Amber's Digital Methods Blog

FINAL PROJECT: SCARF

2009-12-22T05:40:13Z

Taken from the video my group created for the digital workshop, I have created a scarf that was inspired by the style of the movie and represents the wings of the two characters

Here is our video

Here are some pictures of the scarf as I am working on it

All Done!

Lesson plan with no lab

2009-12-20T22:29:06Z

Learning how to Dance!

DIGITAL ART LESSON WITH NO LAB: "Let's learn to dance"

Grade 8
Two Days

FOCUS: Students will learn stop motion techniques using a camera and their own bodies.

OBJECTIVES:
1. 6.3.1.1.3 Develop an artistic intent, including how audience and occasion impact performance choices.
2.6.2.1.2.1 Create original works of media art in a variety of artistic contexts.
3. My Own: Develop knowledge on stop motion animation

MOTIVATIONAL RESOURCES
Pez.com - stop motion videos
My Digital Methods blog - has many youtube videos for resources
Stopanimation.com - about stop motion animation.

ART MATERIALS:
Camera
Big Sheets of Paper
Coloring Utensils
One computer - with photoshop and iMovie
Flashdrive
YouTube videos of stopmotion animation

INTRODUCTION
an·i·ma·tion (n): The act, process or result of imparting life, interest, spirit, motion, or activity. Stop motion is a technique used to physically manipulate objects to make them appear as thought they are move on their own. It is used as a frame by frame process where the object(s) are moved in small movements and each frame is photographed. Playing the frames as a whole sequence, the frame by frame creates an illusion of continuous motion. There are many types of Stop Motion Animation.

Different types of Stop Motion:

Object animation involves moving animation of any non-drawn objects such as toys, blocks, dolls, etc. and are not as malleable as clay or wax. Object Animation is not meant to look like any type of 'character' being animal or human.

Direct manipulation animation is a simplified graphic animation where the artist adds or subtracts to a drawing documenting the frame by frame image. Clay animation where each animated piece is a character made out of a malleable substance of clay, usually Plasticine clay.

Cel animation is the original animation which is traditionally draws each frame by hand.

Puppet animation the form of performance in which the artist manipulates puppets.

Time-lapse is a cinematography technique where the frame is captured at a slower rate than play back. When replayed at normal speed time appears much faster and thus lapsing. ie: watching a fast pace flower bud bloom.

Variations of Stop Motion Include:

Stereoscopic: is a technique capable of recording three-dimensional visual information or creating the illusion of depth in an image. Basically when you have to wear the 3D glasses to watch something. The first all stop motion 3-D feature is Coraline(2009)

Go Motion: Creates a realistic motion blur between each frame, so it is not as choppy. The main difference is that stop motion is made up of still images where as go motion take the frames while the object is in motion.

Go motion was used in ET, and is rarely used today.

Computer-generated imagery: 3D computer graphics, special effects, can be seen in movies, television, commercials, video games, etc. Pretty much has made stop motion obsolete, however stop motion is still used because of it's unique look. Example: Robot Chicken

INSTRUCTIONAL PROCEDURE:
DAY ONE:
    Today in class students will learn about stop motion techniques. I will show videos from my digital methods blog that display stop motion. Then I will explain how to create a stop motion video. To explain stop motion I will also have a small demonstration to show how to create this animation. Having already set up a small corner of the room with a camera on a tripod and tapped square on the floor, I will have a pair of shoes that each person will move slightly. Next I will quickly upload the pictures, having about 20 frames, into photoshop to show students how to create a quick animation from frames in photoshop
    Next we will talk about what style of dance we want to portray. We will vote on several styles to narrow it down to one. Then I will have them break into groups to brainstorm poses they can use. Each student needs to have 5 poses that I will have them story board. Also we will talk about background.
DAY TWO:
    Today we will make the background using coloring utensils. Next we will start with the stop motion. My plan is to try to get all of the students into the shot, if I can't do that I will have half of the class in the shot. I will set up my camera on a tripod and take pictures. Then I will have a student upload them onto the computer and make and place them in iMovie and add music. We will vote on music in the class.

EVALUATION ASSESSMENT:
This will be a small handout that I give to the class

What is your favorite thing about stop motion? What is your least favorite?

If you could make a stop motion video yourself what would you make, and what style would you use? Clay, paper, etc..

Did you like how our animation turned out?

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Same as other lesson plan, please see other lesson plan.

Lesson plan with a full Mac Lab

2009-12-15T05:32:36Z

DIGITAL ART LESSON WITH LAB: DANCE!

Grade 8
Four to Five days in length

FOCUS: Using Photoshop and IMovie students will learn how to create a stop motion animation.

OBJECTIVES:
1. 6.3.1.1.3 Develop an artistic intent, including how audience and occasion impact performance choices.
2.6.2.1.2.1 Create original works of media art in a variety of artistic contexts.
3. My Own: Develop knowledge in programs such as photoshop and iMovie.

MOTIVATIONAL RESOURCES
Pez.com - stop motion videos
My Digital Methods blog - has many youtube videos for resources
Stopanimation.com - about stop motion animation.

ART MATERIALS
Mac computers with photoshop and imovie
Camera
Flash Drive
Youtube videos of stop motion

INTRODUCTION
an·i·ma·tion (n): The act, process or result of imparting life, interest, spirit, motion, or activity. Stop motion is a technique used to physically manipulate objects to make them appear as thought they are move on their own. It is used as a frame by frame process where the object(s) are moved in small movements and each frame is photographed. Playing the frames as a whole sequence, the frame by frame creates an illusion of continuous motion. There are many types of Stop Motion Animation.

Different types of Stop Motion:

Object animation involves moving animation of any non-drawn objects such as toys, blocks, dolls, etc. and are not as malleable as clay or wax. Object Animation is not meant to look like any type of 'character' being animal or human.

Direct manipulation animation is a simplified graphic animation where the artist adds or subtracts to a drawing documenting the frame by frame image. Clay animation where each animated piece is a character made out of a malleable substance of clay, usually Plasticine clay.

Cel animation is the original animation which is traditionally draws each frame by hand.

Puppet animation the form of performance in which the artist manipulates puppets.

Time-lapse is a cinematography technique where the frame is captured at a slower rate than play back. When replayed at normal speed time appears much faster and thus lapsing. ie: watching a fast pace flower bud bloom.

Variations of Stop Motion Include:

Stereoscopic: is a technique capable of recording three-dimensional visual information or creating the illusion of depth in an image. Basically when you have to wear the 3D glasses to watch something. The first all stop motion 3-D feature is Coraline(2009)

Go Motion: Creates a realistic motion blur between each frame, so it is not as choppy. The main difference is that stop motion is made up of still images where as go motion take the frames while the object is in motion.

Go motion was used in ET, and is rarely used today.

Computer-generated imagery: 3D computer graphics, special effects, can be seen in movies, television, commercials, video games, etc. Pretty much has made stop motion obsolete, however stop motion is still used because of it's unique look. Example: Robot Chicken

INSTRUCTIONAL PROCEDURE
Day One:
Today in class students will learn about stop motion techniques. I will show videos from my digital methods blog that display stop motion. Then I will explain how to create a stop motion video. To explain stop motion I will also have a small demonstration to show how to create this animation. Having already set up a small corner of the room with a camera on a tripod and tapped square on the floor, I will have a pair of shoes that each person will move slightly. Next I will quickly upload the pictures, having about 20 frames, into photoshop to show students how to create a quick animation from frames in photoshop.
Next I will pass out the assignment and assign groups. Each group will create a dance to music. They must choose a style, examples: hip hop, rock, lyrical, country, etc. Each of the groups will need to then storyboard what they plan on dancing, this way when they start taking pictures they will be able to direct how the scene will develop. They will also need to decide what type of background they would like and where they would what this dance to be. During this time students might also need to research their style of dance and find movements, or pictures to suite their dance.
Day Two:
   First I will demonstrate animation on Photoshop again for the students, and have a handout with the steps written out. Also, I will show the students some ways that they can change their animations if they want to add color or transformations. Next, students will begin by setting up their stop motion and taking pictures. Once students have completed the picture taking they will need to upload it onto their computers. Once they have done that they can begin to change the colors and distort the frames to how they want it to appear.
Day Three:
   This will be another work day for the students to get their animation ready in photoshop, however before they start I will demonstrate iMovie. I will show how to rearrange, repeat, back up, and change their animation into any ways they would like. I will also show them how to add music to their pieces. This way when students are done in photoshop they can move on to iMovie when they are ready.
Day Four:
   Today will be a work day, and if I have time I would like to show students how to use garage band, I will see how fast or slow paced the class is.
Day Five:
Presentation Day. I will also have a class discussion and critique about all of their animations. We will discuss what works well and what doesn't in pieces, maybe what things they wished they could have accomplished more, what things would they take out of their pieces, and so on.

EVALUATION ASSESSMENT

This will be a small handout that they will fill out that will help them asses their own learning.

What is your favorite thing about stop motion? What is your least favorite?

Is their anything you would change about your video?

What sort of things did some of your classmates do that you really liked?

Did you learn a lot about the different applications on the computers, Photoshop, IMovie, Garageband?

Overall do you like your video?

BIBLIOGRAPHY

http://blog.lib.umn.edu/olso4021/arted/2009/10/animation-stop-animation.html

Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer Gumby Wallace and Gromit Western Spaghetti Her Modern Elegance, Oren Lavie Tim Burton

DIGITAL WORKSHOP DAY SIX

2009-11-30T01:58:04Z

Today was our presentation day. We had all the parents come and we presented each of our projects. It was so fun to see everyone's project and see all the different styles that developed.

The whole workshop was very fun, but also a lot of work. As mentors, we put a lot of time into these outside of the classroom, which was expected, and a great experience for the future.

I do agree with some of the changes that we would make to the workshop if we were to do it again. I liked the idea that students would first create a character and then off of that character they could create a world for it to live in, and then a story from that, and then a soundtrack to go with the story. This would take a lot of pressure off the kids to make and finish a story. Also, even though our class misunderstood the animation part of the story, I would still like to see students animate a whole story, instead of just the transformation. However, for my group, maybe to make the animating easier, we could have created our characters in photoshop and animated them that way, and only done one part of the story with stop motion.

This project would be very fun to do again. If done again I would give it a little more time just so kids could really understand how to use all of the programs and get a chance to work with them.

I had a lot of fun and I know that my students did as well! I am very proud of what we accomplished!

DIGITAL WORKSHOP DAY FIVE

2009-11-30T01:48:57Z

Today we put the finishing touches on our project!!

Both students worked very hard today to finish everything. One of them got very creative with transitions and putting everything together. Another one took off with garage band and created a whole soundtrack for the end of our animation.

It would have been nice to have a little longer using both iMovie and Garage Band. Even though our students already knew how to use both programs it still seemed like we needed more time.

However, in the end our project turned out great. The students worked very hard to finish it, and we, as mentors, did a little bit more out of class. We all loved the finished product!

The movie is a form of the story Icarus. Icarus and his father get stuck in a tower and to escape the father created wings. Icarus, being a bit ignorant, does not listen when his father tells him not to fly too high or low. In the end Icarus flies too high and the sun melts his wings, and he plunges into the ocean.

DIGITAL WORKSHOP DAY FOUR

2009-11-30T01:34:51Z

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.

DIGITAL WORKSHOP DAY THREE

2009-11-30T01:06:00Z

Today we created our characters and backgrounds!

Curtis, one of our mentors, brought in a big bucket of nuts, bolts, screws, nails, and little bits and pieces of scrap metal. With welding gloves we picked through the piles and created our characters. Using pipe cleaners we strung the pieces together and in the end had some very amusing little figures. To hold them up we stuck dowel rods in the back of each character.

One challenge that we faced was how we would create the wings. We needed the wings to eventually fall apart, so how would we make them? In the end we finally decided to use steel wool because it would be easy to pull apart.

Today, we also thought we would get as far as starting the stop motion animation, however we did not anticipate how long it would take the students to create the characters. Although we did not get as far as we thought we would we still made a lot of progress. If I were to do this again, I think I would use a whole day just for creating the characters, and starting the scenes, and that would be it.

Here is a picture of us working on the characters.

This is a picture of one of our students and his character.

After creating our characters we made our scenes for the backgrounds.

The Ocean

Inside the Prison

The Sky and the Sun

The Tower

This was a very fun and progressive day!

DIGITAL WORKSHOP DAY TWO

2009-11-24T22:32:29Z

Today we received our groups that we would work with for the rest of the workshop. I started out at the Tweed checking people in, and since we did not really know how the workshop would go I was not assigned to a group right away. This kind of hard for me because I was put into a group without really knowing what they wanted for their animation; I did not even really know the story very well. Because I was late in joining the group I had to play catch up.

After I checked everyone in, we all huddled around the board and each of the students got to pick a story that they were interested in transforming. Each of the college student groups had to present their stories along with a style they wanted to use, an artist they wanted it to be inspired from, and colors that they thought would go well with the story. I was put into the group of Icarus along with Brent and Curtis, and our two students Dane and Charlie.

The rest of the day we planned out exactly how we were going to animate and transform our story. We decided to create the characters, Icarus and Daedalus, from screws, nails, bolts, and scraps of metal, giving our animation an industrial type feel, inspired after Tim Burton's "9" movie.

The backgrounds we also decided to use odds and ends of metal and industrial-like images. To finish the day we started to story board our story and figure out what sequence we wanted it to go in.

DIGITAL WORKSHOP DAY ONE

2009-11-24T22:10:12Z

Digital Workshop: A collaboration with secondary school students and college students

On our first day working with the kids we introduced Photoshop. Using Photo Booth they each took a picture of themselves and brought it into Photoshop to transform. Students would some how alter their picture and then create a new layer, alter, create a new layer, alter, create a new layer, and so on. After they felt finished with their transformation we created an animation from teh layers.

Each of the students I worked with already knew how to use Photoshop so it was fairly easy to work with them. It was also fun for me because I was able to show them some more advanced tools that they could use to transform their pictures.

The students really seemed to enjoy this experiment. They were free to transform themselves into anything that they wanted. This was good and bad in some cases. With so much freedom one of my students didn't knwo what to do to transform herself, I gave her ideas but she was shy and unsure of what she was doing. Maybe, if I were to do this again I would give some guidance, such as "transform yourself into an animal". Yet, I really liked what other students came up with.

Animation: Stop Animation

2009-10-21T03:03:01Z

an·i·ma·tion (n): The act, process or result of imparting life, interest, spirit, motion, or activity. Stop motion is a technique used to physically manipulate objects to make them appear as thought they are move on their own. It is used as a frame by frame process where the object(s) are moved in small movements and each frame is photographed. Playing the frames as a whole sequence, the frame by frame creates an illusion of continuous motion. There are many types of Stop Motion Animation.

Different types of Stop Motion:

Object animation involves moving animation of any non-drawn objects such as toys, blocks, dolls, etc. and are not as malleable as clay or wax. Object Animation is not meant to look like any type of 'character' being animal or human.

Direct manipulation animation is a simplified graphic animation where the artist adds or subtracts to a drawing documenting the frame by frame image. Clay animation where each animated piece is a character made out of a malleable substance of clay, usually Plasticine clay.

Cel animation is the original animation which is traditionally draws each frame by hand.

Puppet animation the form of performance in which the artist manipulates puppets.

Time-lapse is a cinematography technique where the frame is captured at a slower rate than play back. When replayed at normal speed time appears much faster and thus lapsing. ie: watching a fast pace flower bud bloom.

Variations of Stop Motion Include:

Stereoscopic: is a technique capable of recording three-dimensional visual information or creating the illusion of depth in an image. Basically when you have to wear the 3D glasses to watch something. The first all stop motion 3-D feature is Coraline(2009)

Go Motion: Creates a realistic motion blur between each frame, so it is not as choppy. The main difference is that stop motion is made up of still images where as go motion take the frames while the object is in motion.

Go motion was used in ET, and is rarely used today.

Computer-generated imagery: 3D computer graphics, special effects, can be seen in movies, television, commercials, video games, etc. Pretty much has made stop motion obsolete, however stop motion is still used because of it's unique look. Example: Robot Chicken

Websites about Stop Motion:

http://www.pharosproductions.com/aosma/smhome.html
http://www.stopmotionanimation.com/
Website: http://eatpes.com/

Examples of Stop Motion:

Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer

Gumby

Wallace and Gromit

Western Spaghetti

Her Modern Elegance, Oren Lavie

Tim Burton

Robot Chicken

HOW TO:

For a photoshop animation, you need:
Camera
Way to transport images onto computer
Camera stand
Tape
Computer with photoshop

1. Set up scene, we took two pairs of shoes and placed them on the floor inside of a taped box. The camera was set up facing down on the shoes. We had the shoes meet dance and then leave.

2. Moving the shoes only small increments at a time take a picture with each move. We took about 40 frames. Make sure the camera does not move, and that the objects only move a little bit each time to create fluidity.

3. Upload the pictures onto the computer into photoshop.

4. Create one document, each frame gets it's own layer in the order that you took the pictures.

5. Next click on animation. In the animation toolbar click "create animation from layers"

6. You then can render your animation and export it to quicktime (this can be done under file, render....)

7. After it is a quicktime movie you can import it to iMovie and add sound and other things as well.

Here is our animation:

Amber Animation.mov

]]>

Digital Collage: Monsters

2009-10-21T02:48:22Z

Project One: Digital Collage.

REFLECTION
My Digital Methods class was required to bring in five photos to class, each with a different theme: animal, landscape, face, texture, and mechanical. Compiling the five images with the rest of the class we were able to pick things from a large image bank.

Our assignment was to create a monster out of collage images.

Next we made animations of our characters in Photoshop.

Here are a few still images:

Here is the video:

aburns_web1.mov

I thought this project was very fun. If I had fun, I know kids would really enjoy doing something like this. I liked that we could make it personal by using our own images. For instance, my monster is actually made from my pet cat. Creating just a monster was fun, however I think you could make it more imaginative by giving students a concept or idea, like create a theme, what is your monster doing.... Then it would be more of a narrative.

BRAINSTORM
Doing this assignment with children I would still go with the monster idea, however maybe first I would have them collage magazines together creating a monster from those images. Next I would scan the images onto their computers into photoshop and have them create a landscape for their characters.

Along with their landscapes I would have them create a story to go along with their characters and setting, for example one monster is hungry so he eats his land of candy.

Once they decided on a story I would have them animate the story in Photoshop.

Things they would learn about:
Collage
Photoshop tools
Animation in photoshop
Possibly IMovie

Recently noticed today!

2009-09-27T19:19:35Z

I have recently noticed a lot more digital technology that teachers use. In schools, a lot of times, You Tube is not available. There are ways to get around that such as KICK You Tube.

what you do is say you have looked up a video, go up to the url and type in kick in between www. and the rest of the entry

Ex:http://www.kickyoutube.com/watch/?v=qBjLW5_dGAM

It will bring you to a page where you can download the video to your coputer as an Mp4

Quick Animation in Photoshop

2009-09-22T21:26:18Z

aburns_web1.mov

Here is my first try!