I have long been fascinated by the skill required to make stop motion animations. Most of which I can probably attribute to watching the Wallace & Gromit films from Aardman animation every Christmas as a child. I vividly remember my attempts at animating my jointed teddy bears and other toys, they weren’t all that amazing 🙁 So when I was asked to review the Hue Animation Studio with my kids I was more than enthusiastic to agree 🙂

Here’s the official product blurb:

The Hue Animation Studio contains everything a budding animator needs to begin creating stop motion animation videos.  Children can discover, imagine and create stop-motion animation through powerful, easy-to-use, animation software complete with Hue’s market leading Plug ‘n’ Play HD camera with built-in microphone and a unique flexible neck for unlimited positioning options.

The software (used in schools and at home) helps children to create simple visual adaptations using toys, modelling clay, play figures and stop-frame animation techniques.  The process of animating with the Hue Animation Studio encourages children to learn a diverse range of skills in both a fun and stimulating way.  They can create a story, create characters, make them from clay or plasticine, design and make sets, compose soundtracks or select appropriate recorded music to enhance a film.

Whether you’re five or 95, you can’t go wrong with Hue’s full feature animation suite!

Excited… just a little bit! We received a red camera, I know that has nothing to do with the performance of the product but I always appreciate an attempt to be aesthetically pleasing.

My twins wrote a story together and set about building props from Lego. Their film also included a Mollie Makes hedgehog and a Sylvanian Family rabbit. They did need a little help and direction, but the included software suite  is very straightforward and easy to use. Within minutes they were animating.

The camera takes still pictures which then appear on your computer screen, when you are ready to take the next still you see a ghost of your previous image which makes it easy to place your model(s) in slightly different poses while making sure they don’t jump about. I love love love this feature, especially when our youngest kept stealing the props and running away with them! Once the film was complete my husband read out their story to lay over the video.

Here is their completed film, I feel immensely proud of them! Plus I think the whole process was extremely educational. They used:

Teamwork and cooperation to compose their story

Penmanship and English to write their script

Dexterity and Imagination in prop building

Concentration and Patience to animate

All very valuable life skills I think.

The animation studio isn’t just for kids though, here’s my husband’s first little animation of a Sylvanian Family wedding dance. It’s such good fun it’s hard to stop animating! The program also has an option to upload your videos, we chose to host ours on YouTube.

I should also point out that we didn’t have the best lighting on the day we made these films, with a nicer background image and better lighting I think we could have produced even crisper films!

Would I recommend this product?

Definitely! No longer do you need prohibitively expensive equipment or even great skill to animate. This product helps you to make genuine animations in minutes!

Could it be improved in anyway?

I’m struggling to think how. Maybe an option to upgrade the camera to a higher spec if you really find yourself hooked, but otherwise no, it’s great!

For More Information

Hue Animation Studio website www.hueanimation.com

Facebook page www.facebook.com/HueAnimation

Twitter account twitter.com/HueAnimation