During my early years of education, I can’t deny the fact that I dreamed A LOT. Whether my mind wandered into sports, lunch or the weekend, my grades could have been a lot better and my life could have been a lot different if I just paid a little more attention.
Some of the time however, I found somewhat good use of my time by doodling various stick figures onto a stack of post-it notes, creating what we know as a flipbook.
Flipbooks are quite possibly the simplest form of animation and easily the oldest. Several drawings of similar, but different figures that transform into one long or short animation for you to look at or show off. “Old School Art” such as this has really taken a backseat to today’s computer generated graphics and products from Adobe and others. Even you yourself can create online flipbook drawings on various websites and can even create your own from an incredibly simple and free application, called Flipbook Printer.
Flipbook Printer is a simple application that allows you to create your very own flipbooks from your very own movie collection. You import the movie of your choice, edit accordingly, and print them onto business cards. Below is a more in depth look at how it works.
After importing either an AVI or MPG, you would first select where you want the flipbook to begin and where you want it to end.
After that you select the card stock that you’ll be using for printing off all the various animations. You have a couple of default Avery options, along with customizing your own if you like. You can then select a front and back cover, along with several various print options.
After you’ve selected all of the options you’d like, you simply insert the business card sheets that you’ve purchased into your printer, and print away. After they have completed the printing process, you simply have to cut each of the individual animations out, assemble them in the correct order, and staple them together, similar to the below screenshot.
If you’d prefer not to go through the more advanced editing process, Flipbook Printer also offers a simple step-by-step wizard.
The flipbooks can be used simply for your own enjoyment, to have fun with your kids, or maybe even a fancy party favor to pass around. Whatever the case, it doesn’t get any simpler than what the free Flipbook Printer application offers. With a few movies from your own collection and a little computer knowledge, you are well on your way to generating your very own flipbooks.
Know of any other similar flipbook creation products? What other programs or sites have you seen to create flipbooks?
