Why Teach Film Animation?

Film Education gives an excellent overview on why Animation needs a place in the primary curriculum.

Film Street is a fantastic introduction for children into animation. See animation tips and advice and view the case studies. Excellent practical teacher resources for animation, also supporting Literacy: Year 1 Narrative Unit 4 Stories about fantasy worlds; Non-fiction Unit 5 Recounts (fact and fiction); Year 3 Narrative Unit 1 Stories with familiar settings; Year 4 Non-Fiction Unit 4 Persuasive texts.


How to Teach Film Animation?

Oscar Stringer's Animation for Education Toolkit

A variety of resources for teachers are included in this download including lesson plans, scheme of work, curriculum links, printable lesson aids, background images and lots of animation examples made by students and teachers on Oscar Stringer's animation workshops.

It's free to download for those using a SWGfL internet connection (If you can’t access the toolkit and think you should be able to, please contact Keith Ansell). The Animation for Education Toolkit is PC compatible only.

Animation for Education Toolkit

Cleoflics is a highly original animation project showcasing best practice in claymation, stop frame animation and Flash, including workshops taking you through the process of animation. When you are teaching the ideas around animation, you may wish to use these free resources. 

Pivot Stick Animator is a free download tool and a great introduction into movement in animation. Some excellent resources from KentEd using Pivot Stick: a help sheet and examples of creative use.

Stop Motion Animator is another excellent animation tool (open source download).

MonkeyJam is a digital program. It is designed to let you capture images from a web cam, camcorder, or scanner and assemble them as separate frames of an animation. You can also import images and sound files already on your computer. Although it is designed for pencil and paper, MonkeyJam can also be used for Stop motion animation and has several features just for that. Movies created in MonkeyJam can be exported as AVI files.

Anim8ed is an on-line animation resource offering ideas, contacts and suggestions for teachers, educators and those interested in developing animation projects with groups. The site includes six step-by-step animation projects, together with the final animations, information about animators, and links to animation studios, festivals and courses.

Webbliworld is a very appealing mix of animated films, interactive games, including create your own avatar (e-safe).

Wiltshire Schools Creativity Awards Site for lots of useful resources (particularly on podcasting) and fantastic examples of children's' work.


Equipment Needed for Film Animation

You will need:

1. A PC or Mac

2. A web cam (or digiblue). A Hue web cam is excellent for animation and only costs £20. Find out more here








3. Modelling clay. Try Newplast.

4. Software to create the animation. We recommend 2Animate from 2Simple and I Can Animate from Kudlian (see the discounts in Animation Resources).

Kudlian have an excellent guide to the process called Animation in Six Easy Steps.

Post Production

Editing:
Combine your film animations with text and music or sound. To do this you will need Windows Movie maker. This is a free program for PC. Find out more here. If you are using a Mac, iMovie comes free with the machine.

Sound:
Go to Audio Network where you can find royalty-free music for soundtrack. You can record sound or narration with a microphone. Use Audacity with older pupils, to combine and edit the sounds.

Sharing your Film Animations

Upload your animations to Films for Learning where there are many school-made films to share and comment on.

Find out the arrangements for entering your animations in your local authority competition.

There are many other film animation competitions to enter!