Prepping for stop motion animation class

Stop Motion Cut Paper Animation Class: (Working Title:“In My Dreams”)
Summer Art Camp 2008
I am starting an animation workshop with children and will be keeping track of it here on this blog.

(Sample puppet)

Project Description:

In this week long class children will explore stop motion animation by creating cut paper puppets that move about in forced perspective sets. The children will collaboratively create a storyline and storyboards for every segment of the animation. The project will engage them in a multimedia many stepped creative process. Some steps are free form (brainstorming) and some are very structured (moving paper parts incrementally according to storyboard). Not only will the children create the story, but they will expand their art critiquing abilities and will learn to work cooperatively in a joint artistic creation. They will all be relying on each other to create the project. They will take all the images, direct and animate the parts. They will also import all the still images into Premiere Elements and add transition effects and sounds there.

(forced perspective room boxes that each child will decorate. Together these will form a house.)

Rough concept for animation:

Magical creatures of leaves, flowers and shells come alive in a house of sleeping children. Each creature leaps from a child’s imagination. The magical fairies and animals all come together to play while the children sleep.

Springboard for animation concept:

There are several artists who have inspired the initial concept for this project. The collage childhood dream sequence in the video, The House of Magical Sounds, animated by the famous Italian artist, Emanuele Luzzati, inspired the concept that the animation start in the rooms of a house where children are sleeping. http://www.museoluzzati.it/pag.php?id=2
Sampling of Luzzati's work:

The dream sequence puppets will be created of leaves, plants and shells that the children have found. I have photographed and printed out these parts for the children to cut and assemble with miniature brads.

Some of the children's plant stuff scanned:

The artists inspiring these puppets will be the Portuguese artist, Ana Ventura:

http://www.anaventura.com/portfolio/ilustra/estarolas/estarolas2.htm

and the British artists, Ellwand and David Downton:

http://www.fairie-ality.com/

I will be showing the children these artists’ works before they create their creatures. Classes start tomorrow. I'll be posting what they create.