2D animation made on a bus

This brilliant short film was made on a Bus by young people in Bristol working along side Helen Hewitt, who works for Animation For Education.

The technique is simple and effective and took only a day to complete, working with one laptop, camera on a tripod, I Can Animate and iMovie.

The project was funded by the fire service and their objective was to raise awareness around fire safety with young people.

Sketch out simple ideas around fire safety.

Create the art work using plain white card and a thick black maker.

Decide on features that will be animated.

Set up kit, so camera on tripod is pointing down ( As a rostrum camera would) towards

the art work, blu tak is required to keep back ground still and clean hands help.

Notice in the film that only a few features are animated at a time, this makes it very

watchable as well as close shots with the camera draw the audience in.

For information on courses for teachers and workshop opportunities for students you can contact Animation For Education Here

Animated sticky Notes

This is a great example of a simple idea, fun and engaging. Will have fun trying this out and stickies are cheaper than plasticine!

Shapeshifting Post-It Notes from mrmayo on Vimeo.

Close ups, close ups, CLOSE UPS!

My objective this summer, running animation workshops around the UK, will be to develop a method of encouraging students to use close ups or at least move the camera closer to the action. Close ups draw the viewer into the world being created and thus engage. Too many animations that I've watched this year and for several animation competitions that I have had the pleasure of judging, have been filmed in one entire long shot, fine for the first 15 seconds, but then it can get boring.

Photographs that are close to the subject are far more interesting than long shots, long shots are used to show the huge mountains or wonderful sunset on the beach, but with lego and model animation in schools we must get closer to the action and not worry to much about excluding the set ( That may have taken a long time to create). An audience want's to follow the action of the story foremost.

Animations from Team Building day

These are the outcomes from a recent team building day at the Institute of Education, London. Much fun was had by all. Quote from organiser of the day below. The films were made in just 60 mins and each group was a given a title to help focus minds and keep within the theme of the day.

Why talking is better than email.

What makes a team?

‘One of the best staff development days we have had.

It was a great way to get to know other members of staff, work as a team

and of course have a fabulous animation to show at the end!

I would highly recommend it!’

Team building- part 2

The session is only 1 hour long in total 15 mins planning, 30 mins
filming and finaly 15 mins to add sound

Team building using animation- part 1

I'm at the Insitute of education, London using animation as a team
building activity.

The title for their film is, "Why is talking better than email?"

Primary languages

Two fun short animated fuzzy felt moments created today in just 60 mins at the Primary languages conference in Telford.

The teachers emptied the boxes of fuzzy felt bits and created their stories, then shot the action and finally added their voice overs. Proving that animation doesn't have to take up huge amounts of time and can be used for creating short MFL scripts and stories.

Enjoy.