Column: John McAllister has a challenge for readers - can they produce a better short video them him? Mr McAllister offers advice on the best software to use. He is a keen musician, having recorded 13 albums of his own compositions over the past 25 years, and he was in an Irish band, Stringbean, in the late 1960s and early 70s. During lockdown he recorded an album called Celtic Tiger - his “life story in song”

LAST April, I made a series of animated short films as a means of keeping contact with our grandchildren.

I used several toys we keep in our cottage as characters.

Each toy used developed their own characteristics and the stories seemed to take a life of their own.

New characters were introduced as the work progressed and a particular character - Maurice O’Reelaway - became my alter ego.

I have to admit I had previously taken free courses on animation and scriptwriting from the Open University, so had ideas as to how to proceed.

Each script for the 30 episodes had the same script format to begin with and the characters responded in ways I had assigned to them.

I thought I could make this into a children’s book series, except I don’t know about how to go about that.

Perhaps a reader of this article will have some advice to give.

All the software I used I got for free from the internet or from my operating system.

Free versions of Filmora and WavePad are downloadable from the net and Photo is free with Windows 10.

With two of his grandchildren - John with James, three, and Sophia, two

With two of his grandchildren - John with James, three, and Sophia, two

I used my iPad, digital camera and cheap smart phone to take photos and video sequences and then stitched them together using the software mentioned.

One other free-version package, Handbrake, allowed me to reduce the size of the video to manageable size.

One trick to minimise digital photos is to send them all as attachments in Outlook, which then allows you to bring them down from megabyte to kilobyte size.

In a previous life, I was a computer analyst project leader so had experience of assigning the tasks and sequences I needed to take to make it happen.

Since then my little stories have been shown in various primary classrooms and shared by various family members.

Family affair - John with son Neils family. Pictured in the back row, from left, are Neil, John and Christine McAllister. In the front row are grandchildren Daniel, five, and Abigail McAllister, seven

Family affair - John with son Neil's family. Pictured in the back row, from left, are Neil, John and Christine McAllister. In the front row are grandchildren Daniel, five, and Abigail McAllister, seven

Autistic children seem to like them and the ideas developed in the series could probably be developed by teachers and their charges in special needs schools.

Which leads me to the main point and question I wanted to ask via this column - can you beat the grandad (me!)?

I’m laying out a challenge to youngsters and their teachers to do better.

To find the shorts I made, search YouTube for Elephant Lobster and Puppy. I’d be happy to answer any questions on how I used the software and can be emailed via jmca904@gmail.com.

There are so many options to take in sound and vision which would be fun, I’m sure.

READ MORE: