Today we made our stop motion animation. This took a lot longer than we thought it would and there are a lot of things that I would do differently if I were to do this again.
First of all I would probably make characters that could stand up by themselves. It was challenging for our students to hold the figures still while we took pictures of each motion. Also, it was challenging to get the students to understand what the camera could see and where the students could move the figures so they would still be in the frame. We did use tape to try to help guide the students so they would know where the figures could go, but then if we changed to an up-close scene the box would change. It was just a very difficult process.
Another thing that was challenging was getting the lighting just right. I personally wish I would have practiced more with stop motion or learned a little more about the lighting process. The back screen we had was also paper so you could see the wrinkles in it. Also, the boys kept looking into the light and I was so worried that they would go blind. If the characters could have stood up by themselves then the boys wouldn't have had to stand there with the light in their eyes.
This process was fun at first but I think we all were getting antsy and bored and just wanted it to be over. It did help that we had already thought up what we would do in each scene so that made the directing process a bit easier.
Today was a very big learning day. After doing stop motion once I realize that there are many things that we could have done differently to make it easier and more fun. At least we had thought everything out before we did it. That really did make the process alright, still I would change a few things next time.
First of all I would probably make characters that could stand up by themselves. It was challenging for our students to hold the figures still while we took pictures of each motion. Also, it was challenging to get the students to understand what the camera could see and where the students could move the figures so they would still be in the frame. We did use tape to try to help guide the students so they would know where the figures could go, but then if we changed to an up-close scene the box would change. It was just a very difficult process.
Another thing that was challenging was getting the lighting just right. I personally wish I would have practiced more with stop motion or learned a little more about the lighting process. The back screen we had was also paper so you could see the wrinkles in it. Also, the boys kept looking into the light and I was so worried that they would go blind. If the characters could have stood up by themselves then the boys wouldn't have had to stand there with the light in their eyes.
This process was fun at first but I think we all were getting antsy and bored and just wanted it to be over. It did help that we had already thought up what we would do in each scene so that made the directing process a bit easier.
Today was a very big learning day. After doing stop motion once I realize that there are many things that we could have done differently to make it easier and more fun. At least we had thought everything out before we did it. That really did make the process alright, still I would change a few things next time.
