It’s been a bit of a rush, but now it’s time to Mo, time to Mo a meadow.  A meadow of Mo.  Not sure where I’m going with that…

If you’re taking part in Movember and would like to record your Mo progress for future generations to enjoy, try   MoCam.

Snap your MO each day of MOvember.  Then link the magic MOments in a stop MOstion vid, poster or retro gif.
A MOcap Molapse if you will.

• MO a MO a MOmale MO
• MO a drop of golden MO
• MO a name I call my MO
• Far, a long, long month of MO
• MO where razors fear to tred
• La, la, la, la, la, la, MO
• Tea, a MO that’s caffiene-ed(!)
• Which brings us back to MO

I’ve made a new thing. It’s called Draw me a Game with Flapping Things.  Pithy name I know!

I made it after my 5yr old daughter complained that everything I do on the computer is booooooooooooooooooring.  ”Why can’t you make me a game?” she asked and kept slapping the keys until I agreed.  She drew a picture of it and I turned her picture into the game.  It was pretty rough, but fun to do and she enjoyed it.

Now I’ve made a bit of software so everyone else can do the same.

I’ve been playing around with something called ffmpeg. It’s a wonderful bit of free software that could take care of the video making bit of JellyCam.

The thing I’ve slapped together is embarrassingly rough.  It’ll pause a lot and probably give you strange messages, but it also works now and again!

To use it you need you files to be named in sequence starting with “pic” then a number starting with zero.  I.e. pic0.jpg, pic1.jpg, pic2.jpg, pic3.jpg, pic4.jpg etc.  It works with png files as well.

There’s not much to it, just a few buttons really, but if you’d like to give it a try feel free to download it and let me know if it works.
It’s windows only I’m afraid as I need a Mac to make the Mac version.

I’ve hacked together a new version of the site and slapped it up with a new web host because my old host said there were too many people visiting (touchy!).  This new site is made using WordPress which hopefully means I can spend my time making some fun bits of software rather than figuring out HTML stuff.

The new site is called TicklyPictures because hopefully it’ll have more than just JellyCam on it soon.

Well it was a bit rushed and I would have liked to have tested it more, but hey, that’s always the way.

I’ll make another tutorial when I’ve got some time, but until then have a play and let me know what you think.  I’ve put Beta on the download button because that’s what all the cool kids seem to do.
http://www.jellycam.co.uk/

Hopefully future updates won’t take as long.  This one wasn’t helped by me deleting all my code and having to rebuild it from scratch (that’s why the French translation bit is currently missing  - I’ll add that back in when I can).

Good night and thanks for all the jellyfish
Chris

I’ve promised a few people now that the next version of Jellycam will be available by 13th Feb.  I’m also posting it here to add extra incentive not to let anyone down.  The two key things the next version will have are the ability to add a soundtrack and they’ll be no watermark at the top of the movies.

See previous post.

Click the settings button and follow the link to get a code to remove the watermark.
The link goes here:
http://www.jellycam.co.uk/info.html

Get the code and enter it in the settings screen.

I’ve been feeling more and more guilty about not finishing the update to JellyCam so I thought I’d just stick up where I’m up to.  It works, but there are probably a fair few niggles so I’ve stuck on it on a separate web pages and set it so you can run the old and new versions alongside each other.

If you want to try it out you can get it here:
http://www.jellycam.co.uk/v3_0/workinprogress.html

Thank you everyone who has emailed, linked to JellyCam, tweeted or blogged.  I thought only a few friends of mine were using it, but I guess that’s what happens with this groovy internet thing.

A few people have asked about the watermark.  My intention was always to have a free version with the watermark and a paid version (for about £5) without it.  However with two kids and a brain-draining job I tend to sit zombie-like in front of the tellybox glugging wine instead of getting on with things.  (I’m on my second glass now, having just watched ‘So you think you can dance?’).

Now I know there are a few people outside of my facebook circle who like to dabble in a little JellyCam animation I shall endeavour to turn off the telly more often (I’ll stick with the wine though, it helps my coding) and start on the long list of improvements.  Top of the list is including a way to add in sound and making a paid version without watermark.

Cheers
Chris

http://www.dotrythisathome.com/things-to-do2/2010/8/27/things-to-try-stop-motion-animation.html