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5 students from The Hemel Hempstead School took on a stop-motion animation project to highlight the themes of creativity and reading. This is their work; 336 pieces of art and 56 seconds of animation.
The Goal:
To produce a short animation using low-tech production techniques that would showcase the themes of reading and creativity.
The Plot:
While relaxing with a book in the city of Sylvaris Charlie Keeper is ambushed by Bane, the Stoman Lord. Desperate to escape Charlie scrambles across the cityscape as Bane gives chase. Running out of options Charlie calls upon the power of her Will but it fails her. With her powers extinguished she plummets from the safety of the city and tumbles into the forest below. The canopy breaks her fall and using a mix of both skill and luck she safely lands. But Bane has not yet given up the chase and lands with a powerful thud next to Charlie Keeper. Shocked and realising she has nowhere else to run Charlie backs away. To her relief she finds that her friend and companion, Nibbler the Dragon, has arrived in her hour of need. The two of them fly to safety leaving Bane, the Stoman Lord gnashing his teeth in the distance.
The Project:
The 5 students worked collaboratively to:
Plan and Storyboard
Test and research animation techniques
Produce backdrops and character animation
Shoot (film) the animation
Edit and publish the short movie
Planning:
Students used a combination of story boarding and basic scripts to plan the animation. Sample animations were also trialled and shot with a smart phone to test the technique. (For short clips of these tests in action check the student’s Twitter account here and here.)
Production:
Background images were made from tiling A2 pencil sketches. Character design was made with a series of sketches which were then cut to size. The stop motion animation was made using a couple of techniques: stop-motion, flip-book and finger-drag.
Stop-motion – traditional photograph an image, then move/change and repeat to produce a series of still images that can be sequenced together to form an animation.
Flip-book – sketching repeated images then flipping multiple pieces of paper to reveal an animation (super old school but still fresh!)
Finger-drag – Using a finger to drag an image (it’s not subtle but it’s funky!)
Filming was done with a combo of DSLR and smart-phone. Adobe Premier was used for editing.
More behind the scenes and artwork here: https://twitter.com/hhs_keeper
Issues:
The entire project took more time than students envisaged and with exams looming in the background finding free time was a difficulty. Of interest cutting the characters free from their paper took almost as much time as it took to sketch each frame.
Students:
Charis Dussek
Josh Deeley
Zennor Simpson
Findlay Hardcastle
Jess Mazzola
The Hemel Hempstead School: http://www.hhs.herts.sch.uk/
Project twitter account: https://twitter.com/hhs_keeper
Tags used: #CharlieKeeperRevealed #HHSCreativity
