Our own Animation

NB. I have tried numerous times through out the day to upload the photos and video of our outing and have not been successful, I think blogger/my PC is having an issue. I will try again tomorrow.

Yesterday I took the kids into the city, to the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) which is located at Federation Square. We went to take part in an animation workshop which we had short listed as one of the school holiday activities that we wanted to do.

It was a fantastic experience. The children were each given a bag with coloured modelling clay and a place at table, which had photo instructions of how to model a penguin. The kids didn't have to make a penguin, so little Rascal decided to make a spider and a fly. Babaganouski was more interested in just squishing the clay, but we managed to make a small penguin with what remained of his clay.

Once we had made our characters, we then were assisted by the lovely and patient Kate, who helped the children organise their characters on the set. The kids then developed a short story line, from which Kate then directed the children on how to slightly move each character between shots. Every one except Babagansouki had a turn at this and the kids followed Kate's instructions intently. Kate used a video cam and laptop to take the photos.

Once the scene was finished, Kate did a few steps on the laptop and then looped the sequence and showed the kids animation on the big screen. The kids looked so proud of themselves and thought their animation was very amusing. I was able to video the laptop screen, so I can show you what they made.

On the way home the kids all agreed that the workshop had been their favourite activity of the holidays. (I need also to mention that this was completely free!!!)It was also great to see the kids get an understanding of the process behind this type of animation. It took us 10 - 15 minutes to come up with 4 seconds of screen time.

PS. Whilst we were in at Federation Square we also went to the National gallery of Victoria and saw the Yvonne Audette exhibition, which I had planned to see last Sunday. After enjoying the exhibition the children then had the chance to make their own Yvonne Audette inspired collage at the ArtCart in the foyer of the gallery.