Making a video

Step one: drawing your cartoon

You will need:

• A background drawing – for example a street scene. This will be drawn on normal paper and coloured in.
• Your moving parts – for example a milk float with bottles. This will be drawn on a see-through plastic called ‘acetate’.
• Remember to stick a long bit of the acetate to your drawing so it can be moved around the scene when you are filming.

Decide what your model is going to be – you can use any of the ones you have seen already, or come up with your own. Draw all the parts you need clearly.

Step two: filming your cartoon

You will need:

• A video camera [or digital camera that takes video]
• A tripod [this is to make sure the camera doesn’t move about]
• Good lighting

Stick your background sheet to the table so it doesn’t move. Point the camera at the sheet so you can see all of it and it fills the camera screen. Make sure it is well lit. Start filming and move your parts around the ‘circuit’, pulling it with the long bit of acetate. Stop the filming when you get to each of your ‘components’, this will let you put explanations in later.

Step three: making your video

See within the guide to making a video, instructions on using Windows MovieMaker ...