Since I don’t have animation experience yet, I’m going the old-fashioned route with a modern twist: Photos varied slightly in color and magnification to be sequentially arranged and given one-second slots in the timeline; much as the old flipping of pages to show action. Haven’t actually put them into the movie timeline yet to see how they work but something interesting should come of it. I’m going to play with the different transition tools between frames or maybe just quick-flip through them without the slowing down of fades, etc.
The problem with exploring a new medium or software program is the tendency to try out and use all the varying effects available. The trying out is good; it’s the using that makes for a very amateurish end result when simplicity or at the least, consistency would have been more appropriate.
The fun is in the discovery and learning. The fun is also in producing something that amazes with the newness and becomes a starting point to laugh at when experience later serves to make it look positively hokey. After all, our first uttered "ma-ma" or "da-da" will never be equaled in audience response regardless of all the fine effort we put into our learned speechs throughout our lifetime.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology