Stories in the Making.

Creating a story board is the initial stage to creating an animation.  By doing this you organise your ideas and create a step by step plan to incorporating movement with sound.



 

By using this technique, as a group, we created a storyboard for our animation The Circle of Life.  Karen J Lloyd  explains that a storyboard is not simply a bunch of pictures, it is a form of communication that explains the process of an animation sequentially and in an organised manner.

 

With our storyboard completed we were then able to start creating our characters, organising audio through music and sound effects, choose backgrounds and decide upon movement. We decided to challenge our creative abilities by using clay for our stop-motion animation.
 

 

Our Storyboard

Our Characters

The use of a story board to  plan our stop-motion animation has enabled myself and other group members to plan the story, sound and movement.  This is an invaluable tool, not only as the group were able to make decisions prior to filming, it gave focus to the groups aim and encouraged debate, reflection, organisation and decision making.  We were able to brain-storm our ideas and compromise direction as well as delegate different tasks.

Reflecting on the use of a storyboard has allowed me to understand the collaborative work that has to be conducted.  Working as a team, sharing and decision making are all skills that the learner will construct as they bounce off ideas in a fun and interesting learning experience.

Making the figures was a very enjoyable. We used oil based clay to mould the characters as this was provided.  This type of clay is according to Stop Motion Softwear website the best for shape durability and movement.  Water based clay such as Play Doh will dry out and crack.  I made the baby, the grown man, the woman (including her growing tummy) and the stork.  I tried to make as much of each character out of one piece of clay, however with clothing it was quite difficult so with my characters the head, hands and legs or feet in the case of the grown man, were separately connected.  This concerned me as I thought that they would detach but after connecting them and trialling movement I was pleased that they remained connected.  I also found that balance was an issue so producing a figure with equal weight and out of proportion feet was time consuming and sometimes fiddly. 

Not being as experienced as some in creating models for animation I followed the advice given on a blog called Animation for Education which I found very useful.

 

When making models from Plasticine look for the following:

1- Simple, bold designs.

2- Large features which are easy to animate and bring to life.

3- Make sure the models can stand up on their own.

4- Make models large enough to animate and move.  (Animation for Education, Accessed 2014)

 

Animation for Learning

There is no denying that visual technology can engross a person so much so that person were asked to repeat what they have watched a detailed description is often verbalised back.  Nonetheless, when it comes to learning, do visual spaces really help a learner and develop their thinking skills and deepen their knowledge?

Animation in learning could be regarded a dyadic genre of learning. Firstly, the making of an animation through either manipulation or computer programmes such as Zu3D can develop a multitude of essential skills.  Secondly, viewing animation as a learning tool to explain domain specific information can enhance the learners ability to understand more deeply than when explained verbally.

Learning through Making.

In this fast moving, technological world, children remain to develop the same basic skills but in a more current and up to date way. Making stop-motion animation draws and develops many skills in the learner.  To begin with an idea has to be thought, then discussed with a learning group, developing communication skills and tolerance, or thought through by the individual.  As animation is regarded a mechanism to tell a story, a story board must be developed to organise these thoughts and ideas using organisation and literacy skills using higher order thinking. Then with the manipulation of material that is used for the animation fine motor skills are developed. Finally photographing each frame and developing sound encourages tolerance and patience along with motor skills.

 

Lowe (2003) argues that manipulation of materials to form stop-motion animation fosters a deeper learning experience than computer animation.  However computer animation through Go!Animate and Scratch as a growing teaching resource are said to provide rich learning experiences for children in topics ranging from language through to history and mathematics.  So the 21st Century educator cannot ignore growing technological educational tool to stimulate the modern learner.

To allow me to experience of model making for animation we were given the opportunity to produce a clay model from scratch.  With modelling clay I made a man.

During this process we were advised to model our characters from one ball of modelling clay as to prevent limbs from detaching when moving them.  I began with the head and moved onto the body.  The thought process was stimulating my own higher order thinking skills as I thought deeply to analyse and evaluate my actions.  I had to think about body shape, proportion, weight distribution for balance and strength for the durability of my model.  Then the smaller details had to be moulded, the nose, mouth and eyes for example took patience and fine motor skills. The whole process was deeply thoughtful as well as a creative learning experience which is transferable to any learning environment with any age group.

However, it is not only modelling that can be used in animation for learning.  Any materials can be used such as paper, cloth or even the learners themselves as seen in this Children's FLY! workshop production.



An example of children working together to create stop-motion animation

Learning through Watching.

It is argued that watching animation as a tool for learning can be complex and it is important that certain criteria are met so that it benefits the learning process. Lowe (2003) explains that for a learner to benefit from watching animation it must be designed specifically to meet the domains learning criteria. Then the animation itself must not have too much going on as it is possible the learner will focus their attentions on an area which is not relevant. It is also important that the learner can extract the information and organise this information cognitively within areas of already conceptualised knowledge.  For this to work, the learner must have some knowledge of the subject before they view any form of visual learning tool. If the learner, for example has no knowledge that a ball bounces up and down and they view a visual learning tool that explains to them a ball bounces from side to side, the learner will internalise this misconception. It is also explained that any intrinsic, form, or extrinsic positional transformations must be relevant to the subject domain or those changes could cause misconceptions.  However, these forms of change within an animation can enhance the learning if contrasted to the background giving the learners eye direction.  Ainsworth (2008) adds to this by explaining the importance of segmenting animation; the learner has control over the viewing experience.

It also important to recognise, as Ploetzner and Schlag (2013) explain, cognitive theory of multimedia learning developed by Richard Mayer in 2001.  Mayer theorises that the working brain can become overloaded with information so it is important for teaching professionals to organise their animation for learning in a way that can optimise the students learning experience and internalisation of maximum knowledge.

 

Nonetheless, if these criteria are successfully met Lowe (2003) argues that using animations to explain subject matter does in fact aid learning allowing a fruitful and enjoyable learning experience for the student.