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Topic: What is "MonkeyJam" and why should I use it?

I've been hearing alot about a piece of free software (atleast I think its free) called "MonkeyJam". I've heard that its a photo-capturing program, but I don't see why I would use it. As it is now, I simply take the pictures for my animation on my digital camera and load it directly to a file on my computer hard drive using a USB cable. From there I take my pictures and throw them into a media pool in my editor (Movie Edit Pro14 from Magix) and put it on a time line.  My question is what are the benifits of using "MonkeyJam" and what do I have to do in order to use it? Any input would help tremendously. Thanks.

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Re: What is "MonkeyJam" and why should I use it?

You should get MonkeyJam. MonkeyJam is a frame Capturer, which means you can set your FPS (Frames Per Second with it) you shouldn't use WMM (Windows Movie Maker) because that just gives you 8 FPS, when you could do 15 fps, or 24 fps, or whatever just in monkeyjam. It is very much prefered to use monkeyjam, and it takes up less space than Helium Frog (another frame capturer) your computer won't be slowed down, here's a link to download monkeyjam for free: http://www.giantscreamingrobotmonkeys.c … nload.html now in case you would like to have helium frog for whatever reason, then here is the link for you: http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia … ator.shtml hope I helped.

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legostudiosplus's Website

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Re: What is "MonkeyJam" and why should I use it?

First off, welcome to BiM! Yes Monkeyjam is free, and frame capturing is better than just clicking the shutter button because when you hit the button it causes the camera to wobble. Also, Monkeyjam will put the frames on a timeline for you, at your set FPS.

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Re: What is "MonkeyJam" and why should I use it?

Get it. I use FrameByFrame myself, which is Mac only, since MJ doesn't work properly on my computer. But get it.

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  • BertL
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Re: What is "MonkeyJam" and why should I use it?

If you are able to hook your digital camera up to the computer directly so that any frames you take will be directly saved on your hard disk, then MonkeyJam is a great help. It is frame capturing software - it doesn't just take the pictures for you, but it will also put them in the right order with the right framerate instantly, allowing you to preview your animation while you are still animating.

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BertL's Website

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Re: What is "MonkeyJam" and why should I use it?

Listen to BertL, he's basically God.

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fib12345's Website

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Re: What is "MonkeyJam" and why should I use it?

Thanks, this helps alot. I think I'll download it.

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Re: What is "MonkeyJam" and why should I use it?

There are two downsides to Monkeyjam I can think of:
1.) There is no onion skinning, not a major problem.
2.) There have been no updates for over 2 years, major problem.

  • Location: Britain (last time I checked)
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Re: What is "MonkeyJam" and why should I use it?

ONLY use monkeyjam if you have a webcam. Digital Camera's (and other types) have to be made especially so that you can take a picture using monkeyjam on the computer with the camera plugged in.
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Hope this helped mini/smile

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Re: What is "MonkeyJam" and why should I use it?

StormTrooper305 wrote:

ONLY use monkeyjam if you have a webcam. Digital Camera's (and other types) have to be made especially so that you can take a picture using monkeyjam on the computer with the camera plugged in.
mini/bigsmile
Hope this helped mini/smile

That may be a problem. I was considering using a Cannon Powershot A85 camera for my next annimation. Will that work with Monkey Jam?

  • Joined: July 15, 2010

Re: What is "MonkeyJam" and why should I use it?

maybe, but if not. you can get a webcam pretty cheap at bestbuy or something. i suggest getting the quickcam pro 9000. also if you want a tutorial on monkeyjam here you go:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49De5wW0kk8

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  • BertL
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Re: What is "MonkeyJam" and why should I use it?

John Marks wrote:
StormTrooper305 wrote:

ONLY use monkeyjam if you have a webcam. Digital Camera's (and other types) have to be made especially so that you can take a picture using monkeyjam on the computer with the camera plugged in.
mini/bigsmile
Hope this helped mini/smile

That may be a problem. I was considering using a Cannon Powershot A85 camera for my next annimation. Will that work with Monkey Jam?

If you can hook it up to the computer and get a live feed through that, you can probably use it with MonkeyJam. If you can get a live feed from your Powershot and can't get it to work in MonkeyJam, I would try out different software if I were you. I'm gonna go against SteveStarfyTV's advice (buying a webcam), because your Powershot has super far more superior picture quality than any webcam.

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BertL's Website

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Re: What is "MonkeyJam" and why should I use it?

When I began brickfilming I didn't even know there was such a thing as remote capture. I used some kind of Cannon Powershot, and when I finally found out about MJ, it didn't work with it mini/sad... Now I use another Cannon camera. It also does not work with Monkey Jam but it comes with it's own remote capture program. Check if maybe your camera has something like that.

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  • Location: Germany
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Re: What is "MonkeyJam" and why should I use it?

The Canon is not compatible with monkeyjam.
If you would like to use a better software like the one which comes on the cd with, use CSMC.

Here you will find more informations and a videotutorial:
http://bricktrick.de/index-e-digicam.php

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mario72's Website

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Re: What is "MonkeyJam" and why should I use it?

mario72 wrote:

The Canon is not compatible with monkeyjam.
If you would like to use a better software like the one which comes on the cd with, use CSMC.

Here you will find more informations and a videotutorial:
http://bricktrick.de/index-e-digicam.php

I checked out the site and found a link to download the program, but it looks like the site doesn't exist anymore (atleast it looked so). Is there an other place I could get this program?

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Re: What is "MonkeyJam" and why should I use it?

Oh, sorry, I put an link to his old webiste in this tutorial.
But here you can download it:
http://bricktrick.de/index-e-softwaredownload.php

The main-page from Haukingers CSMC is http://csmc.haukinger.de/en/
But the latest 0.7-Version is buggy, it dosn´t work on most computers, so just use the old 0.6 from the link above (BrickTrick)

Good Luck,
Mario

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mario72's Website

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Re: What is "MonkeyJam" and why should I use it?

Ok, I got it. Thanks!