Stop-Motion Lego Exploration

Yesterday, I finally got some students working on using our stop-motion software (it’s free for PC!) on the laptops. I carted in a HUGE bucket of Legos from my kids’ closet (don’t say a thing … top secret) and let my students just explore the use of creating short stop-motion movies.

In about 30 minutes, all five groups had created something and most had begun to understand how to capture frames, how to get your hand out of the way (crucial) and how to be incremental in your movements of objects.

This will all lead us to a Claymation Project very soon (this year’s theme: climate change).

I uploaded two small Lego Movies via Flickr and share them here. These are raw — no sound or anything. So, hum a little song in your head as you watch, OK?

Peace (in ssssslllllllloooooooo mmmmmmmooooootttttiiiiioooooonnnnnnn),
Kevin

Behind the Scenes of Stop-Motion

I just found this pretty neat video that brings us behind the scenes of the making of a stop-motion animation movie. I got the link from a great site called AnimateClay, which always has interesting resources for those of us interesting in exploring the world frame-by-frame.

Peace (in frames),
Kevin

Wow! Peter and the Wolf, in Clay

This is an amazing claymation production from Poland of Peter and the Wolf as claymation. Another wonderful YouTube discovery. The movie, nominated for an award this year, comes in three parts.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/P1SzWa3g0Nw" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/anfDudtwPNo" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/L3gYD00_k0I" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Peace (in music, storytelling and claymation),

Kevin

How to Stop-Motion Animate

Wow

This video from YouTube is exactly what I have been looking for as an introduction to my students about stop-motion animation. I love the world of viral videos!

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/ZuUGO898_GU" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Peace (in frame by frame by frame),

Kevin

Six Claymation Movies

Here are the final claymation movies made in the second (and final) week of an experimental animation camp:

Dora the Turtle
Download Video: Posted by dogtrax at TeacherTube.com.

It’s All Gone Wrong
Download Video: Posted by dogtrax at TeacherTube.com.

The Magic Burger
Download Video: Posted by dogtrax at TeacherTube.com.

Talent Show
Download Video: Posted by dogtrax at TeacherTube.com.

The Blue Blob of Doom
Download Video: Posted by dogtrax at TeacherTube.com.

Work in Progress
Download Video: Posted by dogtrax at TeacherTube.com.

Four Days in Summer: An overview of Animation Camp

 

Last week marked the first of two claymation-animation summer camp programs that I am teaching (next week, with my wife) and I decided I needed to write down and record what I was doing each day for future reference. I will need to go back later and do some more details but I am sharing my overall plan for four days of working with middle school students.

Here is the summer camp plan

I created this document with Google Page Creator — a not-so-fancy but easy-to-use part of the Google Suite of Internet Dominance.

Peace (with clay),

Kevi

 

Summer Camp — part one

I have been running a claymation animation summer camp this week for middle school students (mostly fifth and sixth graders) as a new experiment (and more next week). Kids have been using Pivot Stickman, MovieMaker, Stop-Motion Animator and other tools to create mini-movies. I am working on writing up my curriculum (for myself and for anyone else who is interested) and will share that later.

I have a blog up and running so that parents can view some of the daily work (the blog is at http://masswp.org/claycamp/)  and the final movies (with a sci-fi theme) are being worked on right now and we are inviting parents in tomorrow to view the showcase premieres.

Also, I have used TeacherTube for sharing videos because it is quite easy to use and seems to be a safe way to share video without any qualms about kids wandering around to different, inappropriate links.

But here are a few of the creations so far:

Download Video: Posted by dogtrax at TeacherTube.com.

Download Video: Posted by dogtrax at TeacherTube.com.

Download Video: Posted by dogtrax at TeacherTube.com.

Peace (in the hot classroom),
Kevin

My Dog, Bella

I was trying out a computer from the school where my wife and I will be running a claymation camp (but she just got promoted to Curriculum Coordinator at her school and won’t be around the camp much!!) and created this little movie of my dog, Bella, as she sits by the window all day, waiting for someone to bark at.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=-6797950917631760198" width="400" height="326" wmode="transparent" /]

Good Dog!

Peace (with kibbles),
Kevin

And finally … Stick Figure Movies

The last days of school for my sixth graders were spent working with a stick figure animation program and here are some of the movies they created:

[kml_flashembed movie="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=1158941878118862160" width="400" height="326" wmode="transparent" /]

[kml_flashembed movie="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=4626591408186972447" width="400" height="326" wmode="transparent" /]

Peace (in frame),
Kevin