Hi Jampot,

The application is currently Windows only at this time. It should support Windows XP SP3 up to Windows 8. Hopefully you can still try it!

Nate

Thanks backyardlegos! Like you, I also have been aware of a need for stable, low-cost animation software.

I've had time to work on solving the problem, and I hope this app will fill the niche.

You're the same guy who made the old stop-motion kit with Twelve Stones, right? That was what really got me into brickfilming, I still have pretty much all the components from that.

I'll try this out as soon as I can, thanks for sharing!

Hey Kieren! I remember reading the original Biscuit thread a long time ago. I think you were planning to use either Java or C++ to write the application. Frankly, I'm not a super 133t hacker, and those languages intimidate me.

However, I do like the direction you're moving in with Biscut 2.0 -- that of making a stand-alone stopmotion web application. I've actually already gone down this path a fair distance, except my app is built with Ruby On Rails, Javascript (for playing the frames and camera interaction in the browser) and FFMpeg on the server for processing frames and outputting video files. I've put this project on hold to accelerate development of Stopmotion Explosion Animator.

If you're curious, Stopmotion Explosion Animator is written in Delphi, as was the original SMA application. (I can't distribute my code as open-source, since it uses a commercially-available video library).

Mighty Wanderer, yes, that was me and my brother. I would like to think that the kit has come a long way since then. It's very cool that you saw the original version and are still here to try something new and improved!

I use a hd web cam on windows 7 so ill give this a test run and provide a candid response.  Do you have a feel for a price point?  If you say youll sell this for $10 then id be forgiving on rough features.  If you say youll sell for $200 (less than dragonframe) then ill be a bit more critical in my feedback.

Had an app crash on launch - clicked okay to clear that window and then the app launched anyway.  Something crashed - not sure what.  nvwgf2um.dll failed but the app launched anyway.

Gives me software camera controls - nice.  I wasn't expecting that.

Output size drop down says 800x600 is default, yet it actually defaulted to 640x480.  Not sure if that was a setting on my camera or it was tellling me that 800 is the best setting for my camera.

Would be nice to have the windows dock or snap to each other on request (for the OCD amongst us).

I think sound feedback when you grab is essential.  Its not a nice to have - you really need to know when a grab worked.  Just a beep or a click is sufficient.

The Live/Onion skin is not intuitive.  I had to mess with that a few times to work out what was happening.  Maybe its just because of what I'm use to with my existing s'ware.  Moving the slider all the way to the left is the same as live mode so, that really makes the onion skin button redundant.  I'd remove it and use that extra space for the slider.

Pressing the enter key to grab worked - which is great - another essential.  As does left/right keys on the sliders.

That LIVE button still has me stumped.  I fail to see its purpose.  Maybe that's just me.

Onion skin slider perhaps should be reversed so live mode is on the far right, not the far left.  Timeline wise, I move left to right so I expect the more recent shot on the right.

The DONE key should be renamed to EXPORT or MAKE MOVIE.

The export saved into the parent folder - not sure if that was intended.  The dialogue I got before the export suggested the child folder.  Found it quick enough but it wasn't where I was expecting.

Export quality was poor, then I realised the default bit rate was at 50%(?).  Not sure if that is a factor (maybe).

When to start a new project (can't reopen existing project it seems), it asks me for a folder name, just as it did the first time, but it has remembered the export file name with the AVI extension.  This would be confusing for some users - they would need to know to remove the AVI extension when trying to create a new folder.

Can't reopen existing projects. 

Can't close a project without exporting.

Link to your website worked fine.

That's about it.  The above is not criticism - please don't take it as "this product is crap".  It's not crap.  It's quite good for a "free" product that comes shipped with a book, and frankly, I think is a fantastic way to improve your sales and increase the hobby - and I even considered buying the modibot but shipping to Australia would be pointless for a $10 product.

I think this is a fantastic addition to a book and even as a stand alone item.  I would focus more on the "project management" side - opening a project, closing, re-opening, closing without having to export.  Exporting into the folder it said it would etc.  This is stuff that can make people walk away from a product - especially the inability to return to yesterdays project - that's a deal breaker.

The screen grabbing you were focusing on - all good.  Some observations above.  Great integration with my web cam.  Fast output to my HD and in some respects, it has one feature I wish my commercial s'ware had, and that is storing each frame as a straight up jpg file.

I'm happy to check other iterations if you eventually action any of the above.  Best of luck. 

I think the key thing to remember is if you export and close, and the export isn't right (I had the default bit rate and looked aweful) there appears no way to go back, fix it, and re-export it.  I have 60 perfect frames on my HD (4 seconds) that are now useless to me because I messed up the export.    Just saying. 

I'm a stop motion pro user - one of only a handful here on this forum.  There is a beep feedback for each grab. 

Ha - would you believe the dll error happened twice but not the third time.  Oh well.  As you say - dll hell.

How is this needed with helium frog? Helium frog has similar (and many times better) features. I also think helium frog looks better ascetically.
Now if you had a program with the features of helium frog with the exposure sheet of monkey jam that would be a bit better.

Downloaded 1.1.  Same dll error (really not expecting to fix this - just reporting FYI)

Just like before - the app launches even though this error comes up.

When starting a new project, the AVI extension comes up by default.  Doesn't seem to matter but.

I'm getting okay'er (is that word?) with the onion skin button and Live button.  o skin is more intuitive with the reverse slider.  Can you colour the font/background on the button when active/deactivated?  This is less important for o skin as you can see the slider.  More important for live mode.  I know the button has an on/off state that you can see - but I think live could be a nice green when live and a nice red when not live (getting picky now).  With practice, I can live with the the live (pun intended) button as it is.

Hmm - notification of export location removed.  Found it in parent folder.  Acceptable. 

"Make movie" text is much better.  And it doesn't close the project. 

Umm.  The frame slider is busted.  I can't "scroll" through my frames any more - well - the number changes but the image does not.  I want to delete an earlier frame but now I can't identify it using the slider.  Bug.  I didn't notice that last time.  Only happens after exporting???

Can't open an old project - as already stated.  If this is pitched at entry level, I could live with this, provided I were forewarned (in the manual), but anyone moving past foundation will find this reason enough to stop using your software.

When starting a new project, the "Save current project" should probably be removed.  I clicked "NO" and it deleted all my frames.  Is that the intention?  If so, it worked beautifully and I lost all my work (all 30 seconds worth) - as warned.  I'm just not sure why you would want a feature that deletes an entire project.  It offers more danger than it does convenience IMO but that's your call. 

This is getting better and I'd certainly endorse this product for first-timers and newbies - over helium frog.

And here is 16 frames of me testing my new camera crane with your s'ware - in daylight - so ignore the bad quality lighting.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/808 … netest.avi

Last edited by togfox (August 2, 2014 (08:53pm))