How Animation Works

HERE IS HOW A FLIP BOOK WORKS TO FOOL THE EYE

All you need to start experimenting with this optical illusion is a pad of paper and some water based markers. Don't use a Sharpie or other permanent marker because it will bleed through the paper. Start at the bottom page and draw a picture. Carefully trace the image onto the second to bottom page, moving it only slightly. Continue the process on the subsequent pages, shifting the picture gradually with only subtle changes. Work only on the bottom section of the pad so you can flip it easily using only your thumb.

How a flip book works from Rachel Wintemberg on Vimeo.

Here's how a flip book works to fool the eye

STUDENT GALLERY

THESE FILMS WERE CREATED BY MY MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS USING iPADS AND THE APPS ANIMATION CREATOR, iMOVIE AND SKETCHBOOK PRO

Christopher's Animation:Eating Blueberries from Rachel Wintemberg on Vimeo.

Amber's Animation-Dance Party from Rachel Wintemberg on Vimeo.

Man's Brave Attempt To Climb Up A Skyscraper from Rachel Wintemberg on Vimeo.

Created by a 6th grade student

Awesome roller coaster by Jorge grade7 from Rachel Wintemberg on Vimeo.

Caroline's Walk Cycle from Rachel Wintemberg on Vimeo.

Walk cycle animation by an 8th grade student

Johnjairo's basketball animation from Rachel Wintemberg on Vimeo.

Animation by a 6th grade student

student video man afraid of butterfly from Rachel Wintemberg on Vimeo.

Camp Horizons Claymation Film Festival 2012 from Rachel Wintemberg on Vimeo.

Short Claymation Films by middle school campers, Camp Horizons, Livingston NJ. Activity Taught By Rachel Wintemberg. All filming and creative work done by kids!

http://thehelpfulartteacher.blogspot.com

PROJECT IDEAS: USE THESE LESSONS TO TEACH STUDENTS ABOUT THE ANIMATION PROCESS

Simple Flip Books from Rachel Wintemberg on Vimeo.

Directions: Fold a piece of paper in half. Open it like a book and draw a face on the bottom half of the page. Close the 'book' and trace the face, except for the mouth, onto the 'cover'. Change the expression on the mouth on your second (traced) picture. Now flip the top page up and down to animate the face.

Assignment: Using the iPad app Animation Creator, create an animated cartoon of a person's face. Make your character ( or characters) change their facial expressions, depending on what is going on in the story. Feel free to use the worksheets from my lesson on Sketchbook Pro, if you need ideas.

http://thehelpfulartteacher.blogspot.com/2013/03/sketchbook-pro-for-ipad-using-ipad-as.html

Use this reference sheet if you need to make your character's head turn or move.

These reference  pictures were created by the illustrator and cartoonist Burne Hogarth.
To download Burne Hogarth's free books on dynamic figure drawing and movement, please visit http://bookos.org/g/Burne%2520Hogarth

My students, who only have art twice a week, did not have time to use Hogarth's beautiful drawings or animate more realistic human heads but we did have fun drawing cartoon people and changing the facial expressions. Once we were done experimenting, I gave them a more serious assignment, one that involved using animation to tell a story. Our school district uses the 8 Keys of Quantum Learning character education curriculum. 
The students chose to focus on the second key;
 'Failure Leads to Success'. Here is the worksheet I handed out to get them started:

Use the boxes above to draw your storyboard. Use all four frames. Include 1 frame to introduce the main characters, 1 frame to show the beginning of the story, one frame to show the middle and one frame to show the ending. Use the small boxes below each frame to 

explain what is happening in the story. 

HERE ARE SOME OF THEIR FINISHED ANIMATIONS

Failure leads to success from Rachel Wintemberg on Vimeo.
A message from the students at William C. McGinnis School. Treat every struggle as a learning experience. If you've never failed at anything, you've never challenged yourself to learn something new.
http://qlblog.qln.com/archive/2008/04/03/failure-leads-to-success.aspx

For step by step directions on how to use Animation Creator, please see the following posts in this blog:

Animation 101: The Walk Cycle

Animation Part 2: Rotoscoping and adding sound

Cartooning and Animation

Click on the link below to read my review of the iPad App Animation Creator HD in the Spring 2014 issue of Scholastic Administrator Magazine:

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/scholastic/administrator_2014spring/index.php#/28

Human Head Quick Sketch: form in space

My students requested a more detailed cartooning lesson on how to draw the human head looking in different directions. Use this as a guide when cartooning or animating.

How to use the iPad app 'Animation Creator'




How to use layers in 'Animation Creator' to do rotoscoping

Click here to see my complete blog post on using rotoscoping in  the iPad app 'Animation Creator'.

Click here to read a complete explanation of rotoscoping, and the history of the technique on Wikipedia.

Mrs. Wintemberg's 
Essential Library for Aspiring Animators:

The Illusion of Life, Disney Animation

How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way By Stan Lee and Steve Buscema Will Eisner, Graphic Storytelling and Visual Narrative Will Eisner, Comics and Sequential Art Will Eisner, Expressive Anatomy for Comics and Narrative Basic Animation by Walter Foster Animation by Preston Blair How to Make Film Cartoons by Preston Blair Dynamic Anatomy by Burne Hogarth