by Amy L. Johnson

• Full art unit designed to take learners from the beginnings of animation to current CGI.

• 7 lessons with 3 product-based outcomes

• Culminates in the publishing of a student-made claymation project

• Entire unit is online at http://originsofanimation.wikispaces.com

General Overview

Lesson Overview

• Lesson 1: Thaumatropes• Lesson 2: Flip-Books• Lesson 3: Storyboards• Lesson 4: Character Design• Lesson 5: Backdrop Design• Lesson 6: Shooting Claymation• Lesson 7: Editing & Publishing Claymation

Foundation PPT

• “Creating Movement: The Origins of Animation” is the foundation presentation

• Presentation overviews all projects, gives examples, and defines various animation terms

• Presentation has embedded animations and links to exemplar videos on YouTube.com

Thaumatropes

You will need:• Two 3 x 5 in note-

cards per student OR two 3 in diameter circles per student

• pencils• markers• 2 rubber bands per

student• “How To Make a

Thaumatrope” worksheet

Flip-Books

You will need:• 20-30 3 x 3 in sheets

of paper per student• Pencils • Colored pencils• 1 small binder clip

per student• “How To Make a Flip-

Book” worksheet

Storyboards

You will need:• Storyboard

worksheet• Pencils• Story• Markers/colored

pencils

Character Design

You will need:• 1 brick of oil-based

clay per character• 2 pipe cleaners per

character• Storyboards• 5 x 7 in sketch paper• Pencils• Markers• Clay modeling tools• scissors

Backdrops

You will need:• 18 x 24 in paper• Pencils • Markers • Tempera paint• Paintbrushes

Shooting

You will need:• Digital cameras• Extra batteries• Books for “tripods”• Claymation

characters• Backdrops• Masking tape• Pens/markers

Shooting Cont’d

Editing

You will need:• Windows Movie

Maker (WMM)• Computer• USB Drive• SD Card• SD Card-reader

Editing Cont’d

Windows Movie Maker (WMM)

• Unit relies on WMM instead of iMovie because most schools interface with PC as opposed to Mac

• WMM is video editing software included in MS Windows Me, XP, Vista and 7

• It can be download for free: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/moviemaker2.mspx

• Click-by-Click directions on how to move import pictures, begin a stop-motion movie, and editing in WMM are available on the wiki

Editing Cont’d

Embedding Music

• Students must find and download royalty free music for their videos

• A great website for finding royalty free music is http://freeplaymusic.com

• Directions on how to download and embed music into WMM are available on the wiki

Publishing

• Completed student claymation movies can be uploaded to YouTube.com

• Encourage the teacher to do all uploading

• You will need to get a YouTube.com account (free)

• Click-by-click directions on how to upload videos to YouTube.com can be found on the wiki

Assessment

• The thaumatrope lesson, flip-book lesson, and story-board lesson, and backdrop lesson each have their own assessment

• There is a longer, more comprehensive assessment for the shooting, editing, and publishing of the claymation video.

Questions?

Amy.L.Johnson@Live.com