Saturday, November 8, 2014

Padlet Unit Plan


I chose the "Intro to animation" topic for my unit plan because, firstly, it was consistent with the theme of the lesson plan I researched in the previous assignment.  Secondly, I think animation can appeal to a large amount of students and offers them an experience that they likely wouldn't have until they entered college.  Creating a foundation of basic animation skills can spur the interest of the more technologically inclined students while still allowing more right-brained, artistic students the opportunity to utilize their creativity.  There are so many facets to creating an animation that it lends itself to becoming a community reinforcing assignment.  Certain children might enjoy conceptualizing characters, others might enjoy the animation itself, and others still might enjoy the post production aspects of animating.  So beyond learning practical animation, drawing, and script writing skills, students are building teamwork experience that will greatly help them in the future no matter what career path they pursue. 


My essential questions and unit goals are based on the aspects of animation I know are most important for a beginning animator.  I have many years of experience as an animation student, and these particular aspects (the walk cycle, keyframes, storyboarding, etc.) are taught repeatedly as they are the cornerstones of even the most complex animations.  I sought out resources from Richard Williams' The Animator's Survival Kit as I consider it the single most important guide for a beginning animator.  It covers everything a newbie animator could wonder about, and I was so happy to find a free, complete pdf of the book to share with potential students. 

2 comments:

  1. Hi Bianca, nice unit on padlet about animation. I've always been interested in animation, both drawn and stop motion. I think the idea and all of the content that you posted are great, but I wonder if the unit goals might be condensed a bit to reflect broader abilities? I'm not totally sure that's necessary but might be a good idea. Also, as a musician I've always felt that music and animation go hand in hand, so I thought that posting a musical example for students to begin with might be inspiring for some students. Some might want a story or music to begin their process rather than starting to animate right away. Either way, great stuff!

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