What is the activity?
The activity that our group decided to make are animating toys so that kids understand how movies work
We start with an in-class activity that involves drawing pictures on stips of paper. The pictures are in a sequence that progress into some sort of scene, just like frames in movie. The piece of paper is turned into a circle and put on a record player. (there are spaces between each 1 inch block that the kids draw on).
The pieces of paper are then taped into a circle, put on the record player so that the children can understand that when the sequence is spun it turns into an animation. We will show what happens when the sequence is spun too fast or too slow, and how it shows different views of the images.
There will also be a Jornada presentation of animations that we've made. They are the same sequence of frames, shown at different speeds, to show the choppiness and smoothness of the different frame speeds.
What will the children do and how will they learn by doing you activity?
The children will make themselves a sequence of pictures to make a short picture show by placing the strip on the record player, and running the player at different speeds. They will learn how to do this and will be able to make these in the future because it is a short simple process.
The children will learn from the in-class activity the difference when the sequence of pictures go slower and faster and what different illusions come about when it is not spun at the right speed.
They will make a longer picture sequence for their take home exercise along with a holder that shows the picture show work while using their hands to make the scene go.
Take home activity
As part of the animation activity done in class, you have seen how speed is important in viewing moving pictures. For this activity, you are going to create your own animation viewer which you control the speed. A strip of film is inserted into the viewer and you can experiment with different pulling speeds. Does the animation look real at slow speeds or fast speeds? Do the animations look more real with different progressive changes in the animation blocks?
Materials:
- Animation Viewer handout
- Scissors
- A stick of glue
- A marker
Instructions:
1. Cut out the Animation Viewer piece and the three strips of film.
2. Cut out the rectangles that have been crossed out of the Animation Viewer.
3. Fold part A of the Animation Viewer behind the face of the piece.
4. Fold and glue parts B and C to part A.
5. Fold part D onto A without covering the open rectangle. Glue part D onto A.
6. Take the film and paste each together by placing a whole animation block onto the small tab located on the left side of the film.
7. Draw your animation inside the blocks of the film. Note: The animations should begin from the PULL side to the end of the film. This means that you have to draw the sequence from right to left.
8. Insert the film in the left side rectangle located behind the face of the Animation viewer.
9. Feed the film out the other rectangle so that you can see your first animation block within the Animation Viewer's window and the PULL-tab is exposed on the right side.
10. Pull the film and watch the animation. You may have to vary the speed of your pulling to get a smooth animation.
