daNiMatioNS:kids folksongs, animated

Intro

daNiMatioNs is simply, as the website tagline says, “kids folk songs, animated”. I created daNiMatioNs way back in 1997 as an interactive CD-ROM for Mac and PC as one-half of my Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A) thesis exhibit (painting and interactive computer media) at the University of Wisconsin- Madison. I’ve wanted to convert the project to a website ever since then, and here is the first website iteration of that old CD-ROM!

Geek speak

All videos in daNiMatioNs were optimized with the Cinepak video codec (to compress color) and a lower frame rate were used to enable videos to play fast enough on a CD-ROM for the technology of that time and to look good on smaller screens (640 x 480 pixels back then), so here I’ve kept them small, the original size of 320 pixels x 240 pixels (old-school VHS, 4:3 aspect ratio); I recommend viewing daNiMatioNs on a smartphone, a small tablet or laptop for the best experience.

The technology to make what I did back in 1997 wasn’t great (by today’s standards) and I didn’t own a computer to record directly, so my process was a bit clunky- see the Tools section, below. I recorded to a cassette tape at home, then went to a campus computer lab to digitize that audio, and do the rest.

Outro

Unless I’m ready to completely reanimate all of these songs/videos (and I’m not), they need to stay small because making them larger (stretching pixels) would just make the animations super-grainy, blurry and unrecognizable. Maybe daNiMatioNs II could involve re-recording and reanimating all 14-songs, and add some new songs? 🤔Hmmm…

See below, for my 1997 remarks about the project.
Sincerely,
-daN osmundsoN

“I have always liked and been interested in music but I didn’t start to have fun with it until began playing guitar about four years ago. Since I really enjoy folk music and I was a beginner at that time, I tended to play children’s folk songs which are generally easier to play and to sing.

About one year ago, I began to use the computer to animate children’s folk songs. More recently I’ve created interactive media kiosks, like this one, to display the animation. I find the computers ability to manipulate imagery quickly for animation to be unmatched by other media. I’ve always been interested in music but I never dreamed of combining images and sound until I began using computers. In my most recent animations I have combined children’s folk songs, which I perform, record and edit on the computer, with imagery that I have downloaded from the World Wide Web. After I find reproductions to associate with the lyrics of these songs, I adjust scale, contrast, etc., and collage before animating: building clips and synchronizing to the song. Although the technical aspects of using the computer and various software for these animations can be overwhelming, I also approach it intuitively in the spirit of quest. This is an exciting new approach to interpreting children’s folk songs.
I hope you enjoy my animations!!
Sincerely,
-daN osmundsoN”

1. Three Blind Mice 0:57
2. Clementine 2:00
3. Dunderbeck’s Machine 2:06
4. The Donut 1:15
5. Donkey Riding 1:32
6. Frère Jacques 0:47
7. Henry, My Son 2:40
8. Kookaburra 0:46
9. My Darling, Asleep 1:18
10. Old Dan Tucker 2:09
11. I’ve Been Workin’ on the Railroad 1:32
12. The Tailor and The Mouse 2:24
13. Waltzing Matilda 3:50
14. Worms 0:36