New animation: Three Blind Mice

September 23, 2007 at 4:54 pm | In Animation, Fun | Leave a Comment

The Incy Wincy Spider animation that my son and I made has been a (small) hit on YouTube, with over 2,000 views so far, a five-star rating, and some nice comments:

cute it made my little 3 year old cousin really happy lol shes so cute singing to it and i luv this guys acent i luved it so cute

‘Need to see it again’ said my 2 year old daughter as she recited it along with the lovely voice on your animation. Such a clear, clever animation, thank you

Inspired by the success of this animation,we decided to try and animate another classic nursery rhyme: Three Blind Mice. As before, we used Moovl to create the drawing and animations, then screen-captured them and edited them into a movie using Windows MovieMaker.

The whole experience was definitely fun. As ever, there were creative concerns about whether the sequel could live up to the success of the first movie, but luckily we managed to reunite the same team of artists. In fact I’d like to think that this is of similar quality as Godfather II (generally acknowledged as better than Godfather I). Although perhaps the casting of family members is more akin to Godfather III.

The Big Draw (Again)

September 18, 2007 at 12:01 pm | In Art, Events, Fun | Leave a Comment

Back in June I blogged about The Big Draw - the Campaign for Drawing’s annual showpiece.

There’s now much more information on the Big Draw website, including an online events calendar and details of the national launch event on 30 September. You can also register your own event as part of the programme.

The Campaign invites everyone to join in, using drawing to engage with the past, present and future. The eighth Big Draw runs from 1 to 31 October 2007, with a special focus on Saturday 13 October. Any drawing event in October can be registered as part of this programme.

As part of the national launch, there is a session on interactive drawing at Queen Mary, University of London. More details can be found here, but an insider tells me that as well as discussing Sodarace, there will be a demo of Moovl.

The range of activities for the national launch is impressive, and there are hundreds of other events taking place around the country during October.

Paintpals International Art Project

September 15, 2007 at 8:51 am | In Art, Primary curriculum | 1 Comment

I found this interesting international art project for schools, sponsored by iNet.

International Networking for Educational Transformation is an international network of schools, organisations and individuals who are committed to transforming learning through innovation.

The Paintpals project is an international collaboration between schools in the UK and Australia, helping primary schools to develop digital art skills.

The schools work with Windows Paint toolkit to create a variety of artwork, which they can then share through an online art gallery. The aim is for schools an dpupils in different countries to also take part. The online gallery is well worth a look with some amazing pictures.
 

Primary art and craft website

September 11, 2007 at 7:45 am | In Art, Events, Primary curriculum | 1 Comment

In follow up to my post about the BA Festival of Science, the CurriculART website is now live. When it is fully up and running the site will provide:

illustrated instructions for hands-on, creative arts and crafts projects linked closely to the National Curriculum.

The website won’t be free – there’s a subscription for full access, with details available on the site.

Primary animation websites

September 6, 2007 at 12:37 pm | In Animation, Primary curriculum | 1 Comment

I’ve recently discovered a couple of interesting and useful websites that discuss animation in more detail, particualry as it relates to the primary curriculum.

First of all, there is the Film Education site, which has a specific section on using animation in the classroom. The site provides an introduction to animation and gives project ideas across Key Stages 1 and 2. It also includes a historical context. As the site says:

Animated films and the skills needed to produce them can provide a stimulus to learning across the curriculum – especially in Art and Design, History, ICT, Science and Literacy.

Also, interesting to note their definition of ‘animation’, which I think makes it clear that the graphical skills required are secondary to the imagination and creativity of the animator:

‘Animation’ is a performing art rather than a graphic art. The drawings and models replace actors and actresses, so when children are creating their own animation it is important to approach it through the creative skills they would use in drama rather than graphical skills.

The second site I found – Learn-ICT -  also has an animation section, with some fantastic examples of children’s stop-motion films in the animation gallery. I particularly liked The Spider!

Futurelab’s digital pet project: Fizzees

August 22, 2007 at 3:46 pm | In Fun, Moovl development | Leave a Comment

Futurelab was one of the organisations that helped considerably in the early development of Moovl. They have a new product in the pipeline called Fizzees. I saw a demo of this product a while ago, and it’s great to see it moving into a prototype phase, and hopefully commercialisation.

The Fizzee is a digital pet (like a tamagotchi), that is worn on the wrist. Unlike other digital pets however, this one responds to your own physical activity (eg heart-rate) to determine it’s own health and development. As well as the individual Fizzee, there is a website that allows children to collaborate, compare their virtual pets, swap activities and find out about other aspects of a healthy lifestyle.

It seems like a great tool to make exercise fun, and engage young children in thinking about their health.

Enter the Go Green Moovl competition

August 22, 2007 at 3:10 pm | In Events | 1 Comment

We’ve just launched a Moovl Go Green competition for UK Primary Schools. All your school needs to do is to create the best animation or drawing that shows how your pupils can go green using Moovl as a creative toy. Ask your pupils to create an animation of an aspect of daily life, either at school or home, showing how they could make life more energy efficient or environmentally friendly. Using Moovl, pupils can work individually, in groups or as a whole class with teacher support. Winning entries will be judged on the best use of Moovl’s unique online functions and the greenest ideas.The fantastic winning prize is a three-year subscription to Moovl worth up to £450, plus £700 worth of other Rigby resources.

To sign up and see full terms and conditions go to the Go Green competition section of the Moovl website.

Online ideas for Primary art and craft

August 21, 2007 at 1:04 pm | In Art, Events, Primary curriculum | 1 Comment

I’ve been pointed in the direction of CurriculArt by my friends at bestsciencelessonever. The CurriculArt website is an on-line resource for primary schools with art and craft ideas linked to every curriculum subject.

The website isn’t live yet, but will be launched in York this September at the BA Festival of Science.

Famous art in Moovl

August 1, 2007 at 12:53 pm | In Animation, Art, Fun | 2 Comments

Inspired by a colleague who drew the Moovl Lisa, I added my own version of Munch’s The Scream. I can’t decide whether the animated version is more disturbing than the original.

Perhaps The Girl with the Pearl Earring would have been better.

Making and using springs in Moovl

July 31, 2007 at 7:33 am | In How to, Primary curriculum, Science | Leave a Comment

When objects are drawn as overlapping in Moovl, then they are joined by invisible ’springs’. This is what the ‘tight-loose’ slider controls. Make the objects very ‘loose’ and the springs that join them together will be slack. Make the objects ‘tight’ and the objects will stick close together and interact strongly.

You can use this property to build visible ’springs’ by joining small objects together, eg small circles or triangles. Although clearly younger children need to explore the properties of springs using real objects, Moovl allows experimentation and prediction (Unit 3E: Magnets and Springs from the QCA Science Scheme of Work gives practical examples and activities).

In the drawings here I’ve used series of small triangles and circles joined together to form ’springs’. I think the ‘robot on a trampoline’ amply demonstrates my point…

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