davidisaaclee/waldo

Waldo - papercut animation toy

I went to the Jim Henson exhibit at the SF Jewish art museum, and I saw a video there that showed someone animating a frame-by-frame sequence by photographing paper shapes on a table. I have a strong attraction to tables simulated by software, so I wrote Waldo to simulate what that kind of animation could be like.

Try it out here.

1. Drag some shapes to make a single frame. (Touchscreens can pinch to rotate/scale.)
2. Click Capture to next frame
3. Move shapes a little more, using the outlines as a guide of where the shapes were in the last frame
4. Click Capture to next frame again
5. Continue adding frames
6. Press Play to preview the animation
7. Click on the small preview box to fullscreen the preview. Click anywhere in the fullscreen to minimize.
8. To edit a previous frame, click -1 / +1 to navigate the preview to it; click Restore frame to make the table match the previewed frame; make changes; then click Replace frame to replace the previewed frame with the contents of the table.