Claymation! Day One and prep for Day Two

I conducted my first class of "Thinking Outside the Box" last Thursday. I presented three cultural legends that revolved around magic boxes and showed an inspiration claymation animation ad (Sony Bravia Bunnies as well as "the make of" movie for that ad). I also showed a simple box to butterfly claymation animation. This was a demo for the specific project they would be creating. Below is a recap of what they learned and what I learned.







































Above: two of the books I read to the class. The other legend, Pandora's box I summarized from a Greek mythology book I brought in.

BRAINSTORMING
Their first activity was to brainstorm ideas for their box transformations. I provided each child a sheet of paper with four squares. They were instructed to draw an image in each square that represented a different transformation concept. I explained what brainstorming was. I walked around and we shared some ideas. I pulled some ideas from what the children were drawing so that their classmates would get a feel for the variety of ideas they could throw out. I explained there was no such thing as a bad idea to share. Often we have to get the not so useful ideas out first to uncover to the ideas that are truly creative and outside the box.






















Above: Brainstorming handout

LESSON I LEARNED:
What I should have done here was draw four boxes up on the board and then called up four different students to draw a different idea in each box. This would have reinforced the idea that each child needed four different concepts on the brainstorm paper. As it was, even though I went from table to table and explained this again and again, it was still confusing to some of the students. Some treated the four squares as storyboard squares to show the progression of one idea.

I will review and reinforce this brainstorm idea tomorrow when I go in for the second class. This brainstorming concept is a tough concept even for adults. I have instructed a Visual Thinking class in the Engineering Department of Stanford University and found that it is very difficult for many to throw out ideas and brainstorm. The reason being no one wants to give a dumb or "wrong" idea. Many of us are taught not to share ideas unless they are fully formed and "correct". But often it is these very off beat or "wrong" ideas that trigger a better idea.

CHILDREN'S BRAINSTORM:
What each child came up with for their box transformation animation sequence is listed below. They each decide to create two transformations. We'll see how that works with our 15 frames. Ms. Illa took the time to review after my workshop on Thursday. She sent me this list of the kids' ideas.

Butterfly to puddle
snail to star
flower to umbrella
egg to eagle
tadpole to frog
fish to turtle
bee to butterfly
puddle to ice cream
shark to whale
fish to mermaid
guitar to bat (I can't wait to see this one...could have cool audio)
fish to elephant
colors to paint
seed to flower
boat to banana
turtle to basketball
egg to robot
book to TV
flying fish to bird
hammerhead shark to hammer
puppy to person
shark to hockey stick
whale to person

ROUGH STORYBOARDING with KEY FRAMES
The students second activity was to draw in the key frames of their animation story. They needed to choose one idea from the brainstorm sheet and work out the animation sequence they would create with their cubes of clay.



















Above: Storyboard handout.

The essential idea here was to begin with the key frames.
Step 1: They were instructed to take their chosen concept image from the brainstorm sheet and draw it into key frame 8 (the middle dark outlined box)
Step 2: The next frame they were to fill in was the key frame 5 (dark outlined box on top row). This image should be a shape that took the cube half way to being the final object.

I explained that drawing key frames was simply like creating a visual version of a written outline. In a written outline for a story or book report we start with the key points and place them under the headings "I., II, III, etc." These are the main ideas or points. In a written outline we then add in the supporting information indented under "A, B, C, etc." These are the tween frames in animation.

A visual key frame is that same as these initial first points written down for an outline. It is a visual representation of what happens in the briefest words. For example. The box turns into a butterfly is the main idea for my demo animation. Key frame 8 is a drawing of a butterfly.

LESSON I LEARNED:
What I should have done here was draw these 15 boxes up on the board and walk them through the process on the board. Mrs. Illa educated me on a technique called "Shout Out" where you bring up one student from the class to stand near you at the board. I ask a question. That student then picks the other students to answer my question and then that same student standing with me repeats and relays that information from the class to me. Somehow this telling another student your answer, rather than the instructor, helps focus the students and makes the activity more engaging. I will try this out tomorrow with my summary recap of our first lesson.

I also need to review that each frame, each box on the storyboard page, represents a click of the camera. A frame is one of the 15 still images they will be taking for their animation. Another student (in the roll of director) will need to be able to take this storyboard sheet and instruct you on how to move your clay parts for each frame.

CLASS 2 PREVIEW
In the second class we will be starting to create the clay parts for the animation. I have been struggling with how to store all these small parts for each child. On Friday I woke up thinking "Egg cartons!" Yep, that was my waking thought...take that as pathetic or inspired. It can be either. Anyway, after getting my children to school I googled local egg distributers and knew I had to reach out to an egg distributer in the area of Alum Rock. I learned this when I solicited boxes initially from Whole Foods in Cupertino and was informed by the manager that they donated only locally. At any rate, I was fortunate to find Olivera Egg Ranch on Sierra Road not far from Horace Cureton Elementary School. They generously offered me 30 cartons. My problem solved. I will pick these up before class tomorrow.


















One of the nice things about teaching this class is that I can communicate with images and thoughts on my blog as well. The class has access to the internet and I will be inserting info for them into these postings.

Tomorrow each child will first be given an egg carton.

1. They will write their name on top of it.
   
2. They will write their name on the side.
3. Each child will be given two different colors of clay.
   
4. These two cubes are not mushed or changed. One is placed into the first egg carton scoop cavity and the second goes into the last scoop cavity. The first cube is frame one, the starting cube for the child's animation. The second cube placed at the end of the tray is the ending cube of the different color.
   
5. Each child is then given two more cubes of the first color to create the key frame objects from their storyboards (images in key frame 5 and 8).
6. Each child is given a second cube the color of the ending cube. This color is to be used as accent parts for the transformed object. i.e. the spots on the butterfly.

More clay will be handed out as needed.
I will have a pasta maker machine to help flatten the clay as well as a clay extruder tool. I hope that each child will complete their key frames. It would be great if some tables actually completed all their tween frames as well, but we'll see. If they do complete them we can start filming the following day while the other groups complete their clay parts.

Thinking Outside The Box, Claymation!

Tomorrow I begin teaching stop motion animation workshops at a San Jose School in the Alum Rock School District. It will be in the 4th/5th grade class of Ms. Arlyn Illa at Horace Cureton Elementary. I have been teaching free art workshops in her classes for about four years now. This year we received a mini grant from The Alum Rock Education Foundation http://www.alumrockef.org/ for an eight class claymation animation workshop series I have titled" Thinking Outside The Box".
Below: Emily my diligent helper. Yesterday we spent a couple of hours cutting clay in to cubes for this workshop series. We will be using CLAYTOON Modeling Clay by Van Aken. This is an oil based clay specifically designed for claymation.



















I am so grateful for having this opportunity to conduct these classes and it has been wonderful to work with Ms. Illa's classes over the years. Her classes have always been a good testing ground for my art projects. The students always are super well behaved and curious to learn. Much credit here goes to Ms. Illa! She is an inspiration to me and I have absorbed a lot from watching her teach. The children arevery hungry for art which I think they pretty much only get after Star Testing every May.























Above: Clay cutter I made from two chop sticks and wire. You can purchase these clay cutters, but free is cheaper!

Below: cut cubes.

























ANIMATION DEMONSTRATION SAMPLE- CUBE TO BUTTERFLY
Below: Animation sample test. This will demonstrate to the students how to start with a cube, transform it into something and then have it transition to the next student's cube of a different color. This sample test took 15 minutes to make and only a few clay parts. I am creating a set table so the children can create interesting and varied sets and lighting.


CONCEPT
The theme of the children;s animation workshop is "Thinking Outside The Box". This workshops series introduces students to the multi-stepped process of stop motion animation through hands-on creation of an animation start to finish. The project is based on the theme of thinking outside the box and what that means to each child. Each child will be given cubes of clay and each student will create an animation sequence that represents to him/her what thinking creatively outside the box means by transforming that cube of clay into something else. The children will also create transition sequences that link each box story to the next child's. The children rotate through the different roles of photographer, animator, director and narrator.

HISTORY AND CULTURE COMPONENT
The springboard for ideas will start with the reading of three different cultural legends about magical boxes: Pandora' Box (Greek), Raven and Seagull (Nootka, British Colombia), and Anansi and The Box of Stories (West African). The children will be shown sample of artistic styles form each of these cultures to help inspire their designs.

The children will also be watching this Sony Bravia Bunnies video. I love it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdDUlptT_60

An artist friend recently questioned why I keep a blog and expressed a belief that it was frivolous and peripheral to an artist's process and art creation. I disagree. For me, keeping a blog is very important for documentation and organization of my thoughts, especially as I engage in more school and public art work that it grant funded. Two other artists in the last month have already referenced my blog in their collaborative grant applications. Every foundation and organization wants to be able to track the process and evaluate the success of what they fund. This is a way to keep them posted on that process. More on this later. I am always eager to learn other artist's processes if they are willing to share it. I believe that explaining process makes art more approachable, interesting and understandable. I am beginning to conduct school assemblies centering around my process, repurposing of materials and the historical context of recycling on the Plantations of Hawaii.
http://www.okadadesign.com/workshop.html