Year 2 Animation (Teacher notes)
Pupil Activity Code: AMT7 – What is it?
Progression of skills in this pack
1. Add a background and objects to a frame (including text)
2. Copy/clone a frame and move objects to create an animation, including flipping objects.
3. Create an animation with multiple objects moving simultaneously.
4. Create screen-recording animation (optional, requires iPad).
5. Create stop-motion animation with photos (optional, requires iPad).
6. Create animated drawings of characters by cropping photos and adjusting points of movement.
National Curriculum Content
Use technology purposefully to create, organise, store, manipulate and retrieve digital content.
2-4 hours
Introduction
Animation has become an increasingly used skill in primary education. Not only is it used for creativity but also to capture processes in subjects such as Science and Numeracy.
What will pupils and teachers need?
For the tasks below, pupils will need access to the internet and the Junior Infant Tools animate website.
For teachers and schools who have iPads, activity 3 and 4 below demonstrates how video animations with voiceovers could be made using the free Puppet Pals (which does not allow the use of own photos) and paid Puppet Pals app, which does.
Activity 3 uses I Can Animate App. There are two versions on iPad of I Can Animate, the free Lite version and the paid version plus an Android version. The difference between the two versions is that the free version is limited to 240 frames, you cannot adjust the playback speed and it as exports as a video with the I Can Animate watermark.
A nice use of I Can Animate is to take a photo of a seed growing each day and then play it back to watch it grow (there could be multiple projects for seeds in different conditions) – there a nice cress example here. Also a shadow moving around the playground – there is an example here.
Activity 4 uses the free Sketch.Metademolab website and pupils can uploads photos or images of drawings of characters to animate. These could be photos of characters they have drawn by hand on paper or images saved from other software. There are also sample drawings on the website to try without having to upload.
Teacher Input
Before the children begin to make animations it is important to talk with them about what is an animation and look at examples. Watch the video above with your class, which introduce how stop motion is used and what frames are.
Differentiation
The tutorials below demonstrate how to make a simple animation with a background, text (if possible) and one or two moving objects, which all pupils should try. More able pupils can develop their animations further, especially in activity 2 where they can have different backgrounds for frames. There are also challenges for activities 1 and 2 demonstrating how to flip objects.
Assessment
In order for pupils to save their animations in Junior infant Tools, the school will need a subscription to J2e.
Pupil Activity Pack (Teacher view)
Activity 1 (works on all devices)
Watch the first video tutorial to learn how to add a background and objects in Junior Infant Tools animate website. Then try yourself.
Watch this video tutorial to learn how to animate your objects by adding more frames and moving your object slightly. Then try yourself.
Watch this video tutorial to learn how change the direction of your object so that it faces the other way. Then try yourself.
Activity 2. Screen recording animation (Requires iPad)
Another way to make animated videos is using screen recording apps such as Puppet Pals on the iPad. This allows you to draw backgrounds and characters, take photos of them with the iPad then use the app to move the characters around and speak over the top. The app then records the screen and voices and turns it into an animated video. Watch the video to help you.
Activity 3. Stop motion and time-lapse animation (Requires iPad or Android)
Watch the video to learn how to create stop-motion animation and time-lapse animation on iPad or Android tablet using I Can Animate app.
Sketch MetaDemoLab website video tutorial
Activity 4. Animate drawings
The free Sketch.Metademolab website can be used by pupils to upload drawings they have made of characters and then animate them by cropping the photo and adjusting the points of animation (joints of body etc). There is a checklist to follow for each step. If you do not have a camera for pupils to take photos of their drawings then pupils could draw characters in software such as Microsoft Paint (on a white background) or using the Pixel Art website, covered in the Year 2 Digital Art Pack. Then save the pictures to their computers/iPads etc and upload into the Sketch.Metademolab website.