This software was originally created for use with Scouts - that is children aged 10 1/2 - 14. Worked really well for them. Should work well for younger children too.
Note: this software has been used in my environment well. It works
well for me. I am packaging this to make it nicer, and if you have
any wish list items please create an issue. They'll be categorised
into a todo.txt file and closed - unless you implement them :-)
pull requests very welcome
- Linux based using normal webcams (Raspberry Pi will work fine)
- Creates AVIs - using avconv
- Able to see your progress easily
- Onion skinning - making ad hoc stop motion simpler
- Simple code
- Frame based - meaning recreating the animation time and again doesn't result in video degradation.
- pygame - 1.9.1 or later (apt-get install python-pygame)
- python 2.7 - due to pygame (apt-get install python2.7)
- Linux - since pygame's camera support works under linux
- A webcam. Many webcams available now work - but there's a particular standard which used to be badged as "Windows Vista certified" which pygame works with cleanly
There's a makefile with various targets. The one you may want is:
make install
This just does
sudo python setup.py install
(type make by itself for a list of other targets)
First add my sparkslabs PPA, unless you've already done this:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:sparkslabs/packages
sudo apt-get update
Then install the app:
sudo apt-get install python-camination
camination
No arguments as yet. This will look for any available camera and use that.
Deliberately simple:
- space - take photo
- p (or r) - record a preview
- escape - quit - don't record a video
Videos are always created with a new name based on current name - to avoid accidentally overwriting a video you want!
At present it's based around stop motion, but I also have some time lapse code (including de-duplication of frames) which will be added to this in.
It's aimed to be quick, simple and fun to use.
There are missing features - notably I think these should be added at some point:
- Audio recording
- Frame deletion/undo
- Frame counter / time into video counter