After learning the basics of animation last week, we moved on to animating using the laptops. The software we are using over the next couple of weeks is called 'Pivot Stickfigure' and is a free download.
There are several great things about using Pivot.
1) It is simple to use and children are able to animate pretty much straight away.
2) There are more advanced functions such as adding backgrounds and creating custom stickfigures which can be introduced once they have learnt the basics.
3) It's free!
After demonstrating the software, the first challenge I set the children was to move their stickfigure in some way whether that be waving, jumping, running or even a back flip (this was quite popular!).
Once they had managed this, I showed them how to import a background to add interest to the animation. Their character could now interact in an environment. They were also taught how to speed up and slow down their animation. I then let them explore these new features for a while.
Finally we looked at adding a second stickfigure in to their animation. I wouldn't recommend showing the children how to do this any earlier in the lesson otherwise the focus tends to shift away from animation and more on to the stickfigures themselves.
By the end of the lesson we had cowboys riding horses, elephants performing backflips (they seemed to have an obsession with backflips!) and people climbing ladders. Pivot enabled all the children achieve at their level and to get a real feel for what it's like to animate.
Next week I will be introducing a focused task using their new found Pivot skills. This task will also introduce some other features of the Pivot software.
There are several great things about using Pivot.
1) It is simple to use and children are able to animate pretty much straight away.
2) There are more advanced functions such as adding backgrounds and creating custom stickfigures which can be introduced once they have learnt the basics.
3) It's free!
After demonstrating the software, the first challenge I set the children was to move their stickfigure in some way whether that be waving, jumping, running or even a back flip (this was quite popular!).
Once they had managed this, I showed them how to import a background to add interest to the animation. Their character could now interact in an environment. They were also taught how to speed up and slow down their animation. I then let them explore these new features for a while.
Finally we looked at adding a second stickfigure in to their animation. I wouldn't recommend showing the children how to do this any earlier in the lesson otherwise the focus tends to shift away from animation and more on to the stickfigures themselves.
By the end of the lesson we had cowboys riding horses, elephants performing backflips (they seemed to have an obsession with backflips!) and people climbing ladders. Pivot enabled all the children achieve at their level and to get a real feel for what it's like to animate.
Next week I will be introducing a focused task using their new found Pivot skills. This task will also introduce some other features of the Pivot software.