Hue Animation Studio Review

When I heard about Hue Animation I was intrigued. It was unlike anything we’ve tried here before and sounded a lot of fun.

HUE GROUP PACK SHOT_AW REDHue Animation Studio contains everything a budding animator needs to begin creating stop motion animation videos. Children can discover, imagine and create stop-motion animation through powerful, easy-to-use, animation software complete with Hue’s award-winning Plug ‘n’ Play HD camera with built-in microphone and a unique flexible neck for unlimited positioning options.
For use at home or with school projects, it’s a creative and educational pastime that can be enjoyed by the whole family. The Hue Book of Animation has complete step-by-step instructions for creating 20 hilarious stop motion videos and ideas for even more.
The innovative, fully-featured software enables children to create simple visual adaptations using toys, modelling clay, play figures and stop-frame animation techniques. The process of animating with the Hue Animation Studio encourages children to learn a diverse range of skills in both a fun and stimulating way. They can create a story, create characters, make them from clay or plasticine, design and make sets, compose soundtracks or select appropriate recorded music to enhance a film.
Whether you’re five or 95, you can’t go wrong with Hue’s full feature animation suite!

RRP £49.95

It arrived in a small box, with all that we’d need to get going…

hue animation

The ease of use was the thing that surprised me the most about this. When it arrived, I saw it as something we’d need to set a good few hours aside to get to grips with and create a little animation picture. I was wrong there. You install the software using the disc provided, which takes a matter of minutes to do. While the Husband did that, Boo and I grabbed a little table and set up the ‘stage’ for our filmset. We then plugged the camera provided into the PC, positioned it so that it had the frame that we wanted in view, and we began. Seriously, it was that easy. I’d say from opening the box, to beginning our first film, it took no more than fifteen minutes. Boo busied herself planning her film, and you’ll never guess who she chose as her first subjects….!

hue animation1

You place the characters in position, click a key on the PC to take the shot, then move your characters and/or scenery slightly, then take another snap, and so on. Until it all comes together.

hue animation2

It’s fun! We then moved onto Play Doh, as Boo wanted to make a snail, which she did all by herself, and then got it moving…

hue animation3

Boo has been absolutely fascinated by this. At 5, we need to do it with her, as though the software is easy for us to use, I’d say it’s a bit beyond her at the moment. But she understands the concept of moving them just a little to get the film to work, and she has more than enough imagination to keep on coming up with stories and activities. I’m sharing here our first, very short, attempts to give you a feel for how it works, but I can see us making longer films and using all sorts of sets and props going forward. The booklet that accompanies it is great for suggesting ideas, too, such as using sand and other materials, which I think will feature in our next animation. I can see this being something that both of the children will get hours and hours of use out of in the coming years, and something that combines technology and creativity so seamlessly, definitely gets my vote.

Here are our very first creations revealed, just a couple of seconds long each, but do remember this when Boo becomes a famous animator!

You can also find Hue Animation on Facebook and Twitter. Definitely worth checking them out if you’ve kids from Boo’s age and upwards.

What do you think?

Disclosure: We received this product FOC for the purposes of this review, though all words and opinions remain my own. 

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26 thoughts on “Hue Animation Studio Review”

  1. I would have loved this as a child – I love Wallace and Gromit and being able to create my own Playdoh animations would have been the most exciting thing – ever! x

  2. Funnily enough my daughter was given some animation software including a set etc with her iPad mini from my mum. She’s been busy making video’s. It’s a lot of fun isn’t it. This looks good too 🙂

  3. This is fab! AJ has tried stop animation at after school club and at a LEGO party before, I had no idea it would be this easy to do at home! I think I’ll stick it on my wishlist… 😉

  4. oooh we have one of these, I keep meaning to pull it out and play some more 🙂 The kids spent an age with their plasticine models (does the set still come with plasticine, ours did but it was over a year ago) We also used some plastic animals which we had doing the okey cokey. Hours of fun to be had.

    1. No, it doesn’t come with it, though we’ve plenty of Play Doh here! It is good fun, an I can see it lasting them for years.

  5. I’m really curious about this as we have it, sitting in a box in our utility room – given that iOS now has native stop-motion in the camera and there are a bunch of free stop-motion apps for Android and iOS, I wonder what the extra £50 buys you – do you think it’s worth it?

    1. I suppose from my point of view, as my daughter’s quite young, it’s a kit that she can have all to herself, without needing her own phone. I’m also not keen on the idea of leaving my phone with her for some time, as it does cost more than the £50. We don’t have a tripod for my phone either, whereas the camera and it’s flexi head is really good at getting just the right angle to film from. As to how it compares to the free apps, though for ease of use and quality, I’m not sure as we’ve not tried those out.

  6. We are reviewing this with Ben too – we’ve not had the chance to sit down with him and do it yet though.
    Thanks for linking up with #TriedTested this week and a very Happy New Year to you x

    1. I thought it would take longer to try out than it actually did, really simple to use and get going with. Hope you enjoy it, too x

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