This giveaway is closed. Congratulations to the winner chosen by random.org: #77 Dawn @ Coming to a Nursery Near You!

This is stop #3 on the Klutz Book of Animation Blog Tour! The Klutz Book of Animation teaches anyone with a computer, camera, internet  connection and a little bit of creativity how to create their own stop-motion animated films. Step-by-step instructions show you how to create a variety of different classic stop motion special effects, and the book includes everything you’ll need,  from practical instruction to ready-to-shoot scripts. The software you’ll need is available as a free download, ready to use on any computer (PC or Mac). Attached to the book is a piece of low-tech, non-toxic clay, which you can mold into the star of your film!

If you’ve seen the classic movie “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer”, you’ve seen a stop motion movie. The basic technique involves taking a picture of something, then moving it (or some part of it) a tiny bit, taking another picture, and so on. Once you stitch all those pictures together, you get a stop-motion film.

I knew the basics of stop-motion animation, but what I learned from The Klutz Book of Animation is the terms for specific types of it. For example, Pixilation is a technique that makes people move “like magic”, and Rotoscoping turns the still images into animation.

Each stop on this blog tour corresponds to a section of the book. Mine is called “No Handed Eating”, which teaches you how to make it look like a someone invisible is eating a sandwich and drinking a glass of juice. Klutz made me my very own sample video so I could show all of you what kind of “No Handed Eating” you could make following the step-by-step instructions in the book. Check it out!

My favorite part is the “Hooray for Table4Five.net at the end In addition to the directions, which are very well illustrated, the book also includes several pages of punch-outs including costumes for your clay figure and mouths you can attach to fruit to make it look like it’s talking. Kids will love this!

WIN IT: Thanks to Klutz, I have a prize pack of fun books to give away to one Table for Five reader. Open to U.S. mailing addresses only.

One (1) Winner will receive:

* a copy of The Klutz Book of Animation

* a copy ofThe Klutz Book of Magic

* a copy of Klutz’ Rubber Band Powered Flying Machines

* a copy of Klutz’ Battery Science!

Retail value of prize pack: $79.80

HOW TO ENTER: Leave a comment on this post telling me your idea for a homemade stop-motion video. Would you mold a clay superhero? Make a paper cut-out appear to fly?  Use your imagination! You must do this before any bonus entries will be counted.

EARN BONUS ENTRIES: For additional chances to win, leave a comment telling me which of the following you do or have done-

• Link to Table for Five on your blog. Add me to your blogroll or grab a button from the sidebar!
• Subscribe to the Table for Five feed in a reader or by email. Links are in the header.
• Follow @Table for Five on Twitter
• Tweet about the giveaway, you can do this ONCE PER DAY and leave a new comment for each tweet: Enter to win The Klutz Book of Animation + 3 other Klutz books from @Table4Five. Enter by 10/06/10 at 11:59 PM EST http://wp.me/p9SRW-1Na
• Friend me on Facebook. Include a message in the friend request that you’re entering my giveaway so I’ll be sure to accept!
• Like Table for Five on Facebook. My page needs more fans!

For FIVE Bonus Entries: Blog about this giveaway including a link to this post and the ending date of 10/06. Leave five separate, numbered comments – example: #1 I blogged about this giveaway here (URL), #2 I blogged about this giveaway here (URL), etc.

Tomorrow, please stop by the next blog in the tour, Tree, Root, and Twig.  She’s running the same giveaway so you’ll have even more changes to win! Thanks for entering and good luck everybody!

disclosure: I received The Klutz Book of Animation free for review. No other compensation was received.