Our New Animation Stations-Part 2

We have just finished up our first carousel with the 7s using the new animation stations.

The painting wasn't quite done when we began, so we didn't maximise their complete potential this time around. That said the new tripods provided more versatility and much needed stability, while the green surface gave the kids a chance to experiment with using DoInk's Chromakey tools  when applying different images to their animations.

For more on the tripods and the apps we used, checkout our previous post on the new animation stations.

During the next carousel,  we will be able to make full use of all of the chromakey options, thereby eliminating the need for printed backdrops.

Here are two examples of finished videos from this first carousel, in which the students used printed backdrops, combined with the images  they added using DoInk's GreenScreen app for iPads.

A Feature Article on Our Work

Recently we were approached by the people at iStopMotion about the ways in which we use the program with our students.   We responded and shared our 7th grade animation project with them as well as our YouTube Playlist of Best Animations from last year's DVA.

We are very honoured that they chose to write an article about our work and would like to take this opportunity to share it with the community.

Please click here to read the article.

You can watch some of our student videos below.

7th Grade Animations

7A and 7C have successfully completed their digital animation work for the year. They created their animations using digital cameras and tripods, webcams, and iPads. They were given the choice of  using the following techniques: Pixilation, Stop Motion, Paper Puppets and drawing.

Toki Line test, iStopMotion and Animation Desk were used to produce the animation footage, once the storyboarding was done. The videos were edited on iMovie on the iMacs.  They had a lot of fun working with new applications and and trying things out with the different techniques. They also got a chance to reinforce previous chromakey work using the green  and blue screens. Have a look at some of their finished videos.

Favourite iPad Animation Apps

This is a guest post by my colleague, Rodrigo Alfaro, based on our animation work with iPads this school year.




We recently purchased a dozen iPads for teacher and student use in the LRC. These iPads are used for many tasks, including animation. We have found a great many useful apps for animation which we hope others will find useful as well.

  Animation Desk Lite for iPad This app has the most features for classical (drawn) animation. Its greatest limitation is that you can only create three scenes in the Lite version. Even so, it is quite a robust application; it includes different pen and brush types, multiple layers of animation, variable frame rates, onion-skinning and even a digital stamp tool which allows you to cut and paste as well. This application is ideal for patient students who have a drawing vocation and enough passion to pursue the completion of one project for a period of time. This application also feels more intuitive if you use a stylus to draw. Animation Desk will allow you to save a scene to the Photo Library (Camera Roll) as a movie, which can then be emailed or exported to a computer with the USB cable.

iStopMotion 
This application is designed for pixilation (sequential picture) sequences. The interface is very simple to use and understand, because as soon as you open the program there is a small tutorial which guides you through the basic functions of the app. When a clip is created, the front or back camera is activated and you can start shooting right away. The tricky part is to keep the ipad as still as possible, so the animation is not jarring and inconsistent. Often times, the best method involves placing the iPad in a static position in front of where the action will take place. Since this is a purchased app, there is no limit to the amount of scenes available to shoot. You also have the option to play back the animation at different speeds. When your sequence is done, you can export to the Photo Library and email your movie from there.

Animation Express
 This application is simple to use. It is very similar in style to Animation Desk, but the interface is less complicated. Even so, it is powerful enough to be able to do rotoscoping (drawing on pictures). It includes 2 modes: the regular drawing mode (which includes, brushes, colour swatches, a stamp tool and a smudge tool), as well as the animating mode, (which includes adding, subtracting or duplicating frames, variable frame rate, a sound recorder and export functionality to get your video out of the ipad and unto a computer. Other features (with the free version) include a shape tool, a Paint Bucket tool which is used to paint large areas of your drawing. This program is accessible and simple enough for those who find Animation Desk too complicated.

The February Newsletter is Out!

Please click on the image below to access the full newsletter.  We hope you enjoy it. We would love to hear back from you, so please take a minute to write us a comment.

Mrs. Garcia

The November LRC Newsletter is Out!

Please take a look at the November Newsletter to find out more about what is happening at the LRC. We hope you enjoy it and would love to hear back from you, so please feel free to leave us a comment or two below.

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Graphic Apps to Add to Your Toolkit!

I was wandering throught Twitter again today, after being informed I had a new follower-yes! Anyway this lead me to this newly resurrected blog on teaching with comics which of course got my attention immediately after all the work we have done with ToonDoo this year. Well I couldn't help myself I scanned the posts quickly and immediately came up with 3 new tools I just had to have!(Plus I left a comment about ToonDoo). The first of the tools is called Xtranormal and it allows one to create 3-d videos with a range of simple tools. It is a freebie and very user friendly which of course makes it even more special for those of us who teach. Another great tool is Block Posters, (once again it is free) which allows users to upload and slice images which are then dowloaded in PDF form for printing out as pieces of a larger poster. Finally, I have downloaded ComicLife for Mac from Plasq.com which is initailly free and allows users to create comics with photographs from their computers.

I have included a couple of examples below.

Xtranormal Link (having trouble with the embedding code)

More Cool Web 2.0 Tools

This is short list of some really cool tools I have come across through my feeds. I have already fallen in love with the first three on the list and am about to get to know #4 much better.

Mygazines.com provides free uploaded mags online we can all enjoy. Are there copyright issues here?

Flowgram.com is a great app. that allows you to upload and/ create unique presentations while adding audio, notes and other content to them. It is something similar to Voice thread only BETTER for presentation purposes, not as good however for collaborative work and feedback, which is really the beauty of Voicethread!

Go Animate is a web app. that brings animations to life with themed characters, audio, backgrounds, sound effects. I just recently go very excited about toondoo , using it to generate cartoon strips. Go Animate however, breathes life into your toons as you organise your stories along a time line.

Finally there is PicLIts.

"PicLits.com is a creative writing site that matches beautiful images with carefully selected keywords in order to inspire you. The object is to put the right words in the right place and the right order to capture the essence, story, and meaning of the picture."

Update: For a wonderful collection of web 2.0 tools (one of the best I've come across) go to Cooltools.