Digital Animation in the Primary Classroom

Session One: An introduction to animation

Early Animation

Zoetrope (1834)

Flip Book (Flick Book) (1800s)

Cel Animation

Disney – Early Mickey Mouse (1929)

“Les Triplettes de Belleville” (2003) “The Illusionist” (2010)

“Spirited Away” (Japan, 2001)

Rotoscoping – A-Ha “Take On Me” music video (directed by Steve Barron, 1985)

Stop Frame Animation

Clay animation (or Claymation) – e.g. “Wallace & Gromit” (Nick Park/Aardman)

Cut-out animation – e.g. Terry Gilliam

Model animation – e.g. “King Kong” (1933)

Object animation – e.g. White Stripes music video (Michel Gondry), Jan Svankmajer

Puppet animation – e.g. “The Nightmare Before Christmas” “Corpse Bride” (both Tim Burton, 1993, 2005)

Pixellation – e.g. “Tony vs Paul” (2007)

Computer Animation

2D – e.g. “Futurama”

3D - e.g. “Toy Story”, “Shrek”, “Monsters Inc”, “The Incredibles”

Further Reading & Viewing

Wikipedia: Animation

Open Learning Centre DVDs:

Animation Nation: visions of childhood (BBC 4)

Quay Brothers: the short films 1979-2003

“Corpse Bride” Tim Burton

“Wallace & Gromit: the curse of the were rabbit” Aardman