Capturing Student Creativity with

Animaker and Canva

 

   

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Session 9: Capturing Student Creativity with Animaker and Canva  What  is  Animaker?  Animaker  is  a  cloud  based  Do-­‐it-­‐Yourself  animated  video  making  app,  with  in-­‐built  features  to  address  the  growing  demand  of  animated  video  making.    This  app  helps  everyone  to  create  an  animated  video  with  high  quality,  focusing  heavily  on  Studio  standards.    To  produce  animated  explainer  videos,  there  are  two  options  for  obtaining  high  quality  videos,  one  can  approach  big  studios,  spending  lot  of  time,  money  and  energy  in  several  intricate  studio  processes  like  scripting,  visualizing,  illustrating,  rigging,  animating,  sound  recording,  compositing,  etc,  to  deliver  what  they  might  have  envisaged.    Alternatively,  one  can  use  the  economical  option  of  utilizing  template-­‐driven  apps  such  as  Animaker,  which  are  cheaper,  but  deliver  slightly  lower  quality  videos.    How  using  Animaker  benefits  teaching  and  learning:  The  chart  to  the  right  shows  some  of  the  benefits  and  uses  of  Animaker  in  the  classroom.    The  students  find  the  program  engaging  and  it  encourages  creativity.    It  is  both  fun  and  easy  to  use  with  professional  results.        

What  is  Canva?  Canva  is  an  easy-­‐to-­‐use  graphic  design  tool  that  you  or  your  students  use  right  in  your  browser.  It  allows  them  to  make  professional-­‐looking  images  and  graphics  and  offers  tons  and  tons  of  free  (and  $1-­‐only  resources).  They  can  start  with  common  templates  for  their  social  media  profiles,  infographic  creation,  presentations  and  posters.    

After  creating  their  mini-­‐masterpiece,  they  can  download  their  work  as  image  files  or  PDFs  or  immediately  share  them  on  their  social  media  networks.  

 

   

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 How  using  Canva  benefits  teaching  and  learning:  Here’s  why  Canva  makes  a  great  tool  to  bring  into  the  classroom:    1.  Images  are  important  for  expressing  creativity  Whether  you  or  your  students  are  making  a  poster,  blogging,  sending  newsletters  or  posting  to  social  media,  images  make  your  message  POP!    Canva  makes  it  easy  to  create  those  images.    If  you  don't  believe  us  this  great  infographic  from  MDG  Advertising  will  show  you  all  you  need  to  know  about  the  benefits  of  using  images.  

 

2.  Templates,  layouts,  and  pre-­‐made  designs  make  it  easy  for  beginners  It’s  hard  to  get  going  (or  go  anywhere  at  all!)  if  you’re  starting  from  scratch  and  you  don’t  have  to  do  that  with  Canva.    Canva  provides  the  inspiration,  the  templates  and  pre-­‐designed  elements  for  your  students  to  incorporate  into  their  images.  They  can  easily  change  the  colours,  add  or  remove  text,  and  move  them  around  as  they  like,  but  by  starting  with  a  smart  outline,  they  are  already  half  way  towards  beautiful  content.  

 

3.  It’s  free  and  cheap  Canva  is  free  to  use,  your  students  just  need  to  sign  up  and  they’re  ready  to  go.  They  can  upload  their  own  images  or  use  Canva’s  free  elements  (including  lots  of  fonts  and  all  the  colours  available  in  the  Internet)  as  much  as  they  like.  If  they  want  more,  they  can  use  Canva’s  photos,  elements  and  templates  for  only  $1  a  piece.  This  may  have  to  be  discussed  with  them  (and  their  parents)  before  they  proceed.  

 

A  step-­‐by-­‐step  guide  to  getting  started  with  Animaker  and  Canva  The  next  pages  will  show  you  how  to  get  started  with  both  Animaker  and  Canva  so  you  can  use  the  tools  with  your  classes.  

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Step-by-stepguideSettingupanAnimakeraccount

To create an account on the web: Gotowww.animaker.comAsyoucanseethefreeversionallowsyoutoworkwiththebasicfunctionsbuttherearelimitations.

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Getting started TheinterfaceatAnimakerisreallyclearandeasytouse.It'smadeupof5sections1.MENUfoundatthetopofthescreen

Hereyoucanfindthevariousoptionstocreateanewfile,save,modifyetc,andthespacetogiveatitletotheproject,andthechoiceofthetypeofpresentationthatcouldbeHANDCRAFT,2DorINFOGRAPHIC.2.SCENEfoundontheleftofthescreen

Herearetheoptionsforduplicatingascene,creatinganewscene,cancelling.Thescenesaredisplayedinorderandwiththetransitioneffectsfromonescenetothenext.

3.TIMELINEisatthebottomofthescreen

Hereyoucanregulatethedurationofeachsingularscene(from1secondtoamaximumof15seconds).Thetimelineisdividedinthreesectionsrelativetothecharactersandobjects(textetc.),totheeffectsofthecameraandmusic.Youcanregulatetheentryandexittimesoftheelementsinthevarioussections.4.LIBRARYisontherightofthescreen.Hereareall theelements that canbeused internally in the scene suchas the characters,objects,background,text,music,effects,transitionsetc.Itisalsopossibletouploadimagesorsounds.

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5.WORKAREAissituatedinthemiddleofthescreen.

Intheworkarea,youhavethepossibilitytoselecttheenteringandexitingeffectsofthecharactersandelements,someusefultoolsforregulatingtheeffectsofthecameraandthevisualisingthegrid.Youcanalsoincreaseordecreasetheviewofthescene.

ItispossibletouploaddirectlyonYouTube.Todownloadthevideoyoumusthavethepaymentversion.Ifyoudon’tmindhavingonlythevideowithoutaudioyoucanuseQuickTimeandrecordthescreenwhileplayingthevideo.

ScanthisQR-CodeandwatchtheAnimakertutorialvideo.

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Step-by-stepguideSettingupaCanvaaccount

To create an account on the web: Gotowww.canva.comGetting started TheinterfaceatCanvaisreallyclearandeasytouse.

Youcanchoosethetypeofworkyouaregoingtodo.Forexample:aposter,apostcardorasocialmediagraphic.

Foreachtypeofprojectyoucanfindanumberofpre-madetemplates.

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Features to look out for: BlankTemplates Canvaprovidesabunchoftemplatesintheleftsidepaneforuseandasinspiration.Ifyou’relookingtostartwithyourownphotooraplainbackground,clickon“Layouts”intheleftpaneandthenscrolldownuntilyouseetheblankphototemplateswiththeblueskyandgreenrollinghills.Thensearchforthetypeoflayoutyouwant.

TextLayoutsTherearemanylayoutstostartwithunderthe“Layouts”tab,butthere’salsoabunchmoreunderthe“Text”tab.Thesecanbeaddedtowhitebackgroundorphoto,andyoucanchangethecolours,copyandfonts.Theyareperfectforaddingpizzazztoyourdocumentoracall-to-actionbuttononyourimage.

Itiseasytoaddelementssuchas:symbols,text,photos,backgrounds…Simplydraggingintoyourworkspace.Youcanalsouploadyourphotos.Exportingisalsoeasyandfree.

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FontOptionsWhenworkingwiththecopyandfontsonyourimageordocument,you’vegotalotofoptionstoworkwith.Clickonthetextandthenonthedownarrowtogettothedropdownmenu.Optionsincludebold/italics/uppercase,formattingintolists,justification(left,center,right),spacingandtransparency.

AlignmentHelpersAsyouaddmoretextorimagestoyourimageordocument,you’llneedtomakesureitlooksalignedandspacedcorrectly.Enterthealignmenthelperlines.Theywillappearasyouaremovinganelementaroundandthenyoucanseeifthatelementwillbealignedwiththeotherelements.Heremylineappearedinthecenter.

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Furtherreading…CanvahasaDesignSchoolwithablog,tutorialsandteachingmaterialstohelpyoumasterCanvaaswellasimproveyouroveralleyeforgraphicdesign.Inthetutorialsyoucantryoutsimpledesigntechniques,likelayeringimages,manipulatingtext,andaddingstickersandbuttons,soyoucangetthehangoftheprogram.

Asforfindingmoreinformation,thebestplaceyoucangoforCanvaistoCanvaitself!Theyhavetutorials,ablogandprovidetheirresourcesonmultiplenetworks.Andthere’salwaysablogpostouttherewithgreattips.

• CanvaDesignSchoolandBlog• CanvaTutorials