Recommended by FamilyFun digital manager Samuel Mead and kids, Ruby, age 8, and Finn, 5 (plus willing cousins Cedar, 15, Silas, 11, Matia, 12, and Noah, 9)Innovative software has transformed the labor-intensive process that brought the world Gumby and Wallace & Gromit into one simple enough for a family to enjoy, as we discovered one drizzly day when I downloaded a stop-motion animation program to our home computer. We plugged a digital video camera into the computer, scrounged a collection of props (mostly lollipops and pretzel sticks), sketched out a storyline, and started shooting.
The inexpensive software allowed the kids to see immediate results as we manipulated the objects. In fact, it kept them so engaged that our animated short could have easily turned into a full-length feature. The kids titled our mini-masterpiece "Lollipop Tree" and begged to watch it over and over again. Then they got to eat the props.
