1. by Amy L. Johnson

2. Full art unit designed to take learners from the beginnings of animation to current CGI. 7 lessons with 3 product-based outcomes Culminates in the publishing of a student-made claymation project Entire unit is online at http://originsofanimation.wikispaces.com http://originsofanimation.wikispaces.com General Overview

3. Lesson Overview Lesson 1: Thaumatropes Lesson 2: Flip-Books Lesson 3: Storyboards Lesson 4: Character Design Lesson 5: Backdrop Design Lesson 6: Shooting Claymation Lesson 7: Editing & Publishing Claymation

4. Foundation PPT “Creating Movement: The Origins of Animation” is the foundation presentation Presentation overviews all projects, gives examples, and defines various animation terms Presentation has embedded animations and links to exemplar videos on YouTube.com

5. Thaumatropes You will need: Two 3 x 5 in note- cards per student OR two 3 in diameter circles per student pencils markers 2 rubber bands per student “How To Make a Thaumatrope” worksheet

6. Flip-Books You will need: 20-30 3 x 3 in sheets of paper per student Pencils Colored pencils 1 small binder clip per student “How To Make a Flip- Book” worksheet

7. Storyboards You will need: Storyboard worksheet Pencils Story Markers/colored pencils

8. Character Design You will need: 1 brick of oil-based clay per character 2 pipe cleaners per character Storyboards 5 x 7 in sketch paper Pencils Markers Clay modeling tools scissors

9. Backdrops You will need: 18 x 24 in paper Pencils Markers Tempera paint Paintbrushes

10. Shooting You will need: Digital cameras Extra batteries Books for “tripods” Claymation characters Backdrops Masking tape Pens/markers

11. Shooting Cont’d

12. Editing You will need: Windows Movie Maker (WMM) Computer USB Drive SD Card SD Card-reader

13. Editing Cont’d Windows Movie Maker (WMM) Unit relies on WMM instead of iMovie because most schools interface with PC as opposed to Mac WMM is video editing software included in MS Windows Me, XP, Vista and 7 It can be download for free: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/movie maker2.mspx http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/updates/movie maker2.mspx Click-by-Click directions on how to move import pictures, begin a stop-motion movie, and editing in WMM are available on the wiki

14. Editing Cont’d Embedding Music Students must find and download royalty free music for their videos A great website for finding royalty free music is http://freeplaymusic.com http://freeplaymusic.com Directions on how to download and embed music into WMM are available on the wiki

15. Publishing Completed student claymation movies can be uploaded to YouTube.com Encourage the teacher to do all uploading You will need to get a YouTube.com account (free) Click-by-click directions on how to upload videos to YouTube.com can be found on the wiki

16. Assessment The thaumatrope lesson, flip-book lesson, and story-board lesson, and backdrop lesson each have their own assessment There is a longer, more comprehensive assessment for the shooting, editing, and publishing of the claymation video.

17. Questions? Amy.L.Johnson@Live.com