KS1/2 Art - 2D Animation

Highly enjoyable and very useful vid

I have been supporting an after school course in Northern Ireland recently for 12 to 14 year olds from disadvantaged backgrounds.
We teach them claymation stopmotion animation to deal with issues in their lives.
They love the activity. It gives them a real avenue to express themselves.

We've been trialling a new program called ikitmovie
http://www.ikitmovie.com/
We had been using free software up to now but this new program has 2000 sound fx and music included which the students really get a kick out of when creating their movies.
Their is a useful site for beginners at http://www.stopmotioncentral.com/ with tutorials on the basics if you want to point students to a relevant site.

I do a lot of animation in schools and I've posted the finished results on my websites. Working with KS1 I discovered that animating toys and objects is an effective way of encouraging story telling and getting them involved in the process. Free software called SM animator is very good and works with most webcams.

Free software
http://www.clayanimator.com/english/stop_motion_animator.html

Animation examples
http://www.oscarstringer.co.uk/animation/animationexamples/animationexamples.html

http://www.animationforeducation.co.uk/home_index.htm

Oscar Stringer- Film Maker and teacher.

your animations are great - i've been a subscriber to the claymot YouTube channel for a while now.

Can anybody recommend software for a first-timer at animation?? I am inspired by the above videos and want to have a go, but no mention was made of what programmes were used. HELP!
Thanks
Neen

I am a leading teacher for ICT in Tonbridge in Kent. I support 14 schools - most of which have been equipped with Apple Mac mini computers running iStopMotion software for animation. This needs minimal training and produces top quality results. There are a few examples in the projects section of my website: www.jasondilling.co.uk. "Big Guy Little Guy" is my favourite so far. Hope this helps. Jason Dilling

Hi, there are several programs you can use, but if you are using PCs with windows then there are options that are free.

MonkeyJam is a free program that allows you to do pencil tests, cel animation and stop-motion animation. Essentially you can import still images (either photos or digitally created ones) and make animations out of them. You can save the final as an avi.
http://giantscreamingrobotmonkeys.com/monkeyjam/about.html

I also found a good tute on creating stop motion animations using a still camera and Windows MovieMaker (which should come installed by default on Windows machines, at least up to XP, haven't seen Vista so can't say on that one).
www.beverlyschool.org/animation/animationtutorial.pdf

I have some links for some good websites and videos as well I could put up. I'm also trying to figure out a way to do rotoscoping on the cheap (can be done with flash and probably Photoshop, but both of these programs are expensive) but that might take a little while.

I'm using a program called Animator 9. It's free, and both you and the children can download it for use at home or school.

I also use Irfanview to edit pictures. I use the screen capture and custom crop features.

Windows media Player can be adjusted to allow screen capture from digital video [-You Tube etc](with for example Irfanview)- go to tool/options/performance/advanced and uncheck 'use overlays'

Salaka te, Liaka te.

Is there any way you can add sound to animations done in Animator 9?

I so enjoyed this. I was looking for things to open the minds of some tutors I am training to make lessons more interesting. I had trouble playing the clip kept cutting out - my old laptop I suspect but any tips would be great

Hi Jenny,
If you are using an old laptop or poor connection, I'd recommend downloading the programme beforehand to save any embarrassing stalls or video cutting out.
Log in and right-click on link next to video player, select 'Save link as...' and choose location to save to - when you are training you can play video smoothly on media player. Most of the programmes available on the site can be downloaded by those in UK.
Best wishes,
Luke Harvey, Teachers TV Community Producer

I really enjoyed this video. I am taking teacher certification classes at West Chester U of PA in the USA, and one of my courses this semester is Integrating Educational Technology in the Classroom. We had a digital video project that we edited and posted on eyespot.com. It would be interesting to try digital animation in the classroom as well. The toughest part is finding the time in the school day to get it all done.

I will keep this in mind.

We have done many animations over the last four years. Once you start, you do get hooked. We have topic afternoons once a week. There are anywhere from five to eight activities, depending on the topic and the number of volunteer parents we can get to help us. The same activities are set up each week and the children, who are split into small groups, complete a different activity each afternoon. One of these activities is 3D animation. We get all the backdrops and 3D characters ready before these topic afternoons begin as well as the storyboards or plans. This works really well. I ask the groups, one at a time, to come back to me during lunch breaks to complete their animations with narrations, sound effects or for them to record their own background music. It is quieter at this time for recording. We have done this successfully with one class or two classes together - Y5 and Y6.