Teaching Sites for Presentations

In March I spoke at SVcue (Silicon Valley Computer Using Educators) T3 Teach Through Technology. I presented on two topics: Claymation made Simple and Digital Textiles: Explorations into Geometry and Pattern. I have not put this links up on my site yet but thought I would post them here on the blog as links.

History Animation Curriculum

I have begun to build a website for a social studies student animation. Fourth Grade students at Cureton Elementary will study archeological shards, remnants of a San Jose Chinatown that has been buried under a city bus yard for decades. They will create an animation that explores what they learn. Below is a Google Earth test animation of that illustrations the path from China to San Jose.

The website is here:
http://strawberriesongoldmountain.weebly.com/

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

My One and Only Stop Motion Animation Gig

I have been going through my old CDs trying to cobble together old files for a design/illustration portfolio again and found this fun claymation job I did for an education CD ROM company (yep that dates me right there) called Tenth Planet. They were a great client out in Half Moon Bay and I remembered how fun it was to drive out to the coast on my visits. Most of my work was done remotely and usually I only visited my clients when I bid on the projects or when I was brought in with a team of other designer for game prototyping or something like that. This is the only claymation project I have done and there is a kind of funny story to go with it.


I was asked by the project director I worked with if I could do claymation. I said, "Sure! That would be fun!" I was totally clueless, but thought I could make up for it in enthusiasm. I made wire armature, but not with the appropriate armature wire. I cannot recall what clay I used. The end results were cute clay figures and a motorcycle for the bunny. I showed up at the shoot at the same moment as the camera guy and the light guy. It was kind of satisfying to see that they, too, drove mini vans. These guys were pros and had recently worked on Tim Burton's A Nightmare Before Christmas. After we got the lighting set and I started the first set of moves I heard the camera/editor guy stationed in the other room ask, "Has she ever done this before?" Big gulp. Guess enthusiasm didn't count for too much! Oh, and I think I used the wrong clay as it started to melt a bit and the weak waiter was a bit too weak...he would sag and lean. Man, I can laugh about it now! The nice thing was once it was established that I welcomed coaching, they were great teachers. (Guess they had no choice there!) In the end, the piece came out well for what it was. I learned on the spot not to make too big a move between frames and to also exaggerate a motion in the reverse direction before the action. ..but perhaps not much more than that. Anyway, I had a blast and was humbled by the experience. Ever since then I have hoped to do claymation again and really learn it. So, now I am educating myself as I teach and learn along side children. I do know a bit about storyboarding as I used to storyboard for various projects so I am incorporating these lessons in as well. Anyway, this was a fun blast from the past today to find this animation.