Animated Video Promotes Reading

September 10, 2012

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Todd Frei and Benjamin McFadden, digital librarians for Wake County Public Libraries in Raleigh, North Carolina, created this stop-motion animated video to promote reading among patrons at their library. In putting the video together, McFadden drew more than 700 images as animated GIFs, which were then projected onto a marker board, captured by camera, and edited by Frei. The process took four days of tracing and photographing, and the final product has generated positive feedback from social media, becoming the second-most-viewed video on the library system’s YouTube page. Since the video first aired on August 20, Wake County Public Libraries’ Digital Library Department has received more than 50 requests from librarians throughout the country who want it customized for their library, a service Frei and McFadden offer at the end of the video. (As of early September, they had edited about 25 videos for other libraries.) Frei suggests that those looking to do something similar can design animations with a camera, whiteboard, and Microsoft’s Movie Maker program. Of course, possessing artistic talent doesn’t hurt, either. “You would need only a camera and some creativity—and time,” Frei said.

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