During the first term, you have to:
Design and create a short Stop Frame Animation film highlighting a Global Issue
Design Brief
The overall objective is to investigate, design, plan and create a stop motion film to spread awareness of issues affecting the world today using clay and evaluate the effectiveness. Stop-motion has been used as a method of animation since before the dawn of the celluloid age. Stop-motion animation is a general term for an animation technique which makes a physically manipulated object appear to move. The object is moved by extremely small amounts between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames are played as a continuous sequence. Clay figures are often used in stop motion animations, known as claymation, for their ease of repositioning. This method of presenting information can be easy to understand, and FUN! Your challenge is to investigate and collaboratively design, plan and create a film to spread awareness about any issues related our school community and evaluate its effectiveness.
CRITERIA A - INQUIRY AND ANALYSIS
LESSON 1 - Brainstorming
Outline your thoughts and ideas after watching some of these videos:
http://youtu.be/cn-Ztku1Tzw A quick claymation showcasing some breakdancing clayman doing dance moves.
http://youtu.be/9dWU9jPCjkM A great short animation movie. Making the most of clay animation in a fight sequence that is reminiscence of the famous Neo and Agent Smith fight scenes from the movie THE MATRIX.
http://youtu.be/lK0LSscth6s Four clay guys clash.
http://youtu.be/1XC6f4YpPJs A man wakes up to find himself in a a white room. This is my AS film studies coursework, it took 1 and a half weeks to complete using iStopmotion 2 Pro to animate, and iMovie HD to edit it. The music is My Body Is a Cage by Arcade Fire.
http://youtu.be/52xQb7uUegc A stop Motion Lip sync test using a freeware program called FrameByFrame. The program does not have Audio scrubbing so Imovie was used to record sound over the animation and this is the result.
http://youtu.be/PTFI7_tAgm4 Behind the scenes Clay Animation.
http://youtu.be/HEtPJshcM9I Jim Jam Clay Play
http://youtu.be/IOu0DuxFAT0 (not clay) but a great stop animation video clip In Your Arms - Kina Grannis.
http://youtu.be/oX1fRBrWyGE A safe driving video made by CSADD Monterey.
http://youtu.be/AKOLZp7Do7c This was a PSA created with stop motion animation techniques.
http://youtu.be/pyMRnOT4gbo Stop Motion Stop Bullying PSA.
http://youtu.be/C3Ue1AXSzyw Animated In Bed - Wonderful Stop Motion.
http://youtu.be/6vZ0iqUS6sg The Marker Maker is a fun stop motion whiteboard animation.
http://youtu.be/mk6zbY8i4_8 Wallace & Gromit : The Wrong Trousers: Cracking Toast!
http://youtu.be/V1G8kXNMrks Aardman Animation
http://youtu.be/YKWa9OuYR9w Puppet Design on "The Pirates! In an Adventure With Scientists"
http://youtu.be/ieN2vhslTTU 'Gulp' is a short film created by Sumo Science at Aardman, depicting a fisherman going about his daily catch. Shot on location at Pendine Beach in South Wales, every frame of this stop-motion animation was shot using a Nokia N8, with its 12 megapixel camera and Carl Zeiss optics. The film has broken a world record for the 'largest stop-motion animation set', with the largest scene stretching over 11,000 square feet.
The best way to do this is to have a Brainstorming sessions. This is when you get together with your group and discuss ideas. The more "brains" that help, the better chance of producing the best product possible.
In groups, you must have a look at existing videos on youtube. Search for "environmental stop frame animation", "Recycling stop frame animation" or something similar. This will give you a better idea of how yours could look, and maybe some ideas for yours. In your group make a list of the good ideas you have found. Think about:
Global Issues
Clay/Pictures/Lego?
Style of video
Colour schemes
Music
Information given
Target audience
When you have finished you can present your finding to the class. Therefore when we have finished we will have even more "brains" to help with our Animation.
IN A WORD DOCUMENT YOU MUST...
REVIEW 5 EXISTING STOP-FRAME ANIMATION VIDEOS:
COPY THE URL (WEBSITE LINK)
NAME OF VIDEO
HOW ARE THEY MADE?
WHAT MATERIALS ARE USED?
WHAT DO THEY TELL YOU? IS THERE A MESSAGE?
IS THERE ANY SOUND/MUSIC?
DO YOU LIKE IT?
YOU MUST THEN REVIEW 3 STOP-FRAME ANIMATIONS ABOUT A GLOBAL ISSUE. FOR EXAMPLE YOU COULD GOOGLE "STOP-FRAME ANIMATION GLOBAL WARMING" AGAIN ANSWERING THE FOLLOWING:
HOW IS IT MADE?
WHAT MATERIALS ARE USED?
WHAT TO THEY TELL YOU? IS THERE A MESSAGE?
IS THERE ANY SOUND?
DO YOU LIKE IT?
COPY AND PASTE THE URL (LINK TO VIDEO)
IN TOTAL YOU WILL HAVE REVIEWED 8 VIDEOS. EACH REVIEW WILL BE APPOXIMATELY 150 WORDS.
LESSON 2 - Research the Issue
Now you have decided on the issue you want to base you animation on, it is time to do some research. Do some research on possible ideas that you could do based on the topic "Global Issues". For example, recycling, racism, global warming, bullying...etc.
Search for ideas that might help you create an animation. For example, if you are concentrating Global Warming then you might what to search for some facts that could help you get your point across...How much ice is melting every 10 years? What is happening to the Amazon? Maybe search for images or watch some videos on youtube, these will all help you get ideas for what you could do. Everything you find, save it. Whether it is a link to a website, a photo or a fact that you have wrote in a Word document, you may need it in the future and without saving it, you may not remember where you saw it. You can do this on your own and then in the future you can share ideas with your group. The more ideas the better.
CRITERIA B - DEVELOPING IDEAS
Once you have a rough idea of what you have to produce, whatever the product, you must come up with a Design Specification. This is a list of criteria that your design must meet before you can begin production. Even Apple will have a Design Specification - for example, the iPhone 6 must have two 10 megapixel camera, it must have a retina screen and it must have a screen bigger than iPhone 5S. Only once all of these criterion are met can Apple consider production. The same is for you. Here is the Design Specification for your animation:
Design Specifications
The stop animation video that my partner and I create will:
be for MYP students at Newton, but may also be of help to MYP students from all around the world
be viewed by lots and lots of people (be available for all Newton MYP students to view and be viewed by over 20 people (the more views - the better!))
be between 2-5 minutes in length
primarily use some form of material (clay, paper, cardboard, jelly beans, lego, paints, etc.) to tell the story
have a clever and meaningful title and clear and stylish title screen
have credits at the end of the film that identify the music, producer, screen writers, directors, cameraman, sound recorder, voice overs, materials used, set designer and creator, etc.
include excellent original video/image filmed and shot by you
have clear sound and, if used - appropriate music and background noises
address a school issue by explaining the issue clearly and raise the viewers understanding and awareness of the issue
So you know what you need to do, now you can start to plan ideas.
LESSON 3 - Ideas
So you have some of your own ideas, now it is time to share these with you group and come up with some possible animation ideas. One of the main problems with this is agreeing. You may have four people in your group and four different ideas and you can only make one final animation. This is the difficult bit! Is it possible to use all the ideas and make one animation? If not, then you must all decide on one, you may have to vote. What ever you chose to do, whether it is your idea or not, everyone in the group must work together to make it work.
Using some A3 paper, note down your ideas using text and sketches. You must remember that we are in Year 9 and at school, not working for Pixar in the hills of Hollywood! You must be realistic about what you can do. This does not mean the quality and message is not as good. As you have seen from some examples, sometimes the best videos are the most simple. You must also think of any sounds or music. Again, as we have seen, the sound is just as important as the visual images...in some cases more important.
LESSON 4 - Design it....plan it!
Now you know what you story is about, we need to design and plan it. This is an important stage in the process of creating a product. This will help you to make the best possible animation. Using Word or Powerpoint, depending on what you prefer, answer these question:
What is the “global issue”?
Who is it for? (Children/Adults/All)
What is it about?What happens?
What is the message?
What to you want people to learn?
What sounds/music will you use?
Describe everything that happens
Use pictures if it helps
Once you know what you are doing you can design the animation using a story board:
This is just like a cartoon really. Describe what is happening in each scene, use pictures and text. This will also help you when you come to make your animation as you can have it with you and use it as you take the images.
Finally, before you make your animation you need to plan what you have to do, what you need to prepare, and what you need to use. Answer these questions, a list is probably easier.
What material do you need?
What do you need to make?
What music and sounds to you need to prepare?
Who is going to do what?
What are you using as a background, if any?
Do you have an iPad or a camera that you can bring to school?
Each person need to be in charge of something (Material/Sound/Camera/Background)
How long do you need to make it? Be realistic...