I was at the ATOM Conference earlier this week giving a session entitled ‘Animation on a budget’. Part of this session included some information on animation styles and software options within schools, some examples of work, and a practical component on stop-motion. The powerpoint I used relating to animation styles and software is included here.
Some good animation tutorial links and examples that are useful for education. Some may also be useful for media production.
http://animationaac.blogspot.com/
http://www.randolfdimalanta.com/
http://www.melissaclifton.com/
Also includes digital imaging, 2D graphics, etc.
http://www.angryanimator.com/word/
Includes some remixing of old cartoons that might be useful for VCE Media Units (representatin, social values)
I’ve recently been working with a group of Year 7 boys on a unit on video games. They created a wiki on games, and then made their own games using PowerPoint. I’m beginning to realise the flexibility of PowerPoint for doing a range of things, including:
- Frame by frame animations (ie: cel animation, stop-motion animation)
- Flash-style animation
- Video games
- Interactive projects (games, quizzes, choose your own adventure stories, etc)
Wikipedia has a good breakdown of PowerPoint animation
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerPoint_animation
Also, check out PowerPoint Heaven – some amazing stuff!. One of the guys also has a blog which goes through tips and tricks for PowerPoint.
Other resources that range in usefulness but are worth checking out (many have been designed for education, so it’s good to see how educators are using PowerPoint and tips for creating resources that are usable for students):
http://www.education-world.com/a_tech/techtorial/techtorial094.shtml
http://epotential.education.vic.gov.au/area_phase.php?areaphase_id=2
http://www.indezine.com/products/powerpoint/
http://www.indezine.com/products/powerpoint/learn/animationsandtransitions/motionpathsanimations2.html
http://www.ellenfinkelstein.com/powerpoint_tip_anim_path_effects.html
GIMP is an free, open-source graphics/digital imaging program similar to Adobe Photoshop. Aside from using it for photo manipulation and 2D graphics, you can use it to create animated gif images.
Resources and tutorials on how to do it:
The GIMP online tutorials are a wealth of information and can be a first port of call for both animating gifs and other common tools and skills.
http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/Simple_Animations/
http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/Simple_Animations/
Other resources:
http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/feature/1664.html
http://www.csb.yale.edu/userguides/image/moviemaker/anim_gif.html
http://www.nwe.ufl.edu/writing/help/graphics/gimp/animation.shtml
www.osceola.k12.wi.us/docs/Handouts/GIMPGifAnimation.pdf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-9_HwRcd1A
At the school I work at we’re pretty lucky in that we have the Adobe Design Suite for creating graphics and animations. While it seems many schools now are going this way, I am interested in how animation might be created on a budget. Over the next few posts I’ll be exploring this topic further, looking at various animation styles and software (with an emphasis on cheap/free software) that is available for these purposes.
If you have any good links to software or resources, feel free to let me know.
