| 
Some
Tips and Tricks for Computer Animation using Monkey Jam |
Dear
World,When I run
teacher development days one of their favourite activities is to experiment with
stop motion computer animation. The students also really enjoy it. Here
are some ideas for integrating stop motion into the classroom: *
animate the solution for a tangram puzzle
*
create a short film entitled '...and the Toys Danced' - get the students to bring
in their own toys. *
provide some plastine and a piece of creative commons music and see what sort
of a video clip they can produce. *
as a whole class activity each group works on a scene from a short story *
animate a piece of poetry using lego pieces
Stop Motion Animation Software
Download Monkey Jam and
who knows, you might produce the next Wallace and Grommit.
http://www.giantscreamingrobotmonkeys.com/ | |
Tips
and Tricks:*
Just let the students experiment the first time they have a go at stop motion
as they get a bit excited. Then have a go at storyboarding and work on camera
angles the second time *
5mm movements of the characters are enough to get fluid movement *
Let the students know that most stop motion films are filmed at 25 frames a second *
Show examples of stop motion where the movements were too great. The children
will notice how it just look likes a series of photos rather than animation. This
step gets them to focus small movements *
a simple cheap webcam is the only extra hardware you need *
drop the rendered clips into movie editing software to add sound effects, credits,
background music and narrations *
Have a whole class focus on group skills and sub-tasking before beginning. You
will need to revisit this as the groups confront problems. *
Make groups of about 6 students to make films. Assign roles eg camera operator,
screen capture person, movers, and a director for making the big calls when an
arguement needs to be settled. Swap roles throughout the activity. *
If you use play-dough try building pipe cleaners into the model to make movement
a little easier. | 