animation

= = =Animation= =Why Teach Animation= These pages provide an introduction to animation and give some ideas for projects and lessons across Key Stages 1 & 2. Animated films and the skills needed to produce them can provide a stimulus to learning across the curriculum – especially in Art and Design, History, ICT and Literacy. When talking about animation in class, it is important to stress that 'Animation' is a performing art rather than a graphic art. The drawings and models replace actors and actresses, so when children are creating their own animation it is important to approach it through the creative skills they would use in drama rather than graphical skills. Children will have their own preconceived ideas about what animation is from what they have seen at the cinema and watched on television. Try to alert them to the fact that animation is not just Dreamworks and Disney. Animation is image manipulation and it can be used on any object. ===Teamwork=== Animation is a co-operative exercise and will utilise the varying skills of the children in the group getting the best out of them. You will find that where some children can draw well, others will be good at operating equipment or playing instruments; or performing voices or acting as artistic directors. Three rough divisions can be used for group work: pictures, sound and equipment. ====Pictures==== Pictures can come from various sources: they can be drawn, taken from magazines or compiled on the photocopier. Ask the children to research the images before they start creating them: all good animators spend a lot of time looking for source material and practising before they actually do any artwork.

Sounds
Background music and sound effects come from CDs or software. The children can use their voices, musical instruments or everyday objects to make different sounds. A quick search on the internet for 'free sound effects' will lead you to some useful sounds to add to your animated movies. Equipment can be as basic or as fancy as you feel comfortable with. The basics that you will need for animation are pencils and paper. There are many animating software packages that can be installed onto your computers relatively cheaply and easily (e.g. Art Attack-Comic Creator, Kid Pix Studio Deluxe) and it is worth researching other possibilities.

What is Animation Animation is the process by which we see still pictures move. Each picture is shot on film one at a time and is shown at the rate of 24 pictures per second making the pictures appear to move. Some problem solving in numeracy will help children grasp this. If 24 pictures (frames) are shown per second in an animated film, how many frames would be shown in one minute (60 seconds). If a film lasts for approximately 90 minutes (an hour and a half), how many frames would be shown in the film altogether? Estimate the answers first, then work them out on a calculator. The reason our eyes are tricked into seeing movement can be explained by the 'Persistence of Vision' theory. Our brain holds onto an image for a fraction of a second after the image has passed. If the eye sees a series of still images very quickly one picture after another, then the images will appear to move because our eyes cannot cope with fast-moving images - our eyes have been tricked into thinking they have seen movement. Get your pupils to test this by waving your hand in front of their eyes very fast. You will seem to see several hands at once. This is called 'The Moving Hand Theory'. Try doing this in front of a television screen when it is switched on. You will see even more images of your hand because the television is actually flickering. By waving your hand in front of it you make your eyes very confused about what they are actually seeing. In animation, you get moving images when the pictures change in some way. Here are some ways in which pictures can change: =Pivot=
 * **Change in size** – Things can get bigger (grow) or get smaller (shrink). Try drawing a balloon. Now draw it again but a little bit bigger. Now draw it getting even bigger. Draw it so that it is so big that it bursts!
 * **Change in position** – Imagine the spokes on a bike-wheel moving around as the wheel runs full circle. Draw the wheel five times - each time showing how the spokes on the wheel have moved.
 * **Change in angle** – Draw the hands of a clock as time is passing. Each time the hands should show a different angle.
 * **Change in speed** – Draw a car parked. Now draw the same car speeding down a road. How could you show the element of speed?
 * **Change in colour** – Draw six circles and colour them in, each time showing how the colours are getting darker.
 * **Change of shape** – Draw a face that is sad. Now draw three other faces changing the eyes and mouth to make, in four stages, a happy face.

=
====== A simple, easy to use, stickfigure animator based on the idea of a flipbook. This programme is a great way of introducing children to frame- by- frame animation.Users can load backgrounds including photographs or images drawn using a paint package and create new stick figures. A range of figures come preloaded including animals and the alphabet. Movies can be exported for insertion in websites or to be played as films.Combined with other animation software, Pivot films can be taken to an even higher level. The individual images can be exported and then edited before inserting into a programme such as Moviemaker. Once in Moviemaker it is posible to add special effects and sounds to Pivot animations. Why not give it a try? A programme similar to Pivot is Easytoon in which users have much more control over what they are drawing. Using Easytoon students can create black- and- white animations. It is more complicated to use than Pivot and is not being updated. Download Easytoon here.

[|Pivot guide.pdf] 94.78 kB
 * Teacher's Guide**

[|Pivot for beginners.flv] 8.58 MB
 * Video Tutorial**

[|Stykz]

Stykz is a multi-platform stick figure animator similar to Pivot. Stykz is frame-based, letting you to work on individual frames of your animation; onionskinning lets you to see what was in the previous frame so you can make adjustments accordingly. As with Pivot users can edit and create their own figures, however they can also fill areas using the polyfill tool. Once completed your animation can be exported to QuickTime, Animated GIF, or a sequence of images which can then be edited using a package such as Moviemaker. [|Glitter Graphics] ||
 * [[image:http://sig.graphicsfactory.com/Funny_Letters/a.gif link="http://sig.graphicsfactory.com/"]][[image:http://sig.graphicsfactory.com/Funny_Letters/n.gif link="http://sig.graphicsfactory.com/"]][[image:http://sig.graphicsfactory.com/Funny_Letters/i.gif link="http://sig.graphicsfactory.com/"]][[image:http://sig.graphicsfactory.com/Funny_Letters/m.gif link="http://sig.graphicsfactory.com/"]][[image:http://sig.graphicsfactory.com/Funny_Letters/a.gif link="http://sig.graphicsfactory.com/"]][[image:http://sig.graphicsfactory.com/Funny_Letters/t.gif link="http://sig.graphicsfactory.com/"]][[image:http://sig.graphicsfactory.com/Funny_Letters/i.gif link="http://sig.graphicsfactory.com/"]][[image:http://sig.graphicsfactory.com/Funny_Letters/o.gif link="http://sig.graphicsfactory.com/"]][[image:http://sig.graphicsfactory.com/Funny_Letters/n.gif link="http://sig.graphicsfactory.com/"]]

Remember Wallace and Grommitt, yes that's animation at the highest level, but it doesn't have to be so complicated. Animation can be as big or small as the creator wants or as simple or complex. There are four basic techniques used in animation. These are:
 * Drawn animation
 * Cut-out animation
 * Model animation or stop motion animation
 * Computer animation or computer generated imagery (CGI)

[|(Film Education)] **__Drawn animation:__** This is where one drawing comes after the other in a sequence, with each drawing slightly different from the one before.

This could be taught from even a young age by the simple use of a drawing on a note pad, with something as simple as a jotting, like a flicker book. Extensive versions of drawn animation can be produced but this may take thousands of drawings and take a long time for even teams of professionals to finish a whole film.

[|Animation in the classroom]

[|Animation ideas]

[|What is animation]

[|Resources from film education]

**__Cut-out animation__** This animation often uses shapes that are cut-out and are moved around and replaced by other cut-outs. Drawings may have cut-outs laid on them and objects such as buttons, matchsticks and string may be used. This form of animation is very quick and easy to do but the trouble lies in having numerous objects moving together. The film may look stiff and awkward due to the materialsused. However, using programs such as Flash can make the computer do the hard work for you, providing you have the right software this tutorial shows you how to do it. Such animations as Blues Clues and South park can be made in this way. I think I am going to find time to try this when I can get the flash to work with my Vista!!

[|Tutorial for cut out animation using flash]

__ Model or stop-motion animation __
This one is the fun one as it uses 3 dimensional models which could be made of plasticine, clay or wire. Frame by frame the models are moved and photographed. Then the hundreds of photographs(it could be more!) are played in sequence to give the illusion of movement by the models. Producing big animated films takes a lot of time as there are thousands of movements required so often teams of animators work together on sections of the film. Children in class could produce their own animation if they bring in or make their own characters. Animation can be used to follow a story from a book or create their own by writing their own exciting stories.
 * [[image:http://www.filmeducation.org/images/staffroom/animation/chick.gif width="220" height="143" caption="Still from Chicken Run featuring the chickens couped together, hatching a plan."]] ||
 * Still from Chicken Run featuring the chickens couped together, hatching a plan. ||

[|KS 1/2 3d Animation Teacher's TV]

__**CGI Computer animation:**__ This amazing technology is used by computers that scan models and use this imagery to create amazing effects. This is very advance and expensive and would probably be used by the older child due to its complexity and specialised software needed to make it.

__ The benefits of using animation in the classroom: __

Animation motivates and engages both teachers and learners alike. It provides a creative, fun, hands-on experience using relatively simple it skills in the learning environment. It can promote group interaction, literacy skills and engage otherwise reluctant writers to take part. Through making their animation film children have to use a variety of skills, brainstorming, researching, character design, storyboarding and producing. There are a few dis-advantages to this program, adequate space to set up your characters, scenery and computer equipment (digiblue is great as its lightweight, stable and relatively cheap) are factors to consider especially if there is a whole class taking part, so classroom organisation is key ([]

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Fun, creative hands on learning, animation motivates and engages both teachers and students, using simple IT practice, suited to the education environment. Not forgetting sound, animation would be ver quiet without it! Sound could be a retelling of a story, a sound track, or a mixture of all of them withg sound effects included too! [|FindSounds] a free site with lots of free sounds for your animations

Some examples are shown below: [|Childrens examples of animation]

[|Share with your class how animation first began] [|Film education resources] This great site not only shows you what animation is, it also lets you access a variety of films and lesson plan ideas to use in class. [|Aniboom’s Shapeshifter] Online animating application, lets you create your own short animated movie. No download or installation necessary. **Boffin Projects** [|www.boffinprojects.co.uk/claymation] Examples of clay models being used for animation [|2something] - Examples of using 2Animate. [|Animation Library] - Free animations to download. [|History animation] - Using Fluxtime [|Scratch] - Free download with easy to create animations. [|Talking Faces] - Animate face to mimic sounds recorded. [|Webbliworld] - Animated films, interactive games, create your own avatar. **Other Free Software** **Fluxtime Studio** www.fluxtime.com The basic version of this software is free. Using it you can create, edit and play your own animation clips and even send them as e-cards to your friends and families. To save and create more complicated animations you need to sign up. ** Anim8or **[|www.anim8or.com/main/index.html]

Software to use in the classroom: read more about the pros and cons [][]

[|Animated letters] These are really fun I think they are ggereat for the children to play with!

[|Glitter Graphics] ||
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[|Glitter Graphics] || media type="custom" key="5202961"
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