ah, I’m bored with this- let me tell you about the shiny thing.
Flipbooks.
You know, basic animation using the edge of a page where each page is a small incremental movement of whatever you’re drawing on that page so that when you flip all the pages together gives the impression of a film. Wow, that was a tortured sentence.
I never really did any animation, even though I often portray the movement of wind and branches and leaves in my work. I tend to think of my work as a single moment captured. But I do love animation and admire those who do it well. At the top is a page from animation great Max Fleischer’s 1930’s book, Betty Boop’s Movie Cartoon Lessons, that allows you to cut out and assemble your own flipbook featuring his Koko the Clown character running. I found this on a website, Uncle John’s Crazy Town, that features a lot of vintage animation. On his site he has assembled the flipbook and you can see how it runs as a cartoon by clicking here.
Here’s another modern one. It’s not as polished as Max Fleischer but it’s clever anda great concept. And fun.
Redtree Times 