Draw a box using a pencil and ruler to create a boxed frame for a cartoon drawing. Make it any size you choose. Draw a matchstick man with facial features in any position. Include as little or as much detail as you prefer in the drawing. For instance, draw a background. This is cartoon frame number one.
Draw another boxed frame, the same size as the first, on another piece of paper ready for cartoon frame number two.
Trace the matchstick man and boxed frame from cartoon frame number one. Place the traced image into box two and re-draw heavily over the tracing of the matchstick man. Ensure the man is placed in the exact same position as in frame one. Re-draw over the matchstick man on the plain paper, if lines are feint.
Select an aspect of the matchstick man – a mouth or a limb. Draw a selected part in a slightly different position. Erase the original position of the mouth or limb.
Repeat these principle steps until you have created 24 frames of different character movements to create one second worth of animation.
Record each frame in sequence by taking a photograph. Set up a digital camera on a tripod to keep the camera angle fixed down upon a cartoon frame. Place each cartoon frame in exactly the same place as the previous. Do not adjust the position of the camera.
Upload photographs to the computer using a USB lead or firewire.
Open Microsoft movie maker or other film editing package. Upload photographs from your pictures folder.
Click and drag each cartoon frame in sequence on to the editing bar.
Create titles and credits for the opening and end of the matchstick man cartoon. Add a music file, if required.
Click on the editing timeline and reduce the length of each time frame to the minimum time fragment allowed.
Play the cartoon. See how your separate frames have come to life.