ANIMATIONIMAGINE

These are the questions that were exploredWhat kind of future can you imagine for yourself, your community and your world?What problems do we need to challenge to create this future?What values are important in shaping the future you imagine?

IMAGINE art encounter was a youth arts event bringing young people together to explore and express their ideas about a better future for themselves, their communities and their world.

IMagine Background

In our “Imagine- Exploring the Theme” pamphlet you can see how the young people started to engage with the questions and issues around this theme.

Following on from exploratory introduction workshops the young people divided into groups to use a wide range of art forms to explore the theme further and express their ideas and visions. The young people worked with dance, theatre, visual arts, music animation and creative writing.

This pamphlet is a case study showing the process with the animation workshop which was facilitated by Carolyn Collier and Kate O’Brien

Find our more about this event at www.globalfestcork.com following the link for Globalfest 2012

THe processWe worked first with some group dynamics and activities to get into the creative flow and the flow of working together. We then explored the skills that existed in the group as a wide variety of skills can contribute to the process of animation.In order to understand stop-motion animation within the context of a range of types of animations, we watched a variety of examples and tried to figure out the techniques and processes that were used.To support the understanding of creating and and telling a story we worked with some creative writing exercises to develop ideas around the Imagine themes.

ExerciseMaking story from key words about ImaginePiece a story together (5 nouns, 5 verbs, 5 adjectives)ExerciseLook at a photographic imageWrite a story about what happened 5 minutes earlier

The young people had already chosen a selection of values that they wanted to concentrate on in their animation projects so they formed teams around these interests.Drawing from ideas within creative writing exercise they began creating a story board thinking of a narrative that expressed the value that they thought was important to promote. They started by thinking of the story in terms of beginning, middle, end.

For stop motion it is important to have a wide range of objects that you can build with, move, manipulate and play with.

PLANNING AND EXPLORING THE THEMECreating and photographing the images for the animationThe groups decided on the imagery and photographed each scene. Every single movement of the characters or props needs to be photograph in order to capture the movement and to createthe animation.

Making the models

• Try to keep the model simple and bold• Include 2 or 3 features on face and head to animate• Include at least 3 features on body to animate• Make sure the features are big• The model must be able to stand up

Creating a storyboard

• Make a list of the events which will take place in your animation using bullet points

• Write down the length of time it will take for each event to occur• Draw storyboard images to show the actions taking place for each event

Shooting the animation

• Install your chosen 'frame grabbing' software (see below for examples of software for Mac and Windows) and read the instructions on how to use the software

• Make sure the camera is on and you have removed the tape. Plug the camera into the mains before you start to shoot your animation

Shooting tips

• Take 12 shots to start a scene before you start animating• Take 1 shot per movement• If you want to include a pause then take 6 shots• If your character blinks or winks take 3 shots of the closed eye• Take 12 shots to end the scene• Remember that all movements must be small so the animation is smooth and flowing

• Watch and save your movie regularly

Step- step animation

Editing the animation

• When editing your animation you can take out any unwanted frames by deleting them

• You can also ‘copy and paste’ in extra frames to make the scene longer

• Sounds, titles and music can be added during editing

Animation software

• iStopMotion by Boinx (Mac OS)• iMovie by apple (Mac OS)• 2animate by 2Simple Software (Windows)• Revelation Natural Art by Logotron (Windows)• DocsAlive by Softedge Systems (Windows)• Kid Pix Deluxe 4 by RM software (Windows)•

Animation websites and software

www.animationforeducation.co.ukwww.tech4learning.comwww.accessarts.org/ArtKids/Tutorials/Animation

Instructions copied from with thankswww.filmeducation.org by Oscar Stringer

The outcomesEach of the groups created one story related to the Globalfest theme using the animation technique skills acquired during the week workshops. The title of the movies were “Enjoy life” and “Friendship”.

You can watch the animations at:

http://www.mayfieldarts.org/globalfestcork2012/globalfest2012/Animation.html

The videos were projected to the rest of the Globalfest Participants and Cork Lord Mayor in a showcase the last day of the Art Encounter. This was important for the Animation group in terms of recognition of their work and talent.

ENJOYLIFE

Friendship