Stop Animation Class

I finished my last class, teaching middle school this month. The project went really well. I broke the class into 5 groups, and gave them each a job title; director, set designer, camera person, and animator. Overall it went very well. I had a budget of only $75 for 75 students. This had to over their clay as well as a DVD, and a few other items to make their sets. We didn't have a tripod, so the students balanced their cameras on books. We marked out where the books would sit and the set on a large piece of paper. Kind of like making a registration sheet so they could film again with the same dimension of space as the first shoot. We only had 4 classes to start and finish this project. The first class they brainstormed and created their stories and started making the characters and sets. The second two classes they finished their sets and began taking pictures. The last class was in the computer lab, downloading their pictures into iPhoto, and then importing it into iMovie to make a timeline and do any edits. The final step was to export it as a Quicktime movie and burn it on a disc. It was stressful trying to get 20 kids to follow the steps exactly with me. The combination of them having access to the main server where they could download their pictures and broken CD drives made for a few hectic moments. They would grab files they weren't supposed to on the server so things would go missing in the middle of directing the class. All in all, considering the limitations, the class went really well. It was a great way to introduce technology and art through a fun project. I will be posting some of the best movies up soon.