Pencil - Free Animation Software

Pencil is a free software tool for creating hand drawn animations. It is free and very easy to use. Visit their website for download and examples of its potential.

Xtranormal | Text-to-Movie

Xtranormal is website where kids can create simple animated movies. Students choose their characters and type in the dialogue, in minutes they have created a simple animated movie. Here is one I made:

Local animation and web development company

Came across a company called, touchmypixel, that is a Melbourne based game and website developer. They have created a game called, "Scary Girl" and is well worth a look. The graphics are amazing! Have a look at their other projects as well.

Very clever...

 HEMA is a Dutch department store. The first store opened on November 4, 1926, in Amsterdam . Now there are 150 stores all over the Netherlands. Take a look at HEMA's product page. You can't order anything and it's in Dutch, but just wait a couple of seconds and watch what happens.
        

Animation from Buenos Aires

I came across this website a while ago and thought the animation was just outstanding, not to mention bloody amazing! The website, Blublu, has some fascinating links. So, here it is:

MUTO a wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.

The video sharing site, Vimeo, has some fantastic videos covering a range of topics from stop-motion animation, time-lapse videos and some other fantastic creations!

Our school's video sharing website using Fliggo

I am very excited about Fliggo, a place where you can create your own video sharing sites. I have created one for the students at our school to share the animations they make at school and at home. The site is called Animation@PHPS and all videos and comments are moderated by me, so no nasties getting through!

Teaching Animation Techniques

I don't need to go on about my love for animation if you are familiar with my blog, and if you are not - I think animation is great for education. Recently I had a well-known animator, Anthony Lawrence, visit our school for a session with our grade 3/4 unit. One thing he said sticks in my mind, it was...

"Animation is all about problem solving."

So, as I have been trying to inspire animation I have some things to share!

Firstly, this one is from Aniboom - my kids loved it! Unfortunately I tried to imbed this video but there problems with their new format that make it slightly imperfect. I must admit I am a perfectionanist when it comes to this kind of thing - if it is worth watching...so here is the link:

A great animation about animation!


Secondly... I would love for all my kids to do clay-mation projects, but time and technology are in short supply. So, I showed this next video to my kids as a way of saying; "Hey, you don't need lots of colour and a huge story..."
Well, maybe when you watch you will see what I mean.

Pivot, Droidz and Shapeshifter

Pivot and Droidz

My fascination with animation and providing opportunities for students to express themselves in this genre continues. I have mentioned in previous posts about the stick figure animation program, Pivot. This free download is a great introduction to animation techniques for all ages. In previous posts I have explained how a Pivot animation can be turned into a movie file (see my 50th post for an example of this).

The latest news is about a website called droidz.org. This site has thousands of pivot figures and items that can be inserted into a pivot animation. Note: some of the figures and shared animations are extremely violent, so this site really is for more senior students (even though I found out about it from my grade 4 students!)

Shapeshifter

I have previously mentioned the fantastic site, Aniboom. As well as the amazing creations that are posted on this site, there is a section for creating animations as well. This is an online program called, Shapeshifter. Using only four geometric shapes, using this program can create some amazing animations. This would be a great stepping stone from Pivot to Flash animation. I would thoroughly recommend this one for students moving on from Pivot.

History and Technology

I was having a look at the revamped Teacher Tube site (it now includes audio, documents, photos and blogs) and found this animation about the Bayeux Tapestry. It is not really a tapestry but an embroidered cloth that is 70m long and tells the story of 1066 Norman invasion of England. At school, our children are looking at animation as part of our unit of inquiry, "Our World through Media". I really like the way something so historical can be made more accessible to a new generation through the use of technology!



This video can also be seen on YouTube.

Anthony Lawrence - Animator

Today we had an incursion from a famous Australian animator, Anthony Lawrence, to talk about his work to our grade 3/4 students. He showed the students the many elements in creating backgrounds, the staging of the animation and puppet creation. It was an inspiring presentation and the children are now keen to create their own. You can have a look at a range of his animations on his website in the Animation Gallery.

Here is one of his first animations, "Looking for Horses" 2002 (Direction/Photography/Animation by Anthony Lawrence Written by Chrissie McMahon Awarded Special Distinction 2002 Annecy International Animation Festival):

Pivot Animation - Save as a movie file

As previously mentioned I use Pivot Animation with my students - a great introduction to animation skills. Here are some useful tips...

Save your Pivot animation as a movie file:

• When you go to save the animation there will be options down the bottom - choose the "Save as type" option and then choose the "Gif" option. Save the file.
• You can now edit and put together your animations using Movie Maker

Insert a background:

• Choose the "file" option from the top left. Now choose the "load background" option. If you want to use more than one background - save each seperate a animation as a gif file and then put them all together using Movie Maker or other video editing software.

Fantastic Animation Website

Hi all, as you may have guessed - I have a real passion for animation and especially the learning in ICT that it promotes. Please take the time to check out this website, StopMotionAnimation, and make sure you click on the "links" option - a brilliant resource! Also, please checkout the "handbook" link, once again some fabulous resources there too!

A funny animation

I must confess I am a bit tired at the moment, bad cold, end of term, building works, etc - so, I found this funny on Aniboom... thought we could all do with a laugh!


Watch more cool animation and creative cartoons at aniBoom

Acknowledgment

I really want to promote (and thank) Adam Bowman for his fantastic creativity. He makes fantastic gadgets or widgets (the fun bits on the side or bottom of blogs) and his skill is amazing! The stingray at the bottom of my blog is one if his.

Animation Program

I really enjoying the creativity that ICT lends itself to, especially animation. Pivot is a program (free download) I have used for many years. It is still on of the best introductory programs that exposes kids to the elements of animation. However, I was interested in other ways to expose kids to animation techniques that were free. Of course you can do animation using PowerPoint, the animation function is quite a good way to teach children basic animation techniques. I still wanted to find something else. I found this the other day, FluxTime Studio, and am trialling it at the moment.

Animation

I have a fascination with animation and really enjoy working with children in this area. The following video is from a brilliant site, Aniboom. At our national conference in 2010 (ACEC2010), Adam Elliot will be one of our keynote speakers.

CLICK HERE TO SEE VIDEO