Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Tour of Stop Mo Class
Here's a video that gives a little overview of how the stop motion class at Sheridan works. I'm pretty proud of it, since it sees 120 students learning an intro to stop motion every year. It's required a lot of planning, organizing, and energy from me, and lots of support from Sheridan to see it happen.
We've also had the great people at Cuppa Coffee Animation help us with puppet armatures. Without their help, we wouldn't have such a great course.
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12 comments:
Thank you for sharing this. It's great to see how you've streamlined the process. I'm thinking about trying to do an afterschool stop motion class for 5th and 6th graders and it was helpful to see the little puppet stage.
heeeey i know that place :)
Thanks for posting this! I've been very curious about the program.
WOW!!!!!
This is so Incredibly cool to see.....man...these kids have access to an amazing facility.
we had nothing but a shop to build stuff in my schools program.
jriggity
thanks, we're pretty proud of it. and i've worked darn hard over the past couple of years getting it into shape...
not much else like it around, that we know of. especially not when you consider the aim of the course- to introduce 120 students, per year, to the medium. pretty cool... we're making armies of stop mo animators! well, we're making armies of kids that have been INTRODUCED to stop mo. let's be clear...
once they're done this course, for those that want to, they are fairly well introduced, with some basic stop mo abilities now,and general production know-how, to tackle a short film (if they choose to). obviously they'd still have a lot of learning to do, but at least after this course they're on their way...
Chris, this short film, in addition to being an informative overview of your stop-motion course at Sheridan, also confirms what I've known for some time now - that you sound uncannily like Tim Conway.
Well Peter, I'm officially freaked out. After a quick reference check at youtube, I have to agree with you. I never knew this to be true. I feel like I should make good use of this amazing thing... I just don't know how. Prank calls? For those curious, they can compare my voice to a Tim Conway example (Tim Conway is the shorter guy):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCz8he36hsk
Thanks for posting this. It's great to see "behind the scenes" a bit. I'd love it if there was an evening class like this in the UK. Stop Motion should be taught over here!!! (I'm too old for school though.. lol)
+ i was wondering. I've got some tools to make an animation box/stage like the ones you are using on the desks. Could you tell me what dimensions you are working with? I'd love to try and make something similar here, but I haven't started using/making armatures yet so I'm not sure about the size. I was thinking somewhere around 30cm high and 40cm wide for the background, and the floor.. ?
Oooh! + Can I ask what software you use on the Mac? I'm thinking of getting one later this year. I've looked at Dragon Stop Motion (www.dragonstopmotion.com) which looks excellent but is a little expensive.
Hi Noddegamra- the decks are approx. 70 cm square. The sides, bottom, and back piece of the are approx. 3cm thick. Most important is the top part of the deck. It has to be thin enough to allow the rare earth magnets to connect strongly with the feet of the puppet, but thick enough to be fairly sturdy. Do some tests on pieces of wood before deciding on the top's thickness. The back of the set slides in to a slot we built in. It's a thin piece of wood- it just has to thick enough to serve as a background while shooting.
Try to figure out the height of the desk or table your deck will be sitting on. You need to build the deck's height so that when you set it on the desk or table it will be comfortable for you. The desks at school are already about standing height, so we built the decks to allow the average student to have his/her arms at approx. 90 degrees while working (and standing).
The open space at the front is to allow you to get magnets in and out, and move them around under the puppet easily.
The whole deck is essentially a wooden box, with ONE side off- the front side, to allow for access of magnets to go under puppet feet.
Thankyou for your help on this! I will take what you said into consideration and let you know how I get on. :-)
Well, I had also love to try and make something similar here, but I haven't started using/making armatures yet so I'm not sure about the size.
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