Puzzles

Review

After having the amazing opportunity of watching my other classmates work I was asked to review one of them which took my fancy. The one I have chosen is by Sam White and Sam Gardner. 

They called their animation "Better Together" which from after watching it was a perfect title. Their animation is approximately two minutes long and the simplicity use of green and blue clay balls as their characters were perfect to get their message across. The  use of a ball of paper to revealed their opening title was a lovely creative start to their short film. All that Sam and Sam used for sound within their animation was the background music by Jack Johnson-"Better Together". By using only background music it was effective to the point that we as the audience could get more out of the animation visually. However, there were area within the short film that I believe to have needed some other sound effects such noises coming from the clay balls to create a better understanding of what was going on between them. The fluidity movement of the clay balls was fantastic because I personally thought it looked as if they had recorded it. As the balls became one they transformed from being a mash up of colour to a good representation of the Earth. One worry about the animation as a whole is that I did not understand the message that they were trying to communicate to their audience because I didn't know if it was about war or equality. Apart from that I definitely recommend watching it because it is simple but highly entertaining piece of work. 

Importance of Learning Environments

Learning is a flexible and dynamic process which can take effect anywhere and at any time. In the past decade researchers have discovered so much more about learning and how it operates. From the use of MRI scanning Hattie (2008) develop an understanding of the how the brain absorbs and uses information to show that learning has occurred. One of the impacts on a student’s learning that Hattie discovered was the influence from the learning environment and how the visual effects made a difference to their pedagogical development. 

What is a learning environment?

According to Osborne (2013) a learning environment is a place where students are given the correct support to allow them to develop upon their current pedagogies by promoting decision-making, communication and creativity. Keefe and Jenkins (2013) believe that a learning environment is determined by the use of different teaching styles from the teacher. This suggesting, a learning environment is a combination of the physical environment and the individual people that surround the student which influences the learning. Chapman (2008) identifies that there are two types of learning environments, a positive and a negative. A positive learning environment captures their learning attention and motivates them to develop on their learning and inspire them to enjoy education, while a negative learning environment does the opposite and deprives the students from embracing their creativity. Therefore, educators are responsible to ensure that the student’s needs are all met to promote positive learning experience and to ensure that the pupils are engaged with the learning process.

ICT Rich environment

One type of learning environment that is highly common within the twenty-first education system is a technology integrated classroom. Lippman (2010) believes that the new integration of technology is not so different from the Montessori pedagogy theory, which inspires to engage students into education with the use of different tools. By integrating technology into the classroom, creates an innovative format to the learning environment for the students. Henry (2015) believes that due to the way children use ICT as a ‘core element’ to communicate, play and connect with others in today’s society, ICT has become an vital feature to the classroom to engage and motivate students. Technology with the classroom has been able to make education more fun and accessible for every kind of learner.  However, even though technology has many advantages to developing on student’s learning, Peace (2015) Identifies that the learners should not become ‘mesmerised by the technology’ because this minimises the importance of learning and the understanding that technology is there to accommodate the process.

Conclusion

The environment that surrounds the student does have a great impact on their development, physically and mentally. The importance to ensure that the learning environment is catered to the needs of the learner and to ensure that is up-to-date with society that surrounds them. The student is willing to learn if they are engaged and motivated within the setting and they can relate to the learning.

References

Hattie, J. (2009) Visible Learning: A synthesis of over 800 meta-analysis relating to achievement. Abingdon: Routledge.

Henry, M. (2015) 'Learning in the Digital Age: Devleoping Critical, Creative and Collaborative Skills', in S. Younie., M. Leask., and K. Burden. Teaching and Learning with ICT in the Primary School.

Chapman, R. (2008) 'A Reflective Mentor Model: Growing Communities Practice for Teacher Development in informal Learning Environments', in C. Kimble., P. Hildreth. and I. Bourdon (eds.) Communities of Practice:Creating Learning Environments for Educators.Information Age Publishing. pp. 39-64.

Keefe, J. W. and Jenkins, J. M. (2013) Instruction and the Learning Environment. Abingdon: Routledge. 

Lippman, P. C. (2010) Can the Physical Environment have an Impact on the Learning Environment. OECD [ONLINE] Available at http://www.oecd.org/education/innovation-education/centreforeffectivelearningenvironmentscele/46413458.pdf (Accessed: 29 January 2015).

Osborne, M. (2013) Modern Learning Environments.Core Education [ONLINE] Available at http://www.core-ed.org/sites/core-ed.org/files/Modern-Learning-Environments-v.1.pdf (Accessed: 29th January 2015)

Peace, M. (2015) 'Web 2.0 and Classrooms', in S. Younie., M. Leask., and K. Burden. Teaching and Learning with ICT in the Primary School.

Images

Image 1 http://www.sheknows.com/parenting/articles/844897/how-to-create-a-positive-learning-environment-at-home

Image 2 http://learn.org/articles/Twitter_Teacher_Twitter_in_the_Classroom.html 

Animation Prodject

For our assignment with Education Futures we were asked to create a short stop-motion animation which portrays a contemporary issue of our choice. I chose to reflect my animation on the issue of pollution on eath and show people that we are able to make a difference if we look after our planet better. Hope you enjoy my video and please feel free to leave comments bellow.

Evaluation

The Process

I created this animation on my own and by this I found it took me triple the time than a group of three, because I was placed with the responsibilities of building the set, the character, retrieving the sound and filming which could of easily been shared around. One advantage to working on my own was that I had the freedom to complete the task at any point and there was no issues with disagreement. The animation only starred one character and I believed that this was acceptable because there was less things to observe and follow making this easy to watch and understand. The set that was used was made out of mostly paper, there was a small amount of clay used to help make some objects (i.e. the smile on the face) due to the flexibility of the material. It was easier to move and mold with the use of paper rather than the use of clay which was proven when I experimented with clay and found it difficult to keep the object standing and move fluidly. One disadvantage of using paper that I came upon was that it was difficult to create a smooth movement style.By placing the camera at birds eye view, gave me a high advantage as it allowed the set to remain stable while I was creating other objects and planning. As I was creating the animation I discovered that it challenged my patients and thinking skills, which made me realise that this was a key feature to what teachers go through everyday to develop on the learning of children.

Final Piece

From examining the final footage of my stop-motion animation I was extremely happy with the finished product. However, I did notice that there were slight issues with the movement of the character and the lighting which altered the colour of the image. If I had the opportunity to create another animation or give someone advice it would be to work in a group and make sure the roles are clear and are assigned at an early stage to ensure that the time is used effectively. Due to a number of frustrating moments I experienced from using the software I would try out a different application to create my animation on. Overall I believed that the short animation film was effective and gave a clear message to what I was trying to to deliver. 



Introduced to Zu3D

Due to our assignment of creating a stop-motion animation at the end of the term, we were recently introduced to the software called Zu3D. This type of soft-wear is brilliant for creating simple animations that children could enjoy. It's simple structure and navigation system is greatly aim at children to use freely and quickly within any environment. The program was created by ZuLogic Ltd who highly support primary school education in ICT learning and extra curricular activities.

From having a test run on the software it was made easier to see how it could really open-up the creative side of children and test their abilities to create something worthwhile. The program has a number of great features to help create an effective and professional animation for any age. The one feature that I thought was extremely helpful was the 'Onion Skinning' which was an overlay on the original image to judge and see how far to move the object in the next frame. 

After having an experimental time with the software it was now time to have a trail run of creating a short clip within the time of the teaching practice. At first this appeared to be a simple task but then after an hour went by and we saw that as a group we only manage to create 10 seconds, indicating that the task was harder that it seemed. A couple of photos of the process bellow.

Reference

http://www.zu3d.com/ 

Educational Animation

Can Animation Have an Effect on Learning? 

With the fast growth of new technology, animation has become increasingly accessible to a wide range of educators. This allowing teachers to use the resources within their lesson to help create a more enjoyable and interesting education. Ainsworth (2008) believes that most information is hard to explain just by telling therefore, by offering a variety of teaching styles, with the use of animation, students are able to achieve a better understanding of the new information that is given to them. According to Pollmuller and Sercombe (2011) animation is flexible in many ways and can be easily integrated into a variety of subjects other than ICT. One example by Pollmuller and Sercombe is how the stop-frames and calculating the pace of the animation can have an effect of mental arithmetic within mathematics. Animation within education has become an attractive form of transmit information to students. Due to the dynamic and engaging way of illustrating images, animation is able to instruct students greater than a static images  (Lowe, 2003).

However, Ainsworth (2008) did notice that even though there were many advantages to integrating animation there were also disadvantages. One such issues was whether or not the children did gain a full understanding of what the animation was trying to put across. Therefore, by allowing the children to create their own animation, they were able to gain a true visual insight to how animation work and create meaning. 

References

Ainsworth, S. (2008) 'How do animations Influence Learning?', in D. Robinson and G. Schraw (eds.) Current Perspective on Cognition, Learning, and Instruction: Recent Innovations in Educational Technology that Facilitate Student Learning. pp 37-67.

Lowe, R. K. (2003) Animation and Learning: Selective Processing of Information in Dynamic Graphics. Learning and Instruction, 13, (2), pp. 157-176.

Pollmuller, B. and Sercombe, M. (2011) The Teachers' Animation Toolkit. London: Continuum International Publishing Group.

Model Making and Story planning

One of our tasks during the creative sessions was have a go at creating some clay characters which could be used for our final animation. At the time I had no idea of what to create for my animation. Therefore, I attempted to create something that I thought was at first, easy and child frriendly.

However, I expereinced that in fact, it was not easy to make, becuase there were other aspect of the body I did not take into consideration when planning an this resulted to the figure not looking like a rabbit or stand up properly.
After creating the clay model I was confused to what I was going to base my animation on. Therefore, I began to do some planning on current issues within the world and could be educational to a group of children. The idea of saving the environment stood out to me beacuse I believe it is highly important for children to gain an understadning of how the earth is reacting to our actions and to promet the ideas to them becuase they are the future to saving the planet.
bellow is a rough story board of my animation.

Importance of Sound

"Sound effects play an important role in conveying action. Music helps express emotion."

Micheal Geisler

Whatever you see in the cinema, watch at home on your TV or listen to on your radio, has the use of sound effects and music. Flueckiger (2009) identifies that sound effects and music are everywhere now and they are essential to the making of any film or interactive media product. The use of sound, helps the creator to communicate to his/hers audience the type of mood and atmosphere that they are needed to experience from watching the phootage. Without the use of Sound it is difficult to create the same affect. 

Holmes (1999) believes that sound effects and music in the background can have different roles within a film.

1) A Narative Role which is a way of storytelling, this can be direct or subliminal. Direct is usually dialoge or narrative sound effects that can lead the audience to an off screen event. Subliminal is usualy sound effcts that the audience is unaware of, it plays on the moods of the audience.

2) A Grammatic Role where the sound is constlantly on before or ofter the picture to create  a form of continuity or connective tissue for films.

 

To test out the powere of sound watch this short animation clip bellow, first with no sound on. When you have finished play it for the second time, but now with the sound on. Hopefully you can realise the different in the way it caputes the mood of the audience and the atmosphere within the short clip.

 

To Conclude

I strongly agree with this quote by Micheal Geisler because I do believe that sound can be a powerful tool which is able to create specific meaning and emotions to moving images. Sound is a natual stimulus for as humans and to integrate it within films, TV and other interactive media is a useful tool.

Reference

Holmes, T. (1999) http://filmsound.org/articles/roles_of_sound.htm

Flueckiger, B. (2009) Sound Effects: Strategies for Sound Effects in Film. http://www.zauberklang.ch/Flueckiger_Continuum_SoundEffects.pdf 



Stop-Motion and Camera-less Animation

For this week our group was set a task to create a camera-less animation. The first one that I created was called a Thaumatrope, which is a round disc with two different images on either side and when spun with the two pieces of string the the two images creates the illusion that only one image appears. 

Here is a short stop-motion film clip of the creation of my Thaumatrope. As you may clearly see that my Stop-motion creation was not a slick as the the animated movies' such as Chicken Run. There is about 100 frames all-together within this short click. By evaluating my work I easily identify that creating such animation needs a huge amount of patience. There is the need to make sure that the camera is in the exact position and angle every time a new frame is taken so that the frames flows and the image doesn't jump about as much. the movement and remodeling of the next frame needs to be only a slight different from the last frame to ensure that the caption is moving evenly.

The second camera-less animation that I created was a flip book. This is created by drawing a series of pictures on different layers of paper which is then 'flipped' rapidly to create a moving image. Below is a short clip of my flip book creation.

Again there is still much work to be made to ensure that the images flow smoothly. The difficulty was to draw the exact same image every time and for every frame. It was majorly time consuming and many retakes were made to ensure that every image was seen. The lighting was often changing which affected the filming. The making of camera-less animations was fun and highly enjoyable to watch afterwards. However, due to the time consumption and the accuracy of the images, I  can now understand why many animated films are computerized. 

Anitmation

For this post I have been assigned to discuss what was the last animated film I had watched, which was How To Train Your Dragon 2. The computer-animated film was produced by Dream Works in 2014 and it's the sequel to the 2010 How To Train Your Dragon. Below, is the Trailer of the film to give you an idea of what type of animation that Dream Works uses.
As you can see, the animated film is very detained in every aspect, from each blade of grass to the shading on the face this because computerized animation is able to take one image and adapt it in many different ways to create the effective image. The film was budgeted at £145,000,000 and the gross making was £176,000,000. A typical animated film such as this one would take the producers up 3-5 years to create before it will reach the big screen. 

Stop-Motion
Compared to computerized animation there is also the use of stop-motion animation, which is the technique of physically shaping images or objects to then make you believe that they are moving by themselves. However, the technique is created by taking many individual captions of the image/object every second that it may change movement, making the process look slick and flowing. Unlike computerized animation, the process of created a stop-motion animation  takes much longer. A typical stop-motion animation such as Wallace and Gromit would take up to 7 years to create 
The stop-motion I have focused my research on is the film Chicken Run which is made by the same creators as Wallace and Gromit, which is directed by Peter Lord and Nick Park. The film was made at the Aardman Animation Studios which specializes in stop-motion clay animation and was produced in partnership with Dream Works within 2000. By using clay as the characters and throughout the film, the director were able to bend and shape them as much as they want to create the illusion of them physically moving by their own. The film is 84 minute long which the models were manipulated and photographed 24 times every second of the film. Within my next post I will attempt my first stop-motion animation. 




References
http://dreamworks.wikia.com/wiki/Chicken_Run 
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120630/trivia
 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1646971/ 

What is a Learning Environment?

A learning environment is a place where you or anyone can go to access new information to then develop on your own knowledge and skills which you can use and progress within the future. The learning environments that are the most common to our society are; schools, colleges, universities and the local libraries which can offer a place for an education. However I always believe that you are able to learn anywhere, as long as the environment that you learn in is suitable to what you are learning and is able to accommodate for your own learning needs. An effective learning enviorment should have a positive effect on studetns and anyoneb that is wanting to learn and develop on thier mind to create a better understanding and a more knowledgeable mind.