As many teachers will tell you, art is a fantastic way for pupils to express themselves, be creative, and allow their imaginations to run wild. Art is especially crucial for today's youngsters, who are growing up with the advantages and disadvantages of a fast-paced existence in which quick gratification is expected. Teaching patience, achievement, and long-term satisfaction is not always easy, and as a result, it might be difficult to introduce initiatives that are time-consuming and may not provide immediate benefits, but produce very satisfying results.
Here are five projects that you may use to educate kids about animation, ranging from simple and fast-paced to more intricate and drawn-out. The numerous projects offer children crucial lessons about creating illusions of movement by combining 2-D and 3-D images in rapid succession. There is something for every student, and you may begin right away and have a great time!
Photo Animation For Kids with Special Needs:
This is a favorite of mine for students with special needs because they don't need to be able to draw or have a long attention span to like it. I like to show the students a little movie as an example of how other people have done the project, to offer inspiration and knowledge, just like I do with any of the animation projects I teach. The kids are then asked to brainstorm a rough notion for what they want to happen in the short animation clip they will be creating.
The simplest method is to have one student snap a photo every second or two while the others move around the room slowly. You can also make a 'themed film,' such as the one I made with students sliding into the frame on garbage can lids. I created this by having them stand in one spot on the lids for a photo, then having them move a foot forward and take another photo, and so on, to keep the movement going. This project is fantastic since it can be done as a group project with many students or individually, as long as one student can control the camera. It's also effective for students with extremely limited cognitive abilities.
Drawing Animation Is For All Levels:
This project works well as a stand-alone activity for children while being easy and uncomplicated. I like to start by giving the students yellow sticky pads to use as flipbooks for them to doodle on. Each student can begin by sketching a series of events that will develop and change as the pages progress. Because this is an independent project, students' work will differ depending on their artistic ability.
Drawings can range from simple stick figures that move ahead slightly in each successive frame (to stroll across the page when the pages are flipped) to more complex, detailed drawings that can bring a scene to life. It's fantastic because it provides students with a firm foundation in understanding how animation works, and it's accessible to students of all artistic levels.
White Board Animation is Environmentally Friendly:
Creating animation on a whiteboard becomes more difficult as time goes on. This project can be completed by shooting photos or, for a more advanced project, by capturing footage with a video camera. If you want to snap images, you should set up the camera on a tripod and arrange the whiteboard in a well-lit area. The student can make a design and then snap a photograph of it, just like in a flipbook.
The student can then choose to delete part or all of the design and redraw it somewhat differently, or in a sequence of actions, like they did with the flipbook, being sure to snap photos of the progress as they go so that the photos can be exhibited swiftly in sequence to create an animated slideshow. One of the advantages is that it is a more environmentally responsible method of animation because you are not using a lot of paper to create your image sequences. You may even take this project to the next level by recording it with a video camera, as stop-motion animation allows you to introduce additional items into the picture that interact with the artwork.
Clay Animation is Inexpensive and Fun!:
Clay animation, often known as claymation, is a popular kind of animation in which clay is used to construct three-dimensional creatures or objects, which are then filmed or photographed and moved slightly at intervals to generate motion. The best thing about clay is how easy it moves and how affordable it is to use for stop-motion animation. However, because the subject of the animation clip shifts from the 2-dimensional world of sketching on paper to the 3-dimensional realm of being sculptural, it necessitates a little more forethought. The student should consider what more they will include or eliminate from the scenario, such as backdrops and extra objects, as well as scenery to provide context.
Organic Animation is Subtle and Interesting:
This type of animation is really just a time-delayed type of animation in which you can take pictures or videos of something organic as the days go by, such as a plant growing, or mold consuming a piece of fruit. The benefit of using this type of animation is that the students don't have to be very creative to have a really neat video, since the object they are filming will be moving on their own every day. The students just need to set up a tripod and make sure that the technical side of things stays the same, such as the sunlight, or positioning of the tripod. The downside to this type of animation, however, is that it generally is more of a long-term project, since you have to wait a certain amount of time to physically show a change in the object that one is documenting. I have seen this project done many ways, even by taking a photograph of a person every day for a year, showing subtle changes that may not have been caught by the eye on a daily basis.
This is essentially a time-delayed animation in which you record images or videos of anything biological as the days pass, such as a plant growing or mold eating a piece of fruit. The advantage of employing this form of animation is that students don't need to be particularly creative in order to make a really cool video because the object they're recording will move on its own every day. The students only need to set up a tripod and ensure that the technical aspects of the situation remain the same, such as the sunlight or tripod set. However, the disadvantage of this form of animation is that it is usually a long-term undertaking because you have to wait a certain period of time to see a change in the object you're documenting. This project has been done in a variety of ways, including photographing a person every day for a year to illustrate subtle changes that may not have been noticed on a regular basis.
These are just some of the examples of how you can teach students to make animation, and they work well as an introduction for other forms of moving pictures once students understand the basics.
These are only a few instances of how you may teach pupils to generate animation, and once they understand the principles, they can move on to various types of moving pictures.
Animation Turns Everyone into an Instant Artist:
Once students have mastered these simpler forms of "stop-motion" animation, they are well on their way to attempting computer animation and other more advanced video projects. Just keep in mind that animation can be done in a variety of ways, including with drawings or household items. It can be a lot of fun and quite open to interpretation. So choose one of these projects and assist a student in discovering the joys of animation.
On my Teaching With Entertaining website, you may discover more about creative project ideas, fun teaching strategies, and experiential learning methods. Kristen Keller is a Coast-to-Coast Robot Tour teaching consultant and workshop director. For the past five years, she has worked as a teacher in a variety of school boards around Northern Ontario and Canada.
Kristen is a firm believer in experiential learning for all children, and she is especially dedicated to educating students in a joyful, hands-on manner, believing that students learn best when they are having fun and fully involved in what they are doing. Kristen presently teaches Artistic Robot Workshops at Southern Ontario schools.